Neill-Cochran House Museum

My last day in Austin, Texas, we visited the Neill-Cochran house; it felt like home. SXSW is incredible yet missing access to museums! Instead, every booth seems to engage in VR experiences, bumping music, or flashy graphics. While the Neill-Cochran house is closed on Mondays (and during SXSW), their executive director, Rowena Houghton Dasch was gracious enough to invite us in and show us around.

Neill-Cochran is similar to Glensheen in that it has tours, venue rentals, and community offerings. They offer day-camps for kids with an impressive line-up of ideas: cross-stitch, create a lightbulb, camp making, and air balloons. They are also great at providing families with activities like badminton, jump ropes, hola hoops, and scavenger hunts.

Pecan and magnolia trees enhance the grounds.

Bedrooms in the house. While ornate and beautiful, the one on the left was not original to the house. In fact, most of the items inside are not original to the house. Their primary importance is structure of the residence itself, as it is one of the oldest in Austin.

Shot of the moon, a piece from their wedding display, and a way to view the original woodwork.

In interpreting the servants’ area, they display the tools in the spaces where they would have been used.

A QR Code Garden Tour and a complete sundial. Aren’t sundials great for historic estates?