Historical Thursday: Stillman House

Hello on another beautiful Thursday!

Today I wanted to introduce you guys to a lovely house museum.
It's called the "Stillman House", mostly because the founder of Brownsville,Texas first resided in this here house.
The house was built in 1850 by a man named Henry Miller, he was a business man who also owned a well respected hotel in the downtown part of the city.
Mr. Miller rented out the house to the Stillmans for a couple of years(1851-1853).
Charles Stillman was a true businessman! He laid claim to several properties, river steamboats, he was involved in cotton brokerage, mercantile operations, and ranching.  His steamboat business is what actually brought him down to the area from Connecticut, where he was born.

Wow, right? That's a pretty insane amount of things to take control over. As if that wasn't enough he also got the title to a tract of land north of Matamoros, Mexico, which is now Brownsville, Texas. I know, you have probably never heard of these places. I promise you they're on the map! At the very tip of Texas. Go and take a look!

Charles would go on and lay out the city, and actually start it up into the bustling commercial and cultural center that it was in the mid 19th Century.

Even though you might not have heard about Charles Stillman he had a lot of power and money during these times. 

His son, James, would go on to be president of the First National City Bank and his daughters, Elsie and Isabel, married two of William Rockefeller's sons.

It might surprise you to learn that the Rockefeller's were actually marrying into money in the above marriages. The Stillmans were that wealthy!

I hope I haven't thoroughly bored you with that little history lesson. I'll give you a look into some of the inside of the house in the next couple of pictures.  This door above  is still the original door from the 1850s. So awesome.

These two pictures show the bedroom of the house, which is immediately to the right as you walk in. 

I would seriously love a bed like this. Wouldn't you?

This room is just in front of the bedroom and was considered the parlor in those days. This is where the Stillmans would entertain their guests. The mannequin above is supposed to be Elizabeth Stillman, wife to Charles, in her actual Wedding dress. Beautiful. I love sleeves on wedding dresses and oh, the lace!

The hallway showing where the bedroom, on the left in this picture, and the parlor were.

Hallway again but this time standing at the front door. I need to get a fancy candelabra so that Bob, the kids, and I can have a fancy dinner EVERY night.

This is where the exhibition space of the house began. It was put into the later additions to the original 1850 house. 

Pictures of the kitchen. I've always wanted to have one of those irons just to see what it would've been like.

I might just go buy one and try it out. I know. I'm so weird. 

These last three pictures are looking into the carriage house, which was not connected to but was part of the original house, an authentic carriage, and a picture of some of the shutters from the outside.

There's tons more that I could have said about this house. Believe me, there was. It's just so beautiful. I also completely forgot to take a picture of the inside courtyard that the house has. Oops! I was just too excited I guess. 

Hope you enjoyed this mini tour.

With all my love,

Pati