Thomas Jefferson Chambers Home

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Thomas Jefferson Chambers Home in Liberty County. Now settle in, because this story comes with a twist built right into the name. Thomas Jefferson Chambers.

That name carries weight in Texas history, and the marker is careful to tell you which one we're talking about. The man who lived in this house was born in 1840 and lived all the way to 1929. He was the nephew and namesake of T.

J. Chambers, the Texas colonial leader, who lived from 1802 to 1865. Two men, same name, same family, very different chapters of the story.

The younger Chambers was a native Virginian, a Confederate veteran, and when the war was behind him, he made his life in this part of Texas. He wasn't a man who sat still. He served as a newspaper editor, a state representative, a justice of the peace, a city councilman, and eventually mayor.

That is a resume that takes some buildin'. And the house he built to go along with it? Well, that's where things get interesting.

During the 1860s, he put up what the marker calls an octagon house, with a central chimney anchoring the whole unusual shape. Now, if you're picturing something out of the ordinary for a Texas homestead, you've got the right picture. Eight sides.

One chimney at the heart of it. The kind of structure that makes a statement just by standing there. Time and remodeling have altered that distinctive shape, so what you see today isn't quite what Chambers first built.

But the bones of the story are still right there, in the lines of a house that once belonged to a man carrying one of the biggest names in Texas, and doing his level best to live up to every letter of it.

What the marker says

This residence was built during the 1860s for newspaper editor Thomas Jefferson Chambers (1840-1929), the nephew and namesake of Texas colonial leader T. J. Chambers (1802-1865). The younger Chambers was a native Virginian and Confederate veteran. He served as state representative, justice of the peace, city councilman, and mayor. The shape of the "octagon house", with its central chimney, has been altered by remodeling. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1978