Giddings Stone Mansion — Attraction in Brenham

This House was where my friends , Frank Stone, Louise Stone stayed several summers . I played Little League Baseball in Brenham. The years about 1957- 58. Frank came to Brenham the summer of 1957. The house was up the hill from my family's house at the first street across from the property, on S Baylor Street. I had a short cut up the hill to the house, along some trees Frank called Bodark trees. The grass in the front pasture got tall and dry in the summer. . Frank did not come to my house. He worked at the house. His grandmother was living in the house, first floor. The house had electricity and running water. The kitchen used was used or cooking on big gas you could see the flames on the burners when they were cooking. Frank was taller and heavier than me. Frank pitched for his baseball team. He was a good pitcher I was good at throwing a baseball also. So we played catch outside on the front porch and side porch. There were dozens of big, wooden dog boxes stacked next to the wall of the house on the side porch. They looked rotten and full of leaves. Frank never went close to the dog kennels. He said they had a lot of dogs for hunting with horses. The old horse stables were off to the back of the house about 100 yards away from the house. The old stables were wood with metal roofs. We never went into the stables from the house. The old wooden porches were damaged out by the edge of the big fence on the edge of the porches. The house was at least 5 feet up off the ground. The front entrance had big steps up to the flat concrete landing on the front porch. The front door was two big doors . They were thick and made of carved wood and metal pieces We used the right front door to get outside on the porch to play baseball .The porches went all around the side and back of the house on the first and second floor. We only used the bottom floor porch. Closer to the house, the wood was better. I used a catcher's mitt to catch Frank. I think I batted against Frank at little League. He was hard to hit. Frank helped to heat the house in the fall. But the inside fireplaces are shallow. Not deep enough for big logs. Frank had to chop wood stacked up in back of the house. He had 4 metal buckets to fill with small split logs to fit the fireplace in the 4 bedrooms they used. Frank used a axe with a two foot wood handle.Frank swept up ashes from fires and took them outside. Frank and I were shooting a 22 rifle at buzzards flying over a back pasture on the property. We had shot about 10 bullets at the birds circling overhead . Frank saw a Sheriff's car driving up the dirt road to the house. We walk to the barbwire fence across the back of the house, a parking area. The car comes closer to the fence and stopped. A officer gets out of the car and walks over to Frank and myself. we are waving and saying " Hello", as friendly as possible. The officer sees the rifle, Frank holding it, not trying to hide it. The officer says that a couple of small bullets had landed on the street next to a Car Sales Lot on the highway across from the property. He said to not shoot up at birds, shoot at flat targets with nothing behind them. Frank said he was sorry about the bullets and said he would do what the officer said . We switched to using bows and arrows for rabbits. We could never hit a rabbit with a arrow. So we started building traps for rabbits. We used several types of traps I saw in the Boy Scout Booklet. We dug holes and covered them with leaves to trap rabbits. No luck. I have to say the house was so much fun as 10 years old up stairs and down stairs. Just had to be careful on the porches away from the house. The kitchen was in a separate building from the main house. I saw several big meals prepping there. Louise Stone, Franks mother was my friend. She liked Frank playing baseball. They lived in Houston at that time. Frank had a older brother named Heber. I think Heber was in the Navy, but he came to the house. He was a grown man. Frank was going to be big also. I will write more when I have time. Gene Iorgov,...

Beautiful historic home in Brenham, Texas. The house itself is gorgeous, finished in 1870. Built on the highest hill in Washington county... the history alone is so interesting. I highly recommend taking a tour if you’re in the area. The Detail of the 19th century Greek revival architecture is definitely worth seeing. All around a very stunning and historic landmark I wouldn’t want to...

Very cool historical site! All of the pictures from the time period are fascinating. It would be 5 stars if access was open to more people. I didn't know people had indoor showers back then...they have one in the mansion and it was very interesting (and medieval...