Built about 1885 for cattleman and banker George Washington Littlefield on lots he acquired in 1871, this residence later became one of the most traveled houses in town. In 1911 it was sold and moved to 510 St. Michael Street, when new construction began on the Dilworth residence at the original site. Title histories note that Littlefield sold the property to H. L. Kokernot in 1892, and C. E. Dilworth purchased the lots in 1897 before commissioning the new mansion completed in 1911 to 1912.
People and context
George W. Littlefield was born June 21, 1842, in Mississippi and moved as a boy to a plantation near Belmont in Gonzales County. He enlisted in Company I, 8th Texas Cavalry known as Terry’s Texas Rangers, rose to major, and was badly wounded at Mossy Creek, Tennessee. After recovery he returned to this area, made his first major profits in cattle by 1871, and built a far reaching ranching and banking empire. He later moved to Austin, purchased the Driskill Hotel, organized the American National Bank, and served as a regent of the University of Texas. He died November 10, 1920, and is buried in Oakwood Cemetery, Austin, with his wife Alice Tiller Littlefield. Accounts of his long time servant Nathaniel “Uncle Nathan” Stokes and Littlefield’s provisions for Stokes appear across Texas newspapers and biographies.
House history
Contemporary descriptions identify the Gonzales residence as a late Victorian Queen Anne family house. It originally stood on the site later occupied by the C. E. Dilworth House. When Dilworth engaged architect J. Riely Gordon for a new home, the Littlefield house was sold and relocated in 1911 to its present parcel at 510 St. Michael Street. Surviving local write ups preserve the sequence of ownership and the relocation note.