The Neill-Cochran House Museum is one of the 10 oldest extant buildings in Austin, TX and the only antebellum home fully accessible to the public. Constructed in the countryside, the site today is in the heart of central Austin. Built at the end of the antebellum era, the NCHM speaks authentically and sensitively to the reality that enslaved laborers built the house and that the extant structures’ design and execution must be understood in light of the economic and social structure that produced it.

Over its 100-year occupancy, the NCHM was home to the State School for the Blind, to the Lieutenant Governor of Texas during the Civil War, to a Federal War Hospital, to various renters, and to the Neill and Cochran families. Occupants of the home helped to build and to shape the cultural and political landscape of Texas. First-hand experience of the site engages us all today with the many occupants’ stories in a way that helps us to understand the complexities of the present.