Both beautiful and practical, the mansion was built to be lived in and entertained in.  A white picket fence enclosed the property and divided the yard for use as a stable, garden, privy, laundry, cistern, and chicken yard. The square plan placed four rooms upstairs and four downstairs, divided at each level by a wide hall used as a sitting room.  A graceful spiral stairway rising from the entry hall provided access to the second floor. Downstairs on the south, the rooms were used as library and dining room: on the north, as double parlors.

The upstairs rooms were bedrooms.   Heat was provided in the main house by nine woodburning fireplaces, positioned above each other upstairs and downstairs in each room with an extra fireplace at the rear of the dining room.  Furniture was scarce, some rooms were completely bare.  The 123 year old house has been beautifully restore inside and out and remains a source of pride for Texans.