About Us
The Villa de Austin interpretive area seeks to evoke the look and feel of a sample of the 1830s village of San Felipe de Austin to give visitors a hands-on learning experience. Based on site-specific archival and archeological evidence and precedent historic architecture, seven log and four frame structures are being constructed that represent the appearance of town lot 566 in about 1830. This program area is being built on a one-acre site located just east of the new Museum structure.
This outdoor exhibit is scheduled to open in 2021.
Volunteers for the Villa de Austin include those who wish to learn the skills of the era and demonstrate them to our visitors while wearing modern clothes as well as living history volunteers who dress the part to bring the site's stories alive. Please use the contact form on this page to tell us of your interests and find out more.
Volunteers have access to restricted portions of this website, with historical clothing guidelines and other resources to assist their efforts. Please contact us for log-in information.
The Texas Historical Commission opened a new museum at the San Felipe de Austin State Historic Site in 2018. This historic site commemorates the location where, in 1823, Stephen F. Austin established a headquarters for his colony in Mexican Texas. Today, visitors can walk in the footsteps of these early pioneers at what was the social, economic, and political center of American immigration to Texas before independence. San Felipe de Austin didn't survive the war for Texas independence -- it was burned by its own residents as they evacuated during the Runaway Scrape of 1836.