Our History

The Edward T. Austin house

In 1851 the original portion of the house was built by Lorenzo Sherwood. Sherwood sold it to Judge Edward Tailer Austin in 1867, Austin expanded the home by having the Greek Revival wing constructed, using materials imported from Maine such as white pine and doors of mahogany and walnut.

Edward was the first cousin of Stephen F. Austin the founder of the colony of Texas. Edward T. Austin in 1857 Austin and Estelle Herbert got married in Louisiana and moved to Galveston where they raised their family. Austin became an attorney, county judge and served as acting mayor of Galveston for a time.

When Austin passed away in 1888, his son Valery Austin, a city commissioner became the new owner of the property Valery Austin and his wife Ida L. Smith lived in the home, but also rented out two of the rooms on the south side of the residence.

On September 8^th, 1900, Valery left Galveston in the morning for a business trip. About two o’clock that afternoon Ida heard a man in the street say that the waters from the gulf had met at Fifteenth Street. She and her niece ran to the upper deck, where they saw it was true. “We opened the doors and let the water flow through, and soon it stood three feet in all the rooms,” Ida later wrote.

The couple lived in the house until 1938 when they passed away. The house was sold to Joseph Selwyn Ibbotson that same year. Ibbotson was the head librarian at the Rosenburg Library from 1936-1947.

In 1947 Ibbotson sold the home to Colonel Milo Pitcher Fox a retired district engineer of Galveston. He was a West Point graduate and veteran of two wars.

The Austin home was awarded a Texas Historical Building Medallion in 1962 which is still proudly displayed on the building.

The next owners of the house Margie and William Simpson, removed layers of old wallpaper in 1975 and, discovered the walls and ceiling of the east wing drawing room had elaborately detailed murals, all likely painted in 1865 when the section of the house was completed.

Simpson claimed the murals were a gift from John Jacob Astor. The Astors, were a powerful railroad family from New York. They reportedly sent a German artist to Galveston to execute the work as a sign of friendship between the families, the frescoes, which are the only creations of there kind on the island, survived multiple wallpapering, and the 1900 storm when water rose four feet in the room.

Adapted from “Edward T Austin House,” by Kathleen Maca, Galvestonmonthly pp. 32-34 Nov 2021,

Photos: the Greek Revival east wing Circa 1940. Page 36: The front of the Austin Home taken by Henri Cartier-Bresson circa 1962. images courtesy by the Rosenburg Library page 37: The west side of the Austin Home taken by Harry L. Starnes on June 26, 1936, image courtesy of Historic American Buildings Survey