Shirley's San Antonio Real Estate Blog: The Witte Museum: Log Cabins & Historic Homes

For Kids & Kids at Heart                                                                                         

The Witte Museum's backyard exhibit, Log Cabins & Historic Homes, is a great way for kids to learn about pioneer life.  Parents will enjoy the experience as well.  The "hands-on" exhibit displays historic San Antonio houses. You can walk around the homes to see what materials were used to build each one. You can then try to build a your own log cabin in the "little log cabin." Only the log cabin interiors are open to visitors.  The other houses are used for staff offices and museum programs.

• The Ruiz House was the home of the city's first schoolmaster, Jose Francisco Ruiz. 

  The Ruiz House was built in the mid-18th Century. The long front room was used as the first public school house in San Antonio about 1801. The house was rebuilt on the Museum grounds.  José Francisco Ruiz was one of two native Texans to sign the Texas Declaration of Independence.

• The Twohig House was built in 1841 by John Twohig, an Irish immigrant. 

  The Twohig House was built in the 1840's and was moved in 1941 and reconstructed stone-by-stone on the Museum grounds, exactly as it had been built by its owner, John Twohig, pioneer San Antonio merchant known for his charity and patriotism.

• The Navarro House was built in 1835 by Jose Antonio Navarro, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. 

  The Navarro House built about 1835 on present Camaron Street and was rebuilt in its original cut-limestone-block construction on the Museum grounds in 1948. Angel Navarro, Celso's ancestor, was alcade, in 1790, of the Canary Island settlement of 1731.

• The Log Cabin was constructed in 1939 by participants in President Roosevelt's National Youth Administration program. The "dog trot" style cabin represents the type of cabin built by many Texas pioneers.

For more information on this and other exhibits,  Witte Museum website