Robert L. Dabney House

Duane's take

Here's the story as the official marker tells it, and I'll let you be the judge of how much house one life can hold. Robert Lewis Dabney was born in 1820, and by the time 1862 rolled around, he had already made a name for himself as a Presbyterian theologian, a teacher, and an author. That year, he stepped into one of the most closely watched roles in the entire Confederate war effort, chief of staff to General Stonewall Jackson himself.

That's the kind of résumé that follows a man wherever he goes. And Dabney went plenty of places. He taught at the University of Texas while he was up in Austin, and he helped establish the Austin School of Theology.

A man who had stood beside Jackson on the battlefield was now shaping minds in a classroom. In 1895, Robert and his wife Margaret Lavinia Morrison packed up and moved to Victoria, Texas. Two years later, in 1897, they built this house, a late Victorian style home, proper and deliberate, the kind of structure that says someone intended to stay.

Dabney passed away in 1898, just a year after the house was finished. Margaret lived on until 1908. Then the house passed on, the way houses do.

In 1922, Dr. Oscar McMullen purchased it. McMullen was no small figure in Victoria either.

He served as the city's first health officer and later as the county health officer. His family took root in that house and stayed. Members of the McMullen family were still living there all the way until 2009.

More than a century after a Confederate veteran and his wife built it on the edge of a new town, the house was still holding people. Some structures have a way of outlasting every story you thought they were built to tell.

What the marker says

Built in the late Victorian architectural style in 1897, this house was built for Robert Lewis Dabney (1820-1898) and Margaret Lavinia Morrison (d.1908). Rev. Dabney was a Presbyterian theologian, teacher, author and confederate veteran. In 1862, he became General “Stonewall” Jackson’s chief of staff. While in Austin, Dabney taught at the University of Texas and helped establish the Austin School of Theology. Dabney and Margaret moved to Victoria in 1895 and built this house. In 1922, the home was purchased by Dr. Oscar McMullen, Victoria’s first city health officer and later the county health officer. Members of the McMullen family resided here until 2009. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark – 2014