Almost 250 years ago, a Spanish military officer oversaw the construction of a stone building in what is today downtown Nacogdoches.
The building played a key role in the development of the city. In 1936, it was rebuilt and converted into the Stone Fort Museum on the campus of the Stephen F. Austin State University using salvaged materials from the original building.
Now it seems history is about to take another turn because recently the University of Texas System Board of Regents approved a long-term campus master plan that includes relocating that historic building.
Scott Sosebee is executive director of the East Texas Historical Association and a professor at Stephen F. Austin State University. He joined the Texas Standard to explain the controversy. Listen to the interview in the player above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: I’m not sure most people outside of East Texas are familiar with this museum. Tell us more about its significance in terms of Texas history.
Scott Sosebee: Well, it is a significant structure. As you know, the construction started almost as soon as Gil Y’Barbo founded Nacogdoches in 1779. They finally finished it in 1788. He always called it “Casa Pietra,” the stone house. The “Stone Fort” moniker comes much later.
It was a unique building, it’s a trading post, it held the Villa records. It was Y’Barbo’s personal residence. After it went through all the various iterations through Nacogdoches’ history, by the time we get to the 1930s, it lay in rubble. There wasn’t anything left.
And it was just the location, a hardware store had been built in its location. The rubble was just laying in a schoolyard. The Cum Concilio Club, a local women’s group, decided we’re going to do something about that. They began raising money.
It was a 20-year-plus effort to raise money to try to reconstruct the Stone House. They never got it done in their timeline, but in the 1930s, in 1935, reconstructing the Stone Fort as it was then called by people on the SFA campus was the Centennial Project of the city of Nacogdoches.
Now let me ask you something, what’s in this museum if you go to it today? Just give us a quick overview.
You know, it’s a wonderful museum. When you go into the museum, the building itself is not very big, and they’ve done a fantastic job setting this museum up.
It goes through Spanish colonial life, Mexican period, Texas Revolution, the Republic, frontier life of the East Texas region. And they have documents, period furniture, weapons, and military items, tools, domestic life — like clothing, cooking items, all kinds of things.
Now, the university is planning to relocate this building. It doesn’t sound like it’s going to be especially easy, though. Can you say something about the challenges of that?
Well, the challenge is unbelievable. And I’m sad to say I’m dubious whether it could actually be done.
It’s been turned over to the City of Nacogdoches. But what you have to do, if you’re going to reconstruct it exactly, is take it apart piece by piece, label it, and then put it back up in a place downtown. That’s a lot of money.
Right now, I’m not real confident the City of Nacogdoches can pull that off. I hate to say that.
Is there a price tag?
I have not heard of a price tag. I haven’t heard what they’ve said. I don’t even know if the city has a plan yet and they have an architect, but I’m telling you it could be $10 million.
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Now, it’s my understanding that SFA has faced some pushback, though, to these plans. What is the university saying and what are those who oppose this saying?
Well the University, I have to say, they’ve made their decision. They want the space. It’s going to be gone. I wish there would be enough pushback that would make it happen. Any pushback is coming from social media and things like that. Any official contact with the SFA administration about it, I’ve not heard of it.
Like I say, I think they’ve decided and it’s a done deal.
Why do they want this land so badly?
New science building. They want to build a new science building and parking. You know, that’s what universities do. They look for space, and in some ways you can’t blame them, when places grow and you need the space.
You know, it’s interesting, I’m hearing you talk here, professor, and I know obviously you’re loyal to SFA and at the same time I can hear the head of an historical association coming out there too. How are you thinking about all of this?
I’m sad, and also I would be glad if somebody would call me and talk to me and say, “Hey, what do you think?” Do you think we can do this?”
I’ve not heard from anybody. I’d love to hear from the city. I’d love them to contact people in the history department, people involved.
As far as I know, we have a very vibrant public history program at SFA. They haven’t heard from SFA. We don’t know what’s going on. It’s really a conundrum.
