Travis County Historical Commission Blog: The Old Governor Albert C. Horton / Judge Thomas H. Duval House

Saturday, March 7, 2026

The Old Governor Albert C. Horton / Judge Thomas H. Duval House

Austin American-Statesman (Austin, Texas) · Sat, Mar 2, 1996

The old Governor Albert C. Horton (1798 - 1860) house was located at 6706 Bluff Springs Rd, Austin, TX 78744 (30.187683, -97.768383). A Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1972, the house suffered a fire in 1996 and the ruins were razed in 2025 due to safety concerns. Hornton owned the property 1841 - 1852. A later owner was Judge Thomas H. DuVal (1813 - 1880) then restored and enlarged by Mr. and Mrs. W.O Karcher in the 1960s.

The house was located less than mile east of the old road from Austin to San Antonio, today's South Congress Ave, and part of El Camino Real de los Tejas Nat'l Historic Trail.

Lt. Gov. Hornton

A veteran of the Texas War for Independence, upon the establishment of the Republic of Texas in 1836, Horton was elected to congress. He was chairman of the commission appointed by president M.B. Lamar which selected Waterloo, surveyed 1838, then later renamed Austin, as the capital of the Republic of Texas in 1839.

On March 7, 1842, Horton was recruited to serve as captain under Colonel Owen, to defend against Rafael Vásquez, and his force of 500–700 Mexican soldiers, who had seized San Antonio which in turn led to the temporary partial evacuation of Austin until Texas entered the Union in 1845.

Hornton was the first man elected Lieutenant Governor after Texas joined the Union, and lived here while serving as Chief of State May 19-Nov. 13, 1846, when Gov. J. Pinckney Henderson was on duty with the U.S. Army in the Mexican War.

Judge DuVal

Thomas H. DuVal was first United States judge for the Western District of Texas. His two brothers, Burr H. and John C. DuVal, had answered the call of the Texas Revolution in 1835. Thomas moved to Austin with his wife and two children in December 1845 to practice law. From 1846 to 1851 he served as a reporter for the state Supreme Court. In 1851 Governor Peter Hansborough Bell appointed him secretary of state. In 1855–56 he was judge of the Second Judicial District of Texas, and in 1857 President James Buchanan appointed him first United States judge for the new Western District of Texas, which extended from Tyler in East Texas to El Paso and Brownsville and included Waco, Austin, and San Antonio. DuVal held this office until his death. The outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 caused suspension of the court's proceedings, but Judge DuVal, a Unionist, remained at his station in Austin. Between 1861 and 1863 he held two jobs there-one in the General Land Office, and another as deputy county surveyor. At the end of the war DuVal applied himself toward rebuilding acceptance and confidence in United States constitutional law. He pioneered in the opening of federal court sessions from Austin westward.