HUNTSVILLE HISTORY
A HOUSE FULL OF HISTORY Gibbs-Powell House available for public tours
STORY & PHOTOS BY JOSEPH BROWN
The year was 1862 and the Civil War was raging in the east . Thomas Gibbs was already a longtime resident of Huntsville and a prosperous merchant .
In 1847 , Thomas had married Nancy Theresa Rogers and formed a new partnership with his newly arrived brother Sanford . They bought a log building from Huntsville founder Pleasant Gray and founded T & S Gibbs Mercantile . The business , now known as Gibbs Brothers and Company , is the oldest continuous business in Texas existing in Huntsville under the same ownership .
The Gibbs brothers soon gained a reputation for rectitude and fastidious record keeping that led Sanford and his wife , Sallie Gibbs to even greater future success in the banking business .
In 1856 , tragedy struck when Nancy died after only nine years of marriage , leaving Thomas a widower with two children . Thomas had married Mary Sophia Blake of Plantersville by 1859 , and decided to build her a new house . The building was constructed by W . M . Barrett , who built the Austin College Building on what is now the campus of Sam Houston State University and also the first building of Huntsville Methodist Church . Thomas ’ new home was almost identical to his brother ’ s home , which was situated directly across the street . Sadly , both the original Sanford Gibbs house and his wife Sallie ’ s later Victorian home did not survive and only exist as images in photographs .
The Gibbs family did not enjoy the house for many years , with Thomas dying in 1872 and Mary dying in 1876 . Their daughter Annie lived in the house for a short time , followed by the house becoming a rental property for nearly two decades . During this time the upstairs bedroom was rented to female students at the new Sam Houston Normal Institute .
Judge Benjamin Harrison Powell II brought the house in 1897 , but he died in 1900 . After their deaths the children remained in the house for many years .
Approximately five years after the completion of the current Gibbs- Powell house , the Gibbs family added a 60 foot wing to the rear to provide room for their growing family . In 1914 , the wing was split in two and moved side-by-side with a halfway in between and attached to the back of the house .
The best known residents of the house in the later years were Miss Louise and Miss Inez Powell , who taught music in the Huntsville school and at Sam Houston State University . After her retirement in 1963 , Dr . Anna Powell returned to live with her sisters and remained until her death in 1983 .
The Powell family leased the house to Walker County for use as a county museum in 1984 . In its 150 year history , the Gibbs-Powell House has had only two owners and aside from students , only four families have lived there .
The house interior has five rooms , including a hall with a parlor on one side and two bedrooms on the other . The house originally has wrap-around porches and a picket fence surrounding the lot . The lots originally extended almost to 10th Street and approximately halfway to what is now Sam Houston Avenue . They contained a complex of buildings in addition to the house that includes a fireproof brick kitchen , a well house , an above ground cypress cistern , a connected bath house , a barn , a wagon-shed , servant ’ s quarters , a cow lot , chicken coop , garden and an outhouse .
The Gibbs Powell House is both a Texas Archaeological Landmark and a recorded Texas Historical Landmark . The museum , located at 1228 11th Street , is open Tuesday through Friday from noon to 5 p . m . and from noon to 4 p . m . on Saturday ’ s .
— Historical research provided by the Walker County Historical Commission
28 | HUNTSVILLE LIVING | MAY-JUNE 2021