The most haunted location in Austin.
The Confederate Women’s Home
Researched and written by Jeanine Plumer
Battlefields, cemeteries and hospitals, as well as areas where such places once stood, are often the most haunted places of any community. Such is the case of a building along an Austin suburban street, known as the Confederate Women’s Home.
Texas allied with the Southern Cause from 1861-1865, the years of the War Between the States. During the war, groups of women throughout the South gathered together to do what they could to support the Confederate cause. They continued their efforts even after the war and by 1895 these local groups had become state organizations and had combined together, calling themselves United Daughters of the Confederacy.
The Federal government provided Union soldiers with a pension, but not Confederate soldiers. The need for a place to house disabled and indigent veterans unable to care for themselves as they grew older became urgent, and the Texas division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy was in the forefront of the efforts to raise money to aid these men. In 1886 the construction of the Confederate Men’s Home was completed, on 26 acres of land near what is now the corner of West Lynn and west 6th Street.
As the years went by and the need to care for the wives, widows and orphans of these men became equally urgent, the UDC made these women a top priority. The Confederate Women’s Home opened its doors on the 100th anniversary of Jefferson Davis’ birth on June 3, 1908. Today it is located near the Ut campus.
Written by Jeanine Plumer
