East Austin cultural hub honors both new and historic artistic styles
Surrounded by new construction and streets full of parked cars, the former French Embassy sits behind a stately stone fence on San Marcos Street.
The museum's director, Martha Withers, said the space is technically called the French Legation. The home was first built in the 1840s for Alphonse Dubois, the French liaison to the Republic of Texas.
"[This area represents] the recognition of this fledgling republic by a foreign country, which, without that, we may not be here today," she said. "We may be part of Mexico still. That recognition was very important in [terms of] getting loans from other countries."
However, it is believed Dubois never lived in the home, Withers said. Throughout the years, ownership of the Creole cottage-style home and land would change hands, eventually falling under the ownership of Dr. Joseph Robertson, whose family lived there, she said.
