Starr Family Home State Historic Site

James Frank Starr Home, known as Maplecroft, at the Christmas season

Maplecroft is located at the corner of Travis and Grove streets in Marshall, Texas.

Starr Family Home State Historic Site is a 3.1-acre (1.3 ha) historical site operated by the Texas Historical Commission in downtown Marshall, Texas. The site encompasses several structures used by the Starr Family; most notably the main house or Starr Home, Maplecroft, and the Rosemont Cottage.

The site portrays 150 years and four generations of one of the most influential political families in the periods of the Republic of Texas and early statehood. The family donated the site to the State of Texas in 1976 and in 1982 the site was enlarged to include all of the Starr family residences. The Starrs continued to live at the site until 1985; the site was opened to the public in 1986 as a Texas state park.

James Frank Starr, commissioned the construction of the main attraction of the park, Maplecroft. The original antebellum plantation, Rosemont, was partially demolished in the 1870s for the construction of Maplecroft. Maplecroft was constructed in the Italianate style of red heart pine. Craftsmen, such as shipwrights, and building materials were shipped from New Orleans to Marshall. The remaining portion of the original main house, Rosemont, was converted into a school house for the family's children and later into a laundry.

In 1985, the house and three acres encompassing seven historic buildings was left to the State of Texas upon the death of the last owner, Mrs. Clara Pope Willoughby.

On January 1, 2008, the site was transferred from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to the Texas Historical Commission.

See also

• Dr. James Harper Starr
• List of Texas state historic sites

External links

• Starr Family Home State Historic Site website