The Bridges-Johnson House
In 1861, Dr. W.H. Bridges — a physician who had journeyed from Georgia to the Texas frontier — designed and built something extraordinary: two octagonal rooms connected by an open-air breezeway, a reimagining of the Southern dog-trot cabin built to tame the Bosque County heat.
Rather than timber or stone, Bridges chose lime concrete, forming the walls in twelve-inch layers above a stone foundation. Each of the sixteen sides holds an opening — doors facing the breezeway for cross-ventilation, fireplaces on the far ends, six-over-six sash windows, and hand-hewn wooden shutters swinging on iron hinges.
Meticulously restored in 2023, the Bridges-Johnson House is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places — one of the rarest octagonal structures in the American South.
