Brin House

Duane's take

The official marker tells this story, and I'm just the one passing it along. Somewhere in Hillsboro, Hill County, there stands a Victorian residence with a history that moves through several very different Texas lives, and every one of them left a mark on the place. Back in 1896, a Hillsboro attorney by the name of Robert T.

Jones and his wife Mary, born Abbott, decided they wanted something special. They commissioned a man named William M. Keith to build it, and Keith delivered: a full Victorian residence, the kind of home that announces itself.

That's where the story begins. But it doesn't stay there long. By 1917, the house had changed hands.

Louis and Rebecca Brin, Rebecca born Watelsky, purchased the property, and that name, Brin, is the one that would define the place for decades to come. Now here's the part worth slowing down for. Louis Brin was born in Poland, of Jewish descent, and he made his way to Hillsboro.

He opened a dry goods store at the age of sixteen. Sixteen years old, establishing himself as a merchant in a Texas town, building something from the ground up. Over time, he became what the marker calls a prominent area merchant and civic leader.

That's no small thing. That's a life's work. The family held onto that house, generation to generation, all the way until 1980.

That's the Brin family and that Victorian home on the Hill County landscape, and now you know exactly how much life those walls have seen.

What the marker says

Hillsboro attorney Robert T. Jones and his wife Mary (Abbott) commissioned William M. Keith to build this Victorian residence in 1896. In 1917 it was purchased by Louis and Rebecca (Watelsky) Brin. Born in Poland of Jewish descent, Louis Brin established a Hillsboro dry goods store at the age of sixteen and later became a prominent area merchant and civic leader. Members of the Brin family owned the home until 1980. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1981