Editor’s note: There is so much Texas history in Austin such as these two homes turned museums, but there are also refreshing ways to cool off and take a sweet trip back into some treats history.
Who knew that a bunch of corn-hungry, marauding pigs might have saved Texas from becoming a French protectorate state instead of the great state of the union it is today.
Well, that may be a bit of a stretch of history, but the so-called pig war of the 1840s did stop the French from making a huge land grab and filling Texas with more foreign troops than Santa Ana ever did.
The whole pig fiasco started when an uppity Frenchman named Alphonse Dubois, who called himself Count de Saligny, but was just as common as the porkers who brought him down, got his fancy pants in a knot when said porkers tore up his cornfield and “hotel” room.
Dubois was in Texas to help determine if France should recognize the new Republic of Texas.
It didn’t take the fake royal long to realize he did not like the frontier that was Austin at the time, and the people of Austin who encountered the “no-count” felt the same about him.
So Dubois commissioned a home that would be more fitting to his acquired tastes which came at the expense of others.
The home is now the site of the French Legation State Historic Site and is a grand place to spend some time soaking up some history of the state.
While the French Legation was being built, Dubois stayed in Richard Bullock’s hotel.
The two were fated to hate each other.
Once the pigs had their fill of corn, Dubois was outraged at the destruction. He ordered his manservant to kill the pigs.
I will give you one guess as to who the pigs belonged to. That’s right. They were Mr. Bullock’s pride and joy, and they were a whole lot more popular in Austin than Dubois ever thought about being.
Not long after that, Dubois high-tailed it out of Austin, fleeing to the more urban New Orleans and The Franco-Texian bill was never passed.
You can learn about that and other bits of history with a visit to the home on San Marcos Street with a bird’s eye view of the Capitol in Austin.
The recently-renovated house was built in the style of a French Creole cottage and sits on nicely landscaped grounds.
While Dubois commissioned the house and it was completed in 1841, he never lived there.
The owners of the house included the Catholic Church. In fact Father Jean-Marie Odin lived in the house for a time and is considered the father of the modern Catholic Church in Texas.
Joseph Robinson, a doctor from South Carolina, acquired the house in 1848 and the family held on to the property until 1948, when family members sold it to the state. When Robinson bought the house, he moved in with his wife and children, which would eventually number 11, and nine slaves.
After the Civil War, the family ended up selling some of the original property to former slaves who helped develop the Robinson Hill and Pleasant Hill freedman neighborhoods.
Another fine old home brimming with Austin history is the Neill-Cochran House Museum at 2310 San Gabriel St. near the University of Texas campus.
The house turned museum is the 10th oldest historic site in the city.
The building was started by a young couple Washington and Mary Hill, but, as it turned out, their visions were grand and their pocketbooks weren’t.
They never got to live in the house, selling it off to land speculators.
From there, the property had a series of renters until the Neill family, formerly of Galveston, moved in.
The dining room on the first floor of the building is decked out for an elegant afternoon tea for the Victorian ladies who would have been in attendance for such a thing.
The first floor of the house has a French flair and is decorated with pieces that are in keeping with how it looked during the years the Neills lived there.
The Neills moved into the house in the 1870s and became known for their lavish parties and well-stocked wine cellar. In the dining room is a reproduction of a newspaper clipping that reads in part “...there were spreads—whole roast pigs, turkey, egg nog, brandied peaches, cake and wine.”
The Cochran family came next, purchasing the elegant home in 1895 after leasing it in 1893. The family remained in the house for more than 60 years and their style is shown off in the upper floor of the home.
The home has four rooms down stairs and two of them are the front parlor and the back parlor. They are separated by huge French doors that, when open, make one large parlor suitable for entertaining a larger gathering.
Upstairs are four bedrooms and the upstairs landing is a large area that could have been used as a gathering spot for family.
Both homes have websites that those planning a trip to the homes should visit before heading to Austin. The French Legation site is www.thc.texas.gov/historic-sites/french-legation-state-historic-site and the Neill-Cochran site is www.nchmuseum.org.
Barton Springs
The pool at Barton Springs is one of the best spots to cool off during a hot summer day. Did I say cool off? It is a place to chill for real. Cold water. It is in Zilker Park where the spring-fed pool surrounds swimmers with water that varies only a little between 60 and 70 degrees every day of the year. So take your swimsuits as there are changing rooms poolside. Bring some money, too. It costs senior adults that are 62 and older $5, adults that are 18-61 $9, Juniors that are 12-17 $5 and children that are 1-11 $4.
Big Top
Big Top is the candy store that isn’t just a candy store, as there is ice cream and malts and a galore of other goodies in the specialty shop on the trendy South Congress Avenue, across the bridge from downtown.
Big Top takes one back to the days of the old soda fountain with cases and shelves filled with chocolates, fudge and candy that goes back to the ’50s.
There are the old-time movie theater candies like Junior Mints, Lemon Heads and Raisinets. There is also the good old hard-to-find “open wide for Chunky” and Clark candy bars.
Bring some change for some root beer barrels, Bit-O-Honey bites, Atomic Fireballs, wax lips and candy cigars, too.
Check out the Choc-Aid which are milk chocolate pieces shaped like band aids for life’s little boo-boos.
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