This side-gabled cottage with a shed-roofed veranda was built of local limestone rather than wood and probably finished with plaster. According to research conducted when the house was listed in the National Register in 1987, it existed by 1847 when Jessie W. Stoddard bought the property and might possibly date from the 1820s, although its alignment with the 1840 town plan argues against such an early date. Archaeological evidence suggests that the house may have been flat roofed initially. This possibility and the multiple door openings imply a Mexican origin. The pitched roof and front veranda are later additions, as are a pair of rear wings, one stone and the other wood. Restored in the mid-1980s (by which time it had become a roofless shell), the house represents the new town of Goliad at its origin.