The Lee Building
Eagle Pass, Maverick County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Constructed before 1875, as quarters for ordnance sergeant. Leased in 1948 by Maverick County Historical Society under leadership of Mmes. C. O. Ostrom, A. H. Evans, S. P. Simpson. After restoration, it was dedicated during Eagle Pass Centennial Celebration, Oct. 1949, for use as a museum and meeting hall. Name honors Robert E. Lee, who visited here 1860 as commander U.S. 2nd Cavalry, Department of Texas; later general in Civil War. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1968
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built before 1875 as quarters for an ordnance sergeant on the Texas frontier, this stone building takes its name from Robert E. Lee, who visited the area in 1860 as commander of the U.S. 2nd Cavalry, Department of Texas, before his later career as a Confederate general. The Maverick County Historical Society leased it in 1948, and after restoration it was dedicated during the Eagle Pass Centennial in 1949 for use as a museum and meeting hall. It was recorded as a Texas Historic Landmark in 1968.
Why it matters
The Lee Building ties Eagle Pass to the antebellum frontier army and to one of the most consequential figures of the coming Civil War, preserved as a touchstone of local memory.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Robert E. Lee
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Jesse Sumpter
Eagle Pass, TX
Jesse Sumpter came to the Texas frontier as an infantryman in the years after annexation, serving from 1848 to 1852 and standing among the first troops posted to Fort Duncan on the Rio Grande. He put down roots in the young border town of Eagle Pass, trying his hand at nearly every trade the frontier offered — saloon keeper, mustang hunter, rancher, and lawman. When Maverick County was finally organized in 1871, he pinned on the badge as its very first sheriff.
Zavala County
Crystal City, TX
This corner of South Texas began as a Mexican land grant to John Charles Beales in 1832, with nearby Lake Espantosa serving as a campsite on the old road linking Mexico and San Antonio. During the Civil War the area was crossed by the Cotton Road running to Eagle Pass, a vital artery through which the Confederacy funneled goods such as guns, powder, and medicines. Organized in 1884, the county was named for Lorenzo de Zavala, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence and the Republic's first vice president.
Roy Bean C. S. A.
Del Rio, TX
Kentucky-born Roy Bean was mining in New Mexico when the Civil War broke out, and he joined Confederate forces under Gen. John R. Baylor as a spy and scout, later hauling cotton and smuggled war goods as a Confederate freighter. Decades afterward he followed railroad crews to the Rio Grande, set up a tent saloon, and had himself made justice of the peace—'Law West of the Pecos'—dispensing famously eccentric verdicts from Langtry. His obsession with British actress Lily Langtry, whom he never met, and his 1896 riverbank prizefight cemented his frontier legend.
Val Verde County
Del Rio, TX
Carved from Crockett, Kinney, and Pecos counties and organized in 1885, Val Verde County took its name from a Civil War battle fought in 1862 near Fort Craig, New Mexico. That fight was part of the Confederacy's ambitious campaign to seize the Southwest, and its memory carried west with the veterans who settled the region. Del Rio, on the Rio Grande, became the county seat.