Tuesday, November 16 – We visited the Fulton Mansion State Historic Site today.
Built by George Ware Fulton and Harriet Smith Fulton on the coastal plains of Texas. Named Oakhurst because it is surrounded on three sides by majestic live oak trees. The front of the home faces the stunning Aransas Bay.
George was a highly successful entrepreneur and Harriet was the daughter of Henry Smith, a powerful Republic of Texas politician. Together, they created a beautiful and comfortable home for their family and friends, decorated in the highest fashions of the day.
Foyer
The house is furnished with many pieces donated by the Fulton family and with other period furniture purchased to duplicate items listed on the household inventory.
Original light fixture
Gorgeous staircase.
Original Recliner in the Library from Europe.
What unique pieces of furniture in the parlor.
The Fulton’s bed where Mr. Fulton died.
It was the first house in Texas to have gas lighting, central heating and running water. It has bathrooms off each bedroom equipped with flush toilets and bathtubs.
Bath tub
150 yr. old toilet tissue. That’s something you don’t see everyday.
Along with these modern conveniences, the house was built to withstand hurricane-force winds. Poured concrete and pre-cast concrete aggregate blocks formed the basement walls while the upper walls and floors were constructed by stacking and spiking pine planks.
This shows what bad shape the house was in before renovation.
For a cost of $6, you received a guided tour through two floors of the restored home lasting approximately one hour.
There is a beautiful garden to the rear of the home with signs describing the plants and trees found there. The grounds are also home to many of Live Oak trees.
We enjoyed this tour and recommend it to those visiting the Rockport/Corpus Christi area. If you liked to see more pictures of the Mansion, please click here.
It was recommended by fellow bloggers and friends here at the park that we must eat at the Big Fisherman Restaurant. The place is HUGE! On Tuesdays, they sere all-you-can eat Chicken Fried Steak, Fried Chicken Liver or Gizzards for ONLY $2.25. It includes mashed potatoes, gravy and cole slaw. It was delicious. They also serve Margaritas for $1. We had to try that also…very good.
They have an outdoor area with a sign that reads…
The only entertainment this day was the cats
and the monkey.
Before we close, in our last blog we wrote about the Tarpon Inn and the tarpon scales on the wall. We were asked what is a tarpon. Well, here is the answer directly from Mr. Webster…
–noun, plural -pons, ( especially collectively 
a large, powerful game fish, Megalops atlantica, inhabiting the warmer waters of the Atlantic Ocean, having a compressed body and large, silvery scales.
In all fairness to our readers, Marsha didn’t know either.
Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day.
glad to see the gardens have reovered from when i was last there in the mid 80's right after a nasty tropical storm about destroyed the place... i was working for Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept at the time and had to help cut trees down all around the place...
ReplyDeleteThose people must have had a whole lot of money to have those extravagant lights and indoor plumbing. Wow.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info on the tarpon.
Missed that place when we were there.... We will be in Livingston next week... give us a call
ReplyDeleteDuane and Louise