San Felipe: It’s Not Just a Street in Houston
by Bryan McAuley

The Heritage Society Tea Room
Free for members, $5 for non-members

San Felipe de Austin, the headquarters town of Stephen F. Austin’s Colony in Mexico ultimately became one of the great “lost” stories of early Texas history. The town itself was lost to fire during the Runaway Scrape of the Texas Revolution and the geography of this story was lost as a result of several factors – the late relocation of the revolution government to Washington on the Brazos, the migration of the capitals of the Republic of Texas, the untimely death of Stephen F. Austin and the inability of the town to quickly recover from its tragic fate. In 2018, the Texas Historical Commission (THC) completed a new museum facility to share the stories of this forgotten place – stories of people, events and activities that would shape the march to a new nation on Texas soil. San Felipe de Austin emerged as the place where Spanish Texas transitioned into the Republic of Texas in the quick span of just 15 years. In this short program site manager Bryan McAuley shares some of these forgotten stories and the ongoing plans that the THC has for improving the site and the visitor experience offered there.