Pioneer Farms
Samuel Tate House - 1854
This building was built in 1854 at Sandy Mountain, in Llano County, by Samuel William Tate, who migrated to Texas from Tennessee in the late 1840s, in an ox cart with his wife Martha. Featuring a "dog-trot" breezeway between its two halves, a common architectural feature of the day, the house is supported by log beams cut from nearby forests. Many still have the bark on them.
The Tates raised twelve children in this house. Their girls slept on pallets inside and on the porch; their boys under trees outside. Tate operated a post office and grocery store in the house in his later years. He was the first elected district clerk of Llano County, in 1856, and served as postmaster of Sandy Mountain until his death in December 1989, at age 76. After being abandoned as a home in the 1920s, the structure stood empty until the late 1970s when it was disassembled and moved to Pioneer Farms as a gift from the then-owner, Lady Bird Johnson, the former First Lady. It is the oldest commercial building at our museum.
Today, restored to its original configuration, with several modern additions removed, the building houses museum offices, and serves as a check-in point for Pioneer Farms volunteers.
Sources: Pioneer Farms Archives, Blanco County Historical Society.