220 2nd St.
San Felipe, TX 77473
GPS: N29° 48' 20" W96° 5' 50"
979-885-2181
san-felipe@thc.texas.gov
Commemorating the location where, in 1823, Stephen F. Austin established a headquarters for his colony in Mexican Texas, San Felipe de Austin State Historic Site and new museum share the stories of early settlers in this region. Today, visitors can walk in the footsteps of these early pioneers at what was the social, economic, and political center of American immigration to Texas before independence. San Felipe de Austin didn't survive the war for Texas independence -- it was burned by its own residents as they evacuated during the Runaway Scrape of 1836.
The new state-of-the-art museum and visitor center (opened in April 2018) is getting rave reviews from visitors. The current temporary gallery exhibit (through Labor Day) is “El Mar de Lodo/The Sea of Mud” – the story of the Mexican army retreat after the Battle of San Jacinto.
Admission is free on Sundays through Labor Day weekend.
From the Blog
By Michael Moore, San Felipe de Austin Project Contract Historian
As a project contract historian for San Felipe de Austin State Historic Site, I recently spent a week at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, researching San Felipe resources in their archival collections. Surprisingly, some of the best early Texas history archives outside of Texas are in the Western Americana...
By Shelley Wong, San Felipe de Austin Visitor Services Manager
In 2007, Shelly Zaruba, then a 7th grade Texas history teacher at Sealy Junior High School, came up with an idea that has literally materialized into a unique storytelling opportunity. Shelly was looking for a special hands-on project that her students could manage in a limited amount of time. She wanted to provide students...
By Bryan McAuley, San Felipe de Austin Site Manager
While the life of the town of San Felipe de Austin was brief, it managed to play many roles during the colonial era. One of the more obscure was its role as the capital of the provisional government over a proclaimed Mexican state of Texas (separate from the state of Coahuila). San Felipe held this status from mid-November...
