Austin Hall · 1936
Austin Hall, the original building of Austin College, erected in 1851 and used continuously for educational purposes by Austin College to 1876, by a private academy from 1876 to 1879, by Sam Houston State Teachers…
View on map ↗Walker County, Texas
Historical Markers in Huntsville, Texas
Huntsville is home to 68 official Texas Historical Commission markers — each one telling a piece of the city’s story. Browse the markers below, then find them on the map and discover more nearby with RoadHistorical.
Site of Andrew Female College · 1936
Site of Andrew Female College; Established and chartered in 1853; An influential early Texas college for women founded by the Methodist Church; Named for Bishop James Osgood Andrew; Closed after about 26 years of service
View on map ↗Site of the Home of Henderson Yoakum · 1936
Site of the home of Henderson Yoakum and birthplace of his "History of Texas," published in 1855, a story of the sacrifices, the glory and the great men of Texas from the first settlement to annexation to the United…
View on map ↗Walker County · 1936
Walker County, formed from Montgomery County, created April 6, 1846, organized July 13, 1846. Named in honor of Robert James Walker, 1801-1869, a distinguished citizen of Mississippi and advocate of the annexation of…
View on map ↗Woodland, Home of Sam Houston · 1962
General of the army which won the war for Texas Independence, 1836, and first President of the Republic, 1836-1838, Sam Houston was one of the most controversial and colorful figures in Texas history. In his eventful…
View on map ↗State Penitentiary C.S.A. · 1963
Inmates, slaves, free men worked in the penitentiary textile factory, main source of cloth goods for Confederate Southwest. Here "king cotton" and wool became millions of yards of cloth and yarn, osnaburgs, uniforms for…
View on map ↗Old Gibbs Store · 1964
Old Gibbs Store, oldest business in Texas under original ownership and on first site. Established 1841 in Republic of Texas by Thomas Gibbs. Building erected in 1847 after Sandford Saint John Gibbs joined firm. General…
View on map ↗Farris Chapel Methodist Church · 1965
Farris Chapel Methodist Church, built 1880 for congregation founded by Hezekiah Farris in 1841. Used by other faiths. First area schoolhouse. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1965
View on map ↗Sam Houston · 1967
Born March 2, 1793, in Rockbridge County, Va.; son of Samuel and Elizabeth Houston. Moved to Tennessee in 1807 with widowed mother and her family. In 1813 joined U.S. Army under Gen. Andrew Jackson, with whom he formed…
View on map ↗Samuel Calhoun Cemetery · 1969
Established by Samuel Calhoun (1788-1871), native of Abbeville, S.C.; Captain of Cavalry, State of Georgia, during War of 1812. He came to Texas 1845. Bought land in Gordiana Badillo and Jose Ortega grants, in this…
View on map ↗Henry Opera House · 1972
Built in 1880 as lodge hall. First floor soon became a dry goods and grocery store, and second was made into a fine theater by owner, John Henry (1828-97). Here traveling troupes played Shakespeare and dramas of the…
View on map ↗Henderson Yoakum · 1976
(September 6, 1810 - November 30, 1856) A graduate of the United States Military Academy (1832), Henderson Yoakum saw duty on frontiers and in the Mexican War. He practiced law and served in the Senate in his native…
View on map ↗Oakwood Cemetery · 1976
This cemetery existed as early as 1846. For three graves were placed here that year. Pleasant Gray, Huntsville's founder, deeded in 1847 a 1,600-square foot plot at this site. The original tract has been greatly…
View on map ↗First Baptist Church of Huntsville · 1977
One of the earliest Baptist congregations in Texas, this church was organized in 1844 by The Rev. Z. N. Morrell, who served as first pastor. The Rev. J. W. D. Creath, a missionary from Virginia, was the second, and The…
View on map ↗Forrest Lodge No. 19, A.F. & A.M. · 1978
One of 25 lodges started during the Republic of Texas, Forrest Lodge No. 19, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, was chartered on Jan. 11, 1844. It is the eighth oldest lodge in Texas. Among its early members were Sam…
View on map ↗"Old" Main Building · 1980
First permanent structure built by state of Texas for teacher training--when Joseph Baldwin was president of Sam Houston Normal Institute, L. S. Ross was governor, and A. T. McKinney was chairman of the S.H.N.I. local…
View on map ↗St. James United Methodist Church of Huntsville · 1981
This congregation was organized shortly after the Civil War to serve the newly freed slaves of the Huntsville area. The earliest worship services were conducted in 1868 in the Union Church building at this site. The…
View on map ↗Ball, The Rev. Thomas H. · 1984
Thomas Henry Ball was born in Northumberland County, Virginia, in 1819, the son of The Rev. David Thomas and Hannah Henry (Gaskins) Ball. Following in his father's footsteps, Ball became a Methodist minister. While…
View on map ↗First Christian Church of Huntsville · 1984
Joseph Addison Clark, who with his brother, Randolph Clark, later founded Texas Christian University, started this congregation in January 1854. The church originally had a dozen members who met in private homes. For a…
View on map ↗Eastham-Thomason House · 1989
Constructed between 1859 and 1862 by James H. Thomason, this is one of the oldest homes in Walker County. Byrd Eastham acquired the house in 1869, and his descendants, one of whom married into the Thomason Family, have…
View on map ↗Gibbs-Powell House · 1989
Built in 1862, this Greek revival house was originally the home of the Thomas Gibbs Family. Used briefly as a rent house and for student housing in the 1880s and 1890s, it was purchased by Judge Ben Powell, II, in 1897.…
View on map ↗First Presbyterian Church of Huntsville · 1990
Organized by the Presbytery of the Brazos in June 1848, the First Presbyterian Church of Huntsville began with one elder and ten members. Early worship services were held in the county courthouse, the Cumberland…
View on map ↗Peabody Library Building · 1990
The first campus structure to be used exclusively for library purposes, this building was erected in 1902. Built with assistance from the Peabody Education Fund (a philanthropic program created by northern banker George…
View on map ↗Boettcher House · 1991
Edward ("Mr. Ed") Boettcher moved to Huntsville in 1928 to begin new logging operations in the nearby pine forests. His Boettcher Mill supplied the lumber for the fine interior woodwork in this house, which was built in…
View on map ↗Huntsville Springs · 1993
Kentucky native Pleasant Gray and his wife Hannah (Holshouser) left Tennessee with their two children in 1834 and in 1835 settled here on land granted to them as part of Mexico's colonization effort. At that time…
View on map ↗Pleasant Williams Kittrell · 1997
(April 13, 1805 - September 29, 1867) Doctor Pleasant Williams Kittrell, a statesman in North Carolina and Alabama, moved with his family to Texas in 1850. While serving two terms in the Texas Legislature, the doctor…
View on map ↗Site of Andrew Female College · 1999
Site of Andrew Female College Andrew Female College was founded in 1852 and chartered in early 1853. It was named for Bishop James Osgood Andrew and sponsored by the Texas Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church,…
View on map ↗The Five Courthouses of Walker County · 1999
The first Walker County Courthouse was available for county commissioners court meetings in July 1848; the building was finally completed in the center of the Huntsville public square in 1850. Because of a defective…
View on map ↗Harmony Cemetery · 2000
According to oral history, the first person buried here was Vincent Herlock, who appeared in the 1850 census of Walker County with his wife and four sons. Herlock died in January 1851, and the cemetery was known for a…
View on map ↗Huntsville Item · 2000
English native George Robinson (1820-1888), formerly of the Galveston News, moved to Huntsville by 1846 and began printing the Huntsville Item on August 20, 1850. He was able to employ an apprentice printer that year.…
View on map ↗Joshua Houston · 2000
(c. 1822-January 8, 1902) Born a slave and reared on the Alabama plantation of the Lea family, Joshua Houston was brought to Texas in 1840 by Margaret Lea and Sam Houston. During the years after the Civil War, he became…
View on map ↗Original Site of The Steamboat House · 2000
Dr. Rufus W. Bailey, a teacher, minister and attorney educated in New England, came to Huntsville as a language professor at Austin College in 1855. He acquired an eight-acre tract on this site and erected a house which…
View on map ↗Huntsville "Walls" Unit · 2001
(Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville) The Republic of Texas Congress passed a law to establish a prison system in 1842, but it wasn't until 1848, after a new law passed the state legislature, that steps were taken to…
View on map ↗Pritchett House · 2001
Missouri native Joseph Lucien Pritchett (1858-1936) and his wife, Lenora Melissa (Evans), moved to Huntsville in 1888, when he was appointed to the faculty of Sam Houston Normal Institute as a professor of mathematics.…
View on map ↗Site of Cumberland Presbyterian Church · 2001
Site of Cumberland Presbyterian Church On this site once stood the first church building erected In Huntsville. In 1849, Cumberland Presbyterian Church trustees A. C. King and T. J. Caldwell purchased this land on…
View on map ↗Bath Cemetery · 2002
Bath Cemetery, near Union Hill Church, was established in the 1870s. The earliest recorded burial is that of William Arnold (d. 1877). The burial ground has served the Bath community, locally called Possum Walk since…
View on map ↗Baker, James Addison · 2003
James Addison Baker was born to Jane Saxton and Elijah Adam Baker on March 3, 1821 near Huntsville, Alabama. He was admitted to the Bar in 1843 and wed Caroline Hightower in 1849. She died in 1852, and he moved that…
View on map ↗Oakwood Cemetery · 2003
Historic Texas Cemetery Medallion
View on map ↗Union Hill Church · 2003
In 1872, W.L. Holloway donated a tract of land to the Bath community. A small building on the land served as school and sanctuary for area residents, who established Union Hill Crhuch that same year. The congregation's…
View on map ↗Sallie E. Gibbs · 2005
Successful businesswoman Sallie E. Gibbs was born Sarah Elizabeth Smith in Winston-Salem, North Carolina on October 18, 1844 to Mary Washington (Ledbetter) and Thomas Jefferson Smith. Her parents operated a large…
View on map ↗Sam Houston Industrial and Training School · 2005
Legislated after the close of the Civil War, the Texas Constitution of 1866 provided for a public school system supported by funds derived from property taxes; monies collected from African Americans would go to schools…
View on map ↗Camp Huntsville, World War II Prisoner of War Camp · 2006
Camp Huntsville, completed here in 1942, was one of the first prisoner of war (POW) camps built in the U.S. during World War II. Designed to house 3,000 POWs, it had more than 400 buildings, as well as eight branch…
View on map ↗Site of Boettcher's Mill · 2006
German immigrant Baldwin Boettcher established a sawmill at Westfield, north of Houston, in 1898, along the International & Great Northern rail line. Boettcher and his mill workers produced 15,000 board feet of yellow…
View on map ↗Ebenezer Cemetery · 2007
Along with Ebenezer Baptist Church, this cemetery organized in 1854 on land donated by Jonathan and Sarah McGary along a stagecoach road from Huntsville to Austin. Prominent Baptist minister J.W.D. Creath, representing…
View on map ↗Wynne House · 2007
Gustavus Adair Wynne and Samuella Gibbs, who became civic and business leaders in Huntsville, married in 1883 and moved into this house, which they first built in the Queen Anne style. By 1917, they transformed the…
View on map ↗Houston, Margaret Moffette Lea · 2008
(April 11, 1819 - December 3, 1867)Margaret Moffette Lea was born on her family's farm in Pleasant Valley, near Marion, Alabama. She graduated from Judson Female Institute in Marion in 1837, and in 1839 she met General…
View on map ↗Harmony Grove Missionary Baptist Church · 2010
Harmony Grove Missionary Baptist Church was founded in 1871 when local businessman William Koehl donated one acre north of Huntsville for the establishment of a church for the African American citizens of Pine Prairie.…
View on map ↗Josey Boy Scout Lodge · 2010
Oilman and Huntsville native Robert A. Josey donated funding for the construction of this log structure in 1933. Additional funding was obtained from the federal government's Civil Works Administration (CWA), and Gibbs…
View on map ↗First Missionary Baptist Church · 2011
IN 1867, HUNTSVILLE METHODISTS AND BAPTISTS SHARED THE UNION CHURCH. TWO YEARS LATER, THE BAPTISTS BUILT A SEPARATE CHURCH IN THE ROGERSVILLE NEIGHBORHOOD CALLED FIRST MISSIONARY BAPTIST CHURCH, WHICH WAS ORGANIZED BY…
View on map ↗Rogersville · 2011
NOTED FOR BEING HUNTSVILLE’S OLDEST AFRICAN-AMERICAN NEIGHBORHOOD, ROGERSVILLE IS ROUGHLY SITUATED BETWEEN 7TH AND 10TH STREETS AND OLD MADISONVILLE ROAD AND AVENUE N. MICAJAH C. ROGERS, HUNTSVILLE’S FIRST MAYOR,…
View on map ↗Captain Joe Byrd Cemetery · 2013
Located a few blocks from the first prison in Texas, the 1848 Huntsville Penitentiary, the Captain Joe Byrd Cemetery is the final resting place for more than 3,000 inmates who died while incarcerated within the Texas…
View on map ↗George Washington Grant and Grant's Colony · 2014
Alabama native George Washington Grant (c. 1814-1898) and his brother, Egbert, moved to Texas in 1831. George and his wife, Mary Jane, having no children of their own, adopted a boy and girl and fostered numerous…
View on map ↗Huntsville Branch Railway, "Tilley's Tap" · 2014
The Huntsville Branch Railway was a “Tap” rail line which was chartered as the Huntsville Branch Railway Company in 1871. Support of a railroad through Huntsville was split in the community for a number of reasons.…
View on map ↗Powell Sanctuary · 2015
Benjamin Harrison Powell (1881-1960) was a successful lawyer in the area for fifteen years until he was appointed in 1918 by Governor Hobby as Judge of the 12th District Court and subsequently to the Commission of…
View on map ↗Henderson Yoakum Homesite · 2016
Soldier and politician Henderson Yoakum (1810-1856) arrived in Texas in oct. 1845 from Tennessee. In Dec. 1847, he purchased 640 acres from J.H. Shepherd seven miles east of Huntsville. At this site Yoakum built a…
View on map ↗The Huntsville Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1867 · 2016
Oakwood Cemetery is home to many grave markers from the year 1867 when yellow fever, one of the most dreaded diseases of the time, struck the county. The disease ravaged many cities across the United States. Texas…
View on map ↗John William Thomason Jr. · 2017
Huntsville native John William Thomason Jr. was born on February 28, 1893, as the eldest of nine children of Dr. John Williams and Sue Hayes (Goree) Thomason. Graduating from Huntsville High School in 1909, he taught in…
View on map ↗The Seven Hills of Huntsville · 2017
Marker subject is hills located thorughout the city. The proposed site is at City Hall but is TENTATIVE due to unsettled construction plans on the site.
View on map ↗Bishop Ward Normal and Collegiate Institute · 2018
Following the end of slavery, African American communities established education institutions for freed African Americans. After the end of Reconstruction, federal funding for African American schools decreased, so…
View on map ↗Burials of Enslaved People in McAdams Cemetery · 2018
marker pending.
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