Better known as Maplecroft, the name given when the house was built in 1870 by James F. Starr, son of Dr. James Harper Starr, early financier, Surgeon General of the Republic of Texas in 1837, Secretary of the Treasury for the Republic, Postmaster General of the Confederacy west of the Mississippi, and member of the first board of regents of the University of Texas. The family remained prominent in the state's political and economic scene through successive generations. The construction materials and furnishings of the home were shipped from New Orleans and reflect the Italianate style that was then popular there. Shipwrights were imported to do the construction and all the red heart pine was inspected by a lumber expert.