Levi-Welder House

403 North Main Street

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Few, if any, private structures in Victoria can boast more ties to history since the Civil War than the Levi-Welder House. Around 1860, Abraham Levi built a ten room house on Main Street for his growing family. At the time, it had eight fireplaces and numerous porches.

 

In 1866, upon returning to Victoria from a trip to France, he discovered that his home had been requisitioned by the U. S. Army and used as reconstruction headquarters for the area. In 1869, the family was able to move back into their home on Main Street. Abraham Levi died in 1902 at the age of eighty.

 

On February 20, 1909, the Levi home was purchased by John F. and Mary O’Connor Hallinan. The home changed hands again on July 30, 1910 when the house was purchased by John J. Welder from the estate of Mary O’Connor Hallinan. This home stayed in the Welder family for 87 years.

 

The home was owned by B. J. and Jo Cornstubble from 1997 to 2015, then owned by Andrew and Heidi Sparkman from 2015 to 2020. In June of 2020, William Sager and Neal Clark purchased the historic home in the middle of the worldwide Covid pandemic, and began the journey of a complete renovation.

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More can be learned about this grand home in Volume II of Historic Homes of Victoria,

Texas, pages 75 through 79. Book available here online through our SHOP or at the Victoria Preservation, Inc. office.