Welcome to the Neill-Cochran House Museum! While you’re on our site, we invite you (virtually) to step back in time, and to walk where Austinites have walked, lived, and worked for over 160 years.
Originally this site was WAY out of town. Downtown Austin was 2 miles away, across dirt roads, to the degree there were roads at all. Look down our sidewalk and across the street. The property stretched to the east to where 23rd street dead ends today – the trees you see lining the street framed the carriage approach to the house and were put in by the Cochran family around the turn of the century.
Down the hill, behind the house, on Shoal Creek, native people camped for centuries. What became Austin was a popular crossing point, and sometimes camping ground, for native people, particularly in the area around Barton Springs. If you’re visiting Austin from elsewhere, Barton Springs with its 68-72 degree water year round is a great respite from the summer heat, as well as a living piece of Austin history.
But back to our part of Austin, federal troops sent to the city to enforce the peace (and emancipation) after the end of the Civil War also camped along Shoal Creek. That is likely part of the reason the government used this property as a hospital for over a year. To our north, the Wheatville Freedom Colony developed after emancipation, and the UT Austin community moved towards us from the east from the University's establishment in 1883 onward.
Slave Quarters and Grounds
Main House Front Yard
Welcome to the Neill-Cochran House Museum! While you’re on our site, we invite you (virtually) to step back in time, and to walk where Austinites have walked, lived, and worked for over 160 years.
Originally this site was WAY out of town. Downtown Austin was 2 miles away, across dirt roads, to the degree there were roads at all. Look down our sidewalk and across the street. The property stretched to the east to where 23rd street dead ends today – the trees you see lining the street framed the carriage approach to the house and were put in by the Cochran family around the turn of the century.
Down the hill, behind the house, on Shoal Creek, native people camped for centuries. What became Austin was a popular crossing point, and sometimes camping ground, for native people, particularly in the area around Barton Springs. If you’re visiting Austin from elsewhere, Barton Springs with its 68-72 degree water year round is a great respite from the summer heat, as well as a living piece of Austin history.
But back to our part of Austin, federal troops sent to the city to enforce the peace (and emancipation) after the end of the Civil War also camped along Shoal Creek. That is likely part of the reason the government used this property as a hospital for over a year. To our north, the Wheatville Freedom Colony developed after emancipation, and the UT Austin community moved towards us from the east from the University's establishment in 1883 onward.
Looking East
The property originally was 17.5 acres. It extended to the east to the dead end you see ahead of you, to the north to 24th street, to the south to 21st street, and down the hill towards Shoal Creek. The original neighbors to our north were men and women of the Wheatville Freedom Colony, established in the late 1860s after the end of the Civil War.
Fontaine Building
After the war, the area just to our north, beyond 24th Street, became home to Wheatville, a freedmen’s community. At the time, the Hill House (as our site originally was known) remained alone in this area. So, our first neighbors were formerly enslaved men, women, and children.
Only one building from that neighborhood remains standing – the Jacob Fontaine, or Gold Dollar, building. Built of limestone rubble just like our site, the two-story building is most closely associated with Rev. Jacob Fontaine, an enslaved man who became one of Austin’s most influential Black residents after the war. Fontaine founded 7 churches and also published the Gold Dollar, one of the first Black newspapers west of the Mississippi. We encourage you to walk up the street to see the Fontaine building while you are visiting us today.
Limestone Rubble Wall Detail
The NCHM walls are crafted from rubble limestone and are 18 inches thick. All of the walls - interior and exterior - are load-bearing. In this image, note that the stone looks different at the top vs the bottom. We believe this reflects a pause in construction, likely when the Hills were running out of money. They ultimately sold 5 enslaved people (name, age, and gender not recorded) in order to finance the completion of the project.
NCHM Columns
The columns are made of Eastern Cedar and are each 26 feet tall. They are hollow, crafted from 12 double-fluted pieces of wood that taper from bottom to top and represent the most complex carpentry executed for this project.
Main House Front Yard
