Freeport, Texas, was founded in November 1912 by the Freeport Sulphur Company, and among the families who moved there from the old city of Velasco was George Schuster, his wife Maria Theresa Beer, and their twelve children. Land for their home was purchased on November 27, 1915, from the Freeport Townsite Company. The two-story house was constructed in 1917, primarily by Manuel Schuster with help from his brothers Henry and Joe. Its downstairs included a living room, dining room, two bedrooms joined by a hall, a kitchen, pantry area, and back porch, and after city water became available, a small indoor bathroom was built in a closet under the stairway between the two downstairs bedrooms. The second floor consisted of a sitting parlor connecting three bedrooms with vaulted ceilings. Because of its location and sustained strength, the home was used as a place of refuge during hurricanes that threatened the area. In the spring of 2003, when no descendants of the Schuster family were interested in the home, the Board of Directors of the Brazos Historical Society became interested in it, and shortly afterward the Schuster House Foundation was established as lessor with the Brazos Historical Society as lessee. BASF provided the first grant for a roof replacement, followed by other grants from Roy Yates of Freeport Welding, Gulf Chemical and Metallurgical, Infinity Maintenance Services, assistance and labor from citizens through in-kind contributions, and a grant from Schuster descendant Jo Ann Stratton Horak of the Horak Foundation.