Built in 1883 as a wedding gift from newspaperman Carey “C. J.” Pilgrim to his bride Mary Fleda Boothe, this center-hall residence anchors two notable Gonzales families in the late nineteenth century. A Texas Historical Commission medallion and plate installed in 1965 record key features and the house’s association with the Pilgrim and Boothe families. The official marker text notes a center hall, two double fireplaces, and wide-board pine floors, and identifies Pilgrim as editor of the Gonzales Inquirer and son of T. J. Pilgrim, who organized one of the earliest long-running Sunday schools in Texas.
People and context.
Carey J. Pilgrim was editing the Gonzales Inquirer by the early 1880s and by 1884 had become the paper’s owner, growing circulation and raising the paper’s statewide profile. The Portal to Texas History’s newspaper history confirms the 1884 ownership and describes Pilgrim’s role in guiding the paper into a new era. His father, Thomas J. Pilgrim, is documented by the Handbook of Texas and church histories as a deacon at First Baptist Gonzales who organized a Sunday school in 1846 or 1847 that lasted about thirty years. Mary Fleda (Boothe) Pilgrim belonged to a locally prominent mercantile family, and the city’s historic homes tour notes the house remains in Pilgrim family hands in the present day.
House history and features
The THC Atlas entry “The Pilgrim Home” documents the 1883 date, the center-hall plan, two double fireplaces, and wide-board pine floors. The original marker application packet held by the Portal to Texas History includes the inscription text, narrative, and period photographs that further substantiate the house’s construction and finishes. Local tour listings place the address at 707 Saint George Street.