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From 1938 to 1945, the population of the home fell from eighty-seven to fifty-five. In 1949 the home fell under the jurisdiction of the Board of Texas State Hospitals and Special Schools. During the late 1950s, the nine remaining residents were consolidated into one hospital wing. In 1963 the last three residents were moved to private nursing homes at state expense, and the facility was closed.
The Home consisted of a large administration building, a hospital, living quarters and private cottages; by all accounts it was a pleasant place to live out your final years. The private cottages were used by married couples for the most part. When a married veteran died, their wives were usually sent to the Confederate Woman’s Home in North Austin.
Historic Central Austin property that once housed Confederate widows now home to ghosts
The UDC raised over twelve thousand dollars for the building, which was completed and formally dedicated December 5, 1907. Residents were provided private rooms, community dining, library, and sitting rooms located amidst beautifully landscaped grounds. A hospital was completed in 1916 and an annex later added to provide additional private rooms. The state placed the eleemosynary institution under a six-member board of managers.
It’s a big task, and probably one that will never be fully completed. With many of the veterans, the only thing we have to document their lives and place them in history are their military service records and oftentimes those records are far from complete. Due to many reasons, including past fires at military archive buildings or misfiling, misspelled names or lax record keeping during the war, we have incomplete files on these men and their spouses.
Texas -- Travis County -- Austin -- Confederate Women's Home
Watson had already designed buildings at both Texas A&M and Baylor University, the courthouses of Travis, Comanche and Milam Counties, and the First Congregational Church of Austin. In 1903, the United Daughters of the Confederacy officially founded the Wives and Widows Home Committee. They were able to purchase the property three years later, quickly hiring architect Arthur O. Watson for the building’s design. Many of the women who spent their final days in the Confederate Women’s Home became test subjects for experimental procedures.
Throughout its existence, more than 2,000 indigent or disabled veterans stayed in the home. Many of those veterans are buried here at the Texas State Cemetery. We have more than 2,200 Confederates and their spouses buried in the southeast corner of the Cemetery. Confederate Field, with its nearly uniform appearance of small rectangular headstones, is probably the most iconic image of the State Cemetery. To learn more about the former occupants of the home, pick up Haunted Austin or head to the Oakwood Cemetery (Austin's first cemetery, originally named City Cemetery) on October 26.
Herman: Battle brewing over marker at former Confederate Woman’s Home
The last Confederate veteran, Walter W. Williams, was 114 years of age at a time of his death December 19, 1959. Of the three documented burials in this plot, two were later moved to family plots elsewhere and one moved to rest beside her husband in Confederate Field in the Texas State Cemetery. You can use the hashtag #HM1WOK in tweets, and any other place where you might refer to this marker, including when searching on this site. But, like the aging widows, there were some children who moved in and never moved out. Although the building has undergone major renovations during its 111-year history, it is believed that some of the original occupants remain.
(approx. 0.4 miles away); Stanley and Emily Finch House (approx. 0.4 miles away); Elvira T. Manor Davis House (approx. 0.4 miles away). Join Ghost City Tours as we explore the haunted streets of Austin. Realizing they needed to recognize more diverse causes, they began to extend the AGE family. Soon they became a launching pad for nonprofits, at times housing as many as twenty-five emerging organizations at once. Only three women were living within the home less than a decade later. With no easy solution, the Confederate Women’s Home relocated the remaining women before closing their doors.
Terry's Texas Rangers, Hood's Texas Brigade, Confederate Soldiers Monument . Three monuments to memorialize those fought for the Confederacy. But it’s on private property and if the property owner wants it gone, so be it.
The Albert Sidney Johnston Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy cooperated in raising funds for the home. In 1886 the camp purchased sixteen acres of land at 1600 West Sixth Street in Austin from John B. In December of that year the UDC held a "Grand Gift Concert and Lottery," with prizes donated by the public, and raised over $10,800 to support the home.
It is,as the name says, a memorial to the Texas Confederate Women's Home and all the widows and daughters of the Confederacy. The Home continued to be used even after the last Confederate veteran, a Thomas Riddle, died in 1953. Veterans from World War I and the Spanish American War stayed there until the Home closed in 1961. It was given to the University of Texas in 1971 and is married student housing still today.
The requirements for residents to live in the Confederate Woman's Home mandated that women be 60 years or older, with limited financial resources. Their husbands or relatives had fought during the Civil War, from 1861 to 1865, and as they approached old age, many found they were without money or support to live at home. To help, United Daughters of the Confederacy opened the home in 1909 to serve the aging population. Many of the women living in the home were either widows or married to men living at Texas Confederate Home, which was located at 1600 W. Battlefields, cemeteries and hospitals, as well as areas where such places once stood, are often the most haunted places of any community. Such is the case of a building along an Austin suburban street, known as the Confederate Women’s Home.
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