#TBT: Centennial House on the bluff in Corpus Christi is oldest home in city
Editor's note: A version of this article originally published Dec. 3, 2015.
The home is inching closer to the bicentennial mark, but the Centennial House at 411 N. Upper Broadway continues to serve as a link to the earliest days of Corpus Christi.
Capt. Forbes Britton built the house with a shellcrete foundation in 1849 on the bluff overlooking Corpus Christi Bay, on land acquired from the city's founder, Henry Lawrence Kinney. The structure is the oldest house in town still at its original location. When Forbes and Rebecca Britton sold the house, it passed through several families before being purchased by the George Evans family in 1880. The Evans family lived in the house for more than 50 years, and in 1936 the residence was purchased by the Southern Minerals Corp. It served as the oil company's headquarters until 1954 when it moved into its new headquarters at Buffalo and North Upper Broadway.
By the 1960s, the Centennial House desperately needed repairs and the removal of encroaching vegetation. When Southern Minerals contemplated putting the house up for sale in 1964, local preservationists began to worry this historic home would be lost.
So in January 1965, the Corpus Christi Area Heritage Society incorporated, with the aim to preserve historic homes in the city. First on that list was the Centennial House. Heritage society president and Caller-Times publisher Edward H. Harte summed up the need to restore the home in a March 1965 article: "For all these reasons — its antiquity, the use of local materials, and its situation on the bluff — the building should be preserved."
The society raised $50,000 to purchase the home in September of that year. Four years and more than $90,000 later, the society opened the new museum's doors during formal dedication ceremonies on April 18, 1969. Since then the society has continued to restore and showcase the home's antebellum history, and the structure remains the oldest house in Corpus Christi.
Allison Ehrlich writes about things to do in South Texas and has a weekly Throwback Thursday column on local history.
This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: #TBT: Corpus Christi's Centennial House is oldest home in city
