Rich Coffey House

Rich Coffey (1823-1897) was a prominent pioneer and settler in the part of the state that now encompasses Runnels and Concho counties. In 1862 Coffey moved his family, cattle, and cowboys to a site near present day Ballinger. Several years later he established a settlement at the confluence of the Colorado and Concho rivers.

In addition to raising cattle, freighting, and trading in salt, Coffey served as a Coleman County commissioner, participated in the first county grand jury, and started a post office in 1879.

Jonathan Cook, an Irish stonemason, was hired to build a rock house for Coffey in 1880. The house was completed in 1881 as a one-and-a-half-story dogrun structure with exterior chimneys and a staircase in the dogrun that led to a loft. Outstanding features included the quality of the masonry construction and the particular dogrun configuration which was a form common to wooden structures in Coffey's home state of Georgia, but unusual for masonry buildings in central and west Texas.

In 1989 the Rich Coffey house was moved to this site to avoid inundation by the construction of nearby Lake Ivie. (1992).