Located in the Pendleton
Harbor Subdivision on Hwy. 21 (Highway 6 on the Louisiana side) near the
Pendleton Bridge, the Gaines-Oliphint House has been acknowledged by the
Texas Historical Commission as the oldest standing log structure in the
state. The building is a double pen planked log story and a half building
with a dog trot.
The house is owned by the . The Gaines-Oliphint House was given to the James Frederick Gomer Chapter of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas in 1999 by the SRT (Sabine District Chapter 33 of the Sons of the Republic of Texas). As of May, 2008, the DRT has a master plan for the restoration of the house that was finished several months ago. DRT is now (May, 2008) working with a contractor that does stablizing and historic restoration.
Chartered on March 8, 1984, the Sons of the Republic of Texas, Sabine District Chapter 33 was gifted in December, 1984 with the Gaines-Oliphint House by Mrs. Tom Foster of Center.
Built around 1815 by slave labor, research shows that the Gaines-Oliphint House stands on ground granted to James T. Gaines in 1830, one of the oldest Anglo grants in the state of Texas. James was born Richard T. Gaines in 1776 in Culpepper City, VA.
Gaines first came to what is now Texas in 1812 crossing the Sabine River and traveling to Nacogdoches. Speculating that other settlers would choose to colonize west of the Sabine River, Gaines purchased an existing ferry in 1819 on the river in Sabine County. From this grew a mercantile establishment and later the town of Pendleton. Gaines lived in the home at Pendleton from 1819 to 1843.
Several architectural features of the house indicate the carpenter to have been from the tidewater areas of the Carolinas and Virginia; the logs having square notched gravity corners and the house is built on high piers, both being features of early southern building in the U.S. Built of longleaf pine logs which were shaped into planks with an adze and broadax, the house was completely stacked before the windows and doors were cut into the walls. Archeological findings indicate the bricks for the chimney were manufactured on the site from native red clay.
The Gaines-Oliphint house provided lodging for Sam Houston, Davy Crockett, and Stephen F. Austin, among others. According to legend, it is the site where pirate Jean LaFitte held his auctions to sell slaves and goods he had taken from captive ships. |
