Life at Richmond today seems a continuous house party. The present owners (seven daughters, one son, and one granddaughter of the late Shelby Marshall) are the fifth and sixth generations of the illustrious Levin R. Marshall family to own and occupy this old and hospitable mansion. It contains 41 rooms.

The architecture of Richmond shows three distinct styles. The original center building, 153 years old, is of Spanish design; the front, 105 years old, is of Greek design; and 77 years ago the square English portion of the house was built.

The Spanish part, constructed of sturdy hand-hewn timbers, brick, and cement, is in an excellent state of preservation. It has stood without reconstruction throughout the years. There is a cement patio on the ground level, and cypress steps with artistic iron grill rails reach the main floor from the outside. Here one can sound the door knocker, and soon hear heavy wooden bars being lifted. This was the security against Indians and other intruders of early days, and such protection remains intact at Richmond.

In 1832 Richmond became the property of Levin R. Marshall, great-great-grandfather of the present owners, and it was he who added the lovely Greek portion. This addition contains six large rooms on the main floor and four in the basement.

Twenty-eight years later, in order to accommodate a rapidly growing family and numbers of guests, the red brick English addition was built in the rear.

The main entrance has a front portion with classic Corinthian columns supporting the roof. A broad hall, the length of two twenty-foot rooms, runs through the center to a formal dining room. This formal room opens with four tall folding doors into a smaller family dining room. There are double drawing rooms on the left side of the great hall.

The massive old furniture remains today in Richmond, as does the family silver, which is the most ornate and beautiful silver service in the entire South.

The front drawing room harbors a greatly prized relic of the past—the quaint concert grand piano which was used to accompany the famous song-bird Jenny Lind when, under the management of that superb showman, P. T. Barnum, she toured the South. A beautiful portrait of Jenny Lind hangs near the old piano.

Richmond contains a rich treasure store of old laces, quaint costumes, and queer candelabra. Quite recently there was discovered an assortment of pans and plumber’s equipment. When assembled this “find” proved to be a bathtub of probably the 1850 model. The fastidious bather stood in a tin basin, pulled a curtain for privacy, while a slave by means of a small hand pump pumped water from a two-gallon tank overhead; this water ran over the bather, down into the basin, and was, in turn, pumped up and the bather reshowered.

Fortunes have been made and lost by Richmond owners. The generosity of Levin R. Marshall extended to the State of Texas and the town of Marshall, in Texas, is named in honor of this family.