French Legation Museum

About this museum

The French Legation Museum on San Marcos Street in Austin occupies a place in Texas history that is genuinely strange and wonderful. In 1839, the young Republic of Texas - that brief, improbable sovereign nation that existed for ten years between Mexican rule and American annexation - dispatched an agent to Paris to seek French recognition. France obliged, becoming the first European nation to formally recognize the Republic, and sent Alphonse Dubois de Saligny as its charge d'affaires. Dubois de Saligny commissioned a home in Austin that would stand as the French diplomatic presence in a republic barely two years old, and the result was this 1841 Louisiana Creole - style house - the oldest surviving house in Austin and the only surviving diplomatic building from the Republic of Texas period. The museum inside explores this remarkable chapter of Texas history: the diplomatic maneuvering between the young Republic, France, Mexico, and the United States; the personality and controversies of Dubois de Saligny himself, who became embroiled in the famous Pig War over damage done to his kitchen by a neighbor's hogs; and the domestic life of the French legation in frontier Austin. Visitors rate the French Legation Museum at 4.6 stars from more than 126 reviews, with particular appreciation for the unusual story it tells. Admission is free as a Texas State Historic Site. Open Tuesday through Saturday from 9AM to 5PM, located at 802 San Marcos Street in Austin. More information is available through the Texas Historical Commission at thc.texas.gov. This is one of Austin's most distinctive and undervisited historic sites.