Built in 1858 by Dr. Rufus Bailey, president of Austin College from 1858 to 1862, as a wedding gift for his son, this unusual house became the subject of such joking that the couple refused to live in it. In 1862, after Sam Houston left the governorship of Texas, he rented the house, and he died here in 1863. His funeral was held in the upstairs parlor. In 1933 Houston businessman J. E. Josey bought the house and gave it to the state, and the Texas Centennial Commission restored the building and moved it here in 1936.