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Available for short-term and long-term stays, the 1891 Bosque Crossing, LLC is home to the Pool-Tibbs House, a home with character and more than a century of unique stories.
The house is located in Valley Mills, with convenient access to everything Bosque County has to offer, as well as Waco, Texas via a short trip down Highway 6. Whether you’re visiting the area with a goal in mind, or looking
The historical significance of the space tells the story of its changing walls, and even Valley Mills as the town transformed itself. The marker on the front of the house states that Valley Mills was established circa 1867, but when the railroad came in 1881, the tracks cropped up on the south side of the river. The township of Valley Mills picked up and moved near the tracks.
The marker reads as follows:
“S.A. Pool built this residence, a store, and a cotton gin on the river bank in 1870, when the town of Valley Mills stood on the north side of the Bosque. The building stone came from nearby Fitzhugh Hill. Robert A. Tibbs, a Mississippi Civil War veteran, bought the house in 1891. After acquiring it in 1926, Anselm Tibbs (1886-1967) removed the original Greek Revival portico and made other changes. The town of Valley Mills moved south of the river when the Santa Fe Railroad was built. As a consequence, this is the oldest house in the present, or “new” town.”
Technically, the ranch and farmland next to the house is called the 1891 Bosque Crossing, LLC. The house sits next to 70 acres along the Bosque River. Floods wiped away a good portion of the original town. Because of the low point in the valley and the shallow depth of the river here, the cowboys crossing the cattle at this point on the Chisholm Trail dubbed it “Bosque Crossing”.
When the home was sold from the Pool family to the Tibbs family in 1891, the Tibbs’ marked the date, holding a centennial celebration in 1991. A cut block of limestone etched with the date and the name is located in one of the stone columns next to the gate to the barn and crossing point. The home remained in the Tibbs’ possession until Brittany Lannen became its third owner in its rich history. The ranch is home to cattle, goats, several family dogs and a bearded dragon, and many, many more for a time, while they’re traveling through.
