Nestled in the heart of Marshall’s museums and cultural activities, Starr Family Home State Historic Site is composed of several elegant structures that map the 150-year history of the Starr family in Texas. Period furnishings, clothing, and antiques trace the transition of the buildings through four generations of the Starr family in Texas history.
From the Blog
By Megan Maxwell, Curator, Starr Family Home State Historic Site
Frank and Clara Starr raised six girls in Maplecroft. It’s no wonder, then, that the Starr Family Home State Historic Site has a large collection of hand-made doll clothing. Most of it is in a Victorian style dating to the late 19th and early 20th centuries, depicting the distinctive Victorian puffy-sleeved shirts and...
By Megan Maxwell and Barbara Judkins, Starr Family Home
Since the mid-1800s, cotton has been a major cornerstone in the southern economy. By the 1860s, southern plantations produced two-thirds of the world’s cotton supply. Crucial to the industry were the cotton brokers, or factors as they were often called. They provided a link between the plantations and the textile mills located in...
By Barbara Judkins and Megan Maxwell, site manager and curator at Starr Family Home State Historic Site
Ruth Starr Blake, the second youngest daughter of Frank and Clara Clapp Starr, grew up in Maplecroft, the centerpiece of the Starr Family Home State Historic Site. She was married to Arthur Blake in 1904, and by all accounts the marriage was a good match. The couple lived cozily in a...