On This Site Stood for a Century an Old Stone House

Duane's take

The way the marker tells it, here's what stood right here in Nacogdoches. One stone house. For a century.

And that building had more lives than a cat with ambitions. Thought to have been built in 1779 by Antonio Gil YBarbo, this old stone house got its start quiet enough, just four walls and a roof in a corner of East Texas. YBarbo eventually sold it as community property in 1805, and from there the place just kept reinventing itself.

By 1806, William Barr and Samuel Davenport were using it as headquarters, running their trade with the Indians out of those same stone walls. Now, if you're keepin' track, that's already two chapters, and the building is just gettin' warmed up. Trading post.

Store. Warehouse. Town hall.

Fort. Barracks. Church.

Tavern. Saloon. That is not a building, friends, that is a civilization compressed into one address.

At one point or another those walls held commerce, government, soldiers, worship, and somebody's whiskey order, sometimes probably all on the same afternoon. It went on like that for a hundred years, give or take, standing through everything Nacogdoches could throw at it. Then, in 1902, W.

W. and Charles Perkins, the last owners, tore it down. Just like that. A century of stories, and it came down all the same.

But here's the part that makes you sit up a little straighter: in 1936, that old stone house was reconstructed, out on the campus of Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College, and that same year the State of Texas marked this very site. So the building is gone from here, but the ground remembers, and now, so do you.

What the marker says

On this site stood for a century an old stone house thought to have been built in 1779 by Antonio Gil YBarbo. Sold by him as community property in 1805. Headquarters in 1806 for William Barr and Samuel Davenport, Indian traders. It served as trading post, store, warehouse, town hall, fort, barracks, church, tavern, and saloon before being torn down in 1902 by W. W. and Charles Perkins, last owners. Reconstructed in 1936 on the campus of Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College. This Site Marked by the State of Texas 1936