Just a few blocks from the University of Texas at Austin, the Neill-Cochran House Museum is one of the city’s oldest surviving residences, offering a fascinating look at Austin’s early years, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and beyond. Designed in 1855 by Abner Cook—the master builder behind the Texas Governor’s Mansion—this Greek Revival estate has seen blind students, soldiers, enslaved laborers, and high-society elites pass through its doors.
Originally built for Washington “Wash” Hill and his wife Mary, the home was meant to reflect their rising status, but financial struggles forced them to sell before ever moving in. The property’s first long-term occupants were students of the Texas State Asylum for the Blind, including at least five hired-out enslaved individuals, whose untold stories remain a critical part of the museum’s research today.
During the Civil War, Texas Lieutenant Governor Fletcher Stockdale took up residence, but by 1865, Union General George A. Custer had requisitioned the home as a federal war hospital, filling its rooms with soldiers recovering from yellow fever and cholera. The damage left behind revealed key architectural details that survive to this day—original mantelpieces, plaster walls, and white paling fences that once enclosed the grounds.
By the 1870s, the home finally became what its builders intended—a luxurious private residence. The Neill family, and later the Cochrans, lived here for nearly a century, hosting lavish parties for Texas politicians, judges, and socialites. Artifacts from their decades of occupancy remain, offering an intimate glimpse into Austin’s elite social scene from the late 19th to mid-20th century.
Beyond its stately interiors, the property holds Austin’s only intact slave quarters, a powerful reminder of the home’s complex past. The museum’s rotating art and history exhibitions, hands-on educational programs, and historical preservation efforts bring these layered stories to life, ensuring that the Neill-Cochran House Museum remains not just a preserved relic, but a place where Austin’s history is continually explored and understood.