Richmond, Texas
History, Historic House
The George Ranch Historical Park is a 480-acre living history museum at the center
of a working 23,000-acre ranch established in 1824. Owned by The George Foundation and managed by the Fort Bend Museum Association, the park presents the lives of four generations of Texas families that owned and worked the ranch: an 1830s Austin Colony stock farm; an 1860s plantation-ranch (under development); an 1890s complex that includes the mansion of the ranch owner, an African-American sharecropper farm, cattle pens and railroad loading facilities (under development), and a working blacksmith shop; and the 1930s ranch house and ranching complex. The park serves nearly 100,000 visitors annually, including almost 40,000 school children from 57 school districts in a 16 county area.