The Fulton Mansion
A Victorian MARVEL…
Originally known as Oakhurst, the Fulton Mansion was completed by George Ware and Harriet (Smith) Fulton in 1877, as an enduring symbol of their years of success.
George, born in Philadelphia in 1810, was working as a schoolteacher in Vincennes, Indiana when the Texas Revolution began. Along with a group of 60 volunteers, George spent several months travelling by flatboat down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers hoping to join in the fight against Mexico, only to discover that the war had already ended.
Nonetheless, George enlisted for a brief time in the Army of the Republic of Texas, before becoming a draftsman in the General Land Office in Houston in 1837. While there he met Henry Smith, Secretary of the Treasury and former provisional governor of Texas, and the two became friends. In 1840, George became a tutor for Smith’s children, including his future wife Harriet. Many years later, Harriet recalled,
“...that memorable morning (many years ago when you and I were very young) in the little school room in our dear old home on the Brazos. Your head ached and you had just bathed it and you looked so badly and a little vixen treated [you] just as meanly as I was going to treat [you] in my dream. But you didn’t put your arm around me and kiss me then...”
George and Harriet married within the year. They began their life together and had several children, before moving to the East Coast in 1846 to pursue new career opportunities. Between 1846 and 1867, George spent time as a newspaper editor, railroad superintendent, and engineer, helping to build famous structures like the Covington-Cincinnati Suspension Bridge.
The Covington-Cincinnati Suspension Bridge, circa 1907. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.
In 1867, the family returned to Texas, where Harriet had inherited significant land holdings from her father. In 1871, George helped found the Coleman, Mathis, Fulton cattle company to consolidate land holdings and take advantage of the unclaimed cattle roaming Texas after the Civil War. This company, and the later Coleman-Fulton Pasture Company, formed the basis of the Fulton wealth. To symbolize their success, George and Harriet built Oakhurst.
Having grown accustomed to life in some of the most metropolitan cities in America, George and Harriet spared no expense equipping their Mansion with amenities that were still quite novel in southern Texas. Two massive concrete cisterns installed in the basement collected rainwater for drinking, while a thousand-gallon tower cistern supplied gravity-fed running water to the sinks and toilets throughout the home. A gas lighting system, supplied by an on-site gas generator, kept the house well lit without a need for candles, while a basement furnace kept the Mansion’s four stories warm in the winter. The furnace even diverted heat into a nearby brick enclosure, which served as a drying rack for the family’s laundry! Crystal chandeliers, patterned tiles, slate mantelpieces, and thick, hand-stitched carpets were imported from as far away as London, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York.
Luckily for future owners and inhabitants, the Fulton Mansion was also built to last. Instead of building the Mansion by erecting a wooden frame and covering it in drywall, George opted to stack pine boards, one on top of the other, to create 5” thick, solid wood walls and floors that could withstand even the roughest hurricanes. The wood required to build just one wall in the Fulton Mansion would probably be enough to build a small house today!
After George’s death in 1893, Harriet remained in the Mansion for only a short time, before moving to Cincinnati to be with her daughter Annie. In 1898, she wrote:
“Although it is such a lovely house, I have not the slightest desire ever to live there again. The charm has fled for all time.”
The Mansion was deeded to Harriet’s two daughters in 1906, before being sold to J.W. Davidson for $10,000 in 1907. Harriet passed away in Cincinnati in 1910 and was buried next to her husband in Rockport.
The Mansion remained in private hands until 1976, when it was purchased for $150,000 by the State of Texas. Between 1979 and 1983, the Mansion was restored to its historical condition, complete with furnishings and fixtures chosen to match those purchased by George and Harriet 100 years prior. Today, Fulton Mansion State Historic Site is managed by the Texas Historical Commission, and supported by the Friends of Fulton Mansion.