Ideally Situated Close to Commerce Square and the Brazos River, these two lots were near the center of town. Like many San Felipe lots, the property changed hands several times. First developed by the Calvit family, its last owner was Almyra . . . — — Map (db m206287) HM
Near this site stood
A Town Hall
Built about 1830
in which were held
the First and Second Conventions
of Texas, 1832 and 1833,
and the Consultation of 1835
the provisional government functioned
here until March 2, 1836, when . . . — — Map (db m43759) HM
Stephen F. Austin hoped his colony in Texas would help his family prosper. But the business of
being an empresario proved financially disappointing. Hoping a family business - like a store - would generate income, Austin encouraged his . . . — — Map (db m206267) HM
Austin's land office and its agents set about carving civilization out of the untamed Texas wilderness. Mapping and surveying land at a whirlwind pace, Austin's office issued nearly 1500 land grants to settlers in Mexican Texas between 1823 and . . . — — Map (db m201786) HM
Downtown San Felipe was the center of the colony, but its farms and ranches fed settlers and generated profits that helped the colony thrive. Farm plots, or labors, measuring 177 acres each spread outward from town - many along waterways, which . . . — — Map (db m206323) HM
San Felipe's First Townsfolk Arrived to find the "town" yet to be built. Many raised their houses, kitchens and stables with their own hands.
Austin also enlisted skilled housewrights (house builders), sawyers, teamsters and blacksmiths to . . . — — Map (db m206316) HM
In Late March 1836, the Texian Army was in retreat ahead of Santa Anna's advancing Mexican forces. The retreat spurred the "Runaway Scrape" - a wave of settlers fleeing for their lives. To prevent the enemy from benefitting from San Felipe's . . . — — Map (db m206186) HM
As the Number of Permanent Residents in San Felipe grew, a business district developed west of Commerce Square. Merchants, including Nathaniel Townsend and George Huff, supplied shoppers with goods from around the world. Tailors cut clothes to . . . — — Map (db m206271) HM
Stocked With Goods From Cincinnati, Nicholas Clopper's store in San Felipe opened in 1826. Clopper faced the challenges of all merchants on the frontier. The town was "in a state of infancy" and home to only nine families of resident customers. . . . — — Map (db m206272) HM
Godwin B. Cotten tried printing in Alabama, Louisiana and Tamaulipas, Mexico, before setting out The Texas Gazette and the first book published in Texas: Translation of the Laws, Orders, and Contracts, on Colonization.
Cotten . . . — — Map (db m206260) HM
During the mid-1820's, When Stephen F. Austin was founding this town, the only roads in the area were wagon ruts or beaten trails marked by notched trees. Within a decade, however, the village of San Felipe, one of the first Anglo settlements in . . . — — Map (db m43718) HM
With his Empresario contract in hand, Stephen F. Austin searched out a suitable location for the "capital" of his colony. Together with surveyors and guides, Austin selected a site where a ferry crossed the Brazos River. By late October . . . — — Map (db m206331) HM
Czech immigrants began settling in this area in the 1850s. They named their new community Frydek after a town in their homeland. When two people died in 1885, they were buried here on land owned by Jan Pavlicek. By 1890, when Pavlicek officially . . . — — Map (db m145792) HM
In the Town's Early Years, Empresario Stephen F. Austin filled many roles. Administrator of land grants and court judge, Austin also coordinated with Mexican government officials. He managed the growing town, and as colonel of the . . . — — Map (db m206275) HM
The first known person to occupy the land where the Hill House is located was Judge Robert M. "Three Legged Willie" Williamson. During his ownership, the community of San Felipe de Austin was burned to the ground by order of Moseley Baker, a . . . — — Map (db m202605) HM
Built by John Crutcher in 1847 on the Plaza de Commercio in San Felipe, this was the last store built in the town after its 1836 burning by military order. Purchased in 1867 by Dr. J.J. Josey, it was in continuous operation as a store until 1942. . . . — — Map (db m43760) HM
Jane Wilkins and her family were among the Colony's earliest immigrants and the first to
settle what is now the City of Houston. By 1827, Wilkins and her two daughters, Jane and Mary, had made a home in San Felipe. They also received a league . . . — — Map (db m206262) HM
In memory of
John Bricker
a private in Captain Mosley Baker’s
company, who was killed just
across the river from this site
April 7th 1836 by a shot from a
Mexican cannon, and was buried
where he fell. He was born in
Cumberland . . . — — Map (db m43758) HM
Beginning in the 1920s local leaders looked for ways to commemorate this important colonial Texas history site. After 15 years planning and developing the property for its transition to the State in 1940, local supporters created a Friends . . . — — Map (db m201789) HM
Empresario Stephen F. Austin Considered several sites for his colony's headquarters, but this location on the Brazos River had a convenient advantage. A ferry, operated by an early settler named John McFarland, took travelers on the . . . — — Map (db m206274) HM
First Anglo-American capital of Texas. Came into being on July 26, 1828, as capital of the Austin Colony, by decree of the Mexican government. Father of Texas Stephen F. Austin had begun under the 1821 grant from Mexico the settlement of more than . . . — — Map (db m116924) HM
San Felipe de Austin was established in 1824 as the community and administrative headquarters of Stephen F. Austin's original Anglo American colony in Texas. The site for the township was chosen by Austin and the Baron Felipe Enrique Neri de . . . — — Map (db m116994) HM
[Side 1] San Felipe de Austin Town Site laid off by Stephen F. Austin as the Capital of his Colony in 1824 Here was held the only Federal District Court ever convened in Texas under Mexican rule
[Side 2]
Events leading to Revolution, First . . . — — Map (db m163048) HM
Austin County Historic School Site This was the location of: San Felipe School 1880 - 1952 An early Austin County School, this plaque commemorating this historic site was made possible by citizens of Austin County under sponsorship of . . . — — Map (db m165437) HM
In 1837, the town of San Felipe de Austin was incorporated and the town council built a multi-purpose building to be used as a town hall, school, and church on land known as “Constitution Square.” The one-story building was constructed . . . — — Map (db m116927) HM
A neighborhood on the east edge of town was home to a number of Tejanos, or native born Texans. The cluster of families was referred to as Spanish Town.
Some families had been driven from their homes during Mexico's war for independence . . . — — Map (db m206325) HM
Between 1821 and 1835, Austin shaped the course of colonial Texas. Here, he built his only home in Texas. His log cabin also served as the colony's land office, and became the center of San Felipe commerce.
Following a plan begun by his . . . — — Map (db m201785) HM
Replica of
Stephen F. Austin's Cabin
This structure is a replica of the only Texas home of Stephen F. Austin, “Father of Texas.” The chimney contains bricks from original (1828) cabin. Other materials were made as . . . — — Map (db m156552) HM
Stephen F. Austin • Father of Texas, November 3, 1793-December 27, 1836. He planted the first Anglo-American colony in Texas • "The Old Three Hundred"• In his several colonies he settled more than a thousand families. He was from 1823 until 1828 . . . — — Map (db m116925) HM
After the fall of the Alamo on March 6th, 1836 General Sam Houston and his Texian volunteers retreated to the east from Gonzales. Colonists evacuated and abandoned their homes and property in what became known as the Runaway Scrape.
Local . . . — — Map (db m201788) HM
The Convention of 1833, followed by the Consultation in 1835, reflected the growing tension between the colonists and the Mexican government. The fateful military and political events of late 1835, would sway Austin to the war movement. . . . — — Map (db m201787) HM
William Barret Travis is remembered as a revolutionary patriot and martyr of the Alamo. Before he gave his life for Texas' independence, he was a young attorney in San Felipe who ran a law office located on lot 50.
Travis represented his . . . — — Map (db m206178) HM
Between 1823 and 1836, San Felipe de Austin was the focal point for issues related to the immigration and settlement of American colonists in Mexican-controlled Texas.
This site marks the central business district of San Felipe de Austin . . . — — Map (db m201784) HM
