John S. and Martha Jane Harrison built the Harrison House in 1852 on a homestead originally comprising 127 acres. In June 1851, John established Star Route 6285 from Austin to San Antonio, with stages stopping at the nearby Harrison & McCulloch Stage Stop, believed to have been built in 1850. Owned by four different families over its history, the property witnessed the gradual shift from horse-drawn transportation to automobiles, from hand-drawn to piped well water, and from virtual isolation and self-sufficiency to the growth of nearby Selma. Over nearly 150 years of occupancy, from 1852 until the last owners moved away in 2001, the one-room stone house expanded into a six-room residence with two garages, a smoke house, barn, various animal pens, and a garden. Its evolution reflected broader changes in America as a rural, self-sufficient way of life slowly receded and communities became increasingly interconnected, first through stagecoach lines and later through roads and highways.