Dr. Joseph M. Pound and his wife, Sarah, came to Texas in the early 1850s and settled in what is present-day Dripping Springs. As a founding family, the Pounds built their homestead of two log cabins with a breezeway through the center, also known as a “dog trot” style home.
Of the 5-acre property, the southeast border lies near what was the Kiowa and Comanche trail. This trail was one of the most active in Texas. As settlers of the Texas frontier, Dr. and Mrs. Pound made peace and befriended the Native Americans of the Tonkawa tribe. As a medicine man himself, Dr. Pound was revered and developed lasting relationships with the Tonkawa.
The original Pound Farmstead was expanded to make room for Dr. Pound’s medical practice, and he was the earliest known doctor in Hays County. The Farmstead would eventually grow to be not only a medical office and hospital but also a church, schoolhouse, post office and social gathering place for the community. It remains the oldest existing structure in Dripping Springs.
The Pound family envisioned a thriving, industrious and self-sustaining town and they worked hard to lay a firm foundation of community, education, and prosperity for future residents. As a founding family of what is now Dripping Springs, the Pounds were at the hub of community life, opening their house and grounds to serve as a medical office and hospital, church sanctuary, schoolhouse, and social gathering place. Dr. Pound was well advanced in today’s sustainable living mindset having built into the home and outbuildings an attached rainwater collection cistern; a self-watering trough for the farm animals, and the amazing in-ground hothouse that kept his medicinal herbs and vegetable seedlings growing all winter. Click here.
The property includes a barn, windmill, smokehouse, garden and a 500-year old oak tree named “The Heritage Oak.” The garden is home to Mrs. Pounds’ antique roses. She brought cuttings from her native Mississippi and cultivated them into the roses that still thrive today.
Located off of RR12 on Founders Park Road, the 5-acre farmstead shares a glimpse back in time into our community’s past. The Pounds had nine children. Four generations of the family occupied the farmstead over a period of 130 years and until 1983. The property was donated to the City of Dripping Springs in 1987. In 1990, restorations on the house began, and it was meticulously restored to its original condition. The family never modernized the home: in fact, the last living descendant to occupy the home in the 1980s never installed indoor plumbing, still using an outhouse and outdoor bathing facilities. The only exception is that electricity was added in 1947. In addition, 90 percent of the museum’s collection belonged to family members, making our display personal and unique. Today we are very happy to have as a docent to our museum the great, great-granddaughter, Wanda Mauldin, of Joseph and Sarah Pound.
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Pound Homestead has been a Texas State Historical Landmark since 1965.
570 Founders Park Rd.
Dripping Springs, TX 78620
(512) 858-2030
Open Wednesday to Sunday
12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.