Situated on 851 acres, the two-story, wood frame, Greek Revival structure is surrounded by a neat, white picket fence. The main facade has Doric-influenced, square wood columns on both the first and second levels. They support a full-height entryway that includes a ground floor gallery and second story balcony.
The plantation house was built between 1856 and 1860 by Col. Elijah Sterling Clack Robertson - an early resident who donated the land that formed Salado. It was sold in lots to raise money to build Salado College.
Looking away from the house is an idyllic scene of green pastures draped over rolling, green hills accented with ancient oaks, mesquites and pecans.
Historians consider the plantation, which is on the National Register of Historic Places and is a Texas Historic Landmark, the best example of its kind in Texas because it is still intact after 150 years and it remains in the same family.
During the walk up the front path the relief from the heat is felt immediately as stately oaks block the direct rays of the sun. The temperature seems to drop 10 degrees.
A multiple light transom and sidelights frame the wide double doors at the entrance. Two rocking chairs sit invitingly on either side.
After a polite knock or two, Sterling Ambrose greets his guest with a soft Tennessee accent. Ambrose claims two homes, Salado and Nashville. He descends from a clan of Scotsmen who came to Texas from Nashville in the early 1800s.
His great-great-grandfather - Sterling C. Robertson - served as an empressario in early Texas. He was deeded a land grant by Spain some 100 x 200 miles in size known later as the Robertson Colony. It included 36 present-day counties.
Walking into the wide French hall of the house, Ambrose stops briefly by the staircase where a watercolor of his great-great-grandfather hangs. The family resemblance is remarkable, though not unexpected.
There is a front parlor and rear parlor, Ambrose said. In the front parlor hang framed steel engravings of Southern leaders, including Gen. Robert E. Lee.
“These Civil War portraits were purchased to support the Southern effort,” Ambrose said. “Certificates below each one vouch for their purpose.”
The house is filled with period antiques. But Ambrose said only a handful of furniture dates back to the late 1800s. Over the decades family members hauled off a lot of the original furnishings. Later generations replaced it with other period pieces.
A tour of the downstairs includes two large bedrooms, a pantry and the colonel’s office.
“The office has a door to the front porch so visitors who came to do business didn’t have to come inside the house,” Ambrose said.
Ambrose said that to weary travelers who chanced upon the house in the early days it must have looked like an oasis.
Accessible only from the porch are two stranger rooms - bedrooms for overnight guests who would come knocking for lodging. They had no access to the main house.
In the early days the kitchen and dining room was a separate outbuilding made of stone behind the main structure. If the kitchen caught fire, the main house would be spared. Today a room connects the two buildings.
More guests arrive. It’s 20 members of the Salado Historical Society.
Ambrose leads them through the house and outdoors where they visit the old slave quarters - six large rooms in an oblong stone building. Attached is a carriage house with a 19th century surrey in need of major restoration. A period barn and stables are still very much in use. Native stone walls surround the family cemetery behind the house.
Ambrose said he owns the property with four siblings and an aunt. Their goal is to keep it in the family as a working plantation, but open it to the public. He wants to form a family foundation.
“If we had a 501.3c non-profit status and put the undivided interests into a trust we could apply for grants to help keep it maintained,” Ambrose said. “We also have papers and journals that go back to the 1840s that are a hole in Texas history.”
Ambrose said it includes correspondence from Robert E. Lee, Sam Houston and other notables. He said his great-grandfather kept detailed journals on the building of the house. It would take a team of experts to go through it and make sense of it, he said.
Ambrose said he wants to involve the local community.
“We will open up the house and grounds for tours,” he said. “I personally think some day this house will be one of the top historic tourist attractions in Texas if done right.”
He said its location on Interstate 35 makes it a natural for that.
Jim Bienski, president of the Salado Historical Society, said the community wants to help.
“Wow! You see the potential and opportunity presents itself,” Bienski said. “It’s like getting in on the early days of the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg.”
“First thing we want to do is listen to Sterling,” he said. “He is the family connection. He’s very passionate about it but very businesslike as well. We want to stress working together as a team.”
To that end Bienski said the society and local organizations would work together to hold the house and grounds open during Salado’s first Founder’s Day celebration in October. But it’s not a one-shot deal. Tours will become a regular event.
Bienski said members of the community would dress in period attire and act as docents and tour guides.
“This is not just an old house,” Bienski said. “It’s a stage upon which the story of what happened here can be told.”
Society board member Nancy Kelsey said she could sense that Ambrose is intent on including the local people in preserving the plantation.
“I believe he’s committed to preserving the house and plantation and sharing it with Salado and all of Texas,” Ms. Kelsey said.
Dr. Wallace Davis, a past president of the society, said he is thankful the family has kept the property in its original state.
“You feel like you are walking through Salado past,” he said. “This plantation home and Salado are inextricably linked. I don’t have to read about history. I can be a part of it walking through.”
Judy Fields said she was impressed.
“It’s a diamond in the rough and a jewel in the crown of Texas.”
Source material from the files of Nancy and Michael Kelsey
