The Bastrop County Museum was established in 1952, when the newly organized Bastrop County Historical Society purchased this building and began the collection and preservation of materials, artifacts and documents of this area relating to the history of the Little Colony of Stephen F. Austin, the Municipality of Mina (now Bastrop County) and the ensuing years of Bastrop’s town and country life and events.

Gathered here for preserving and exhibiting are many artifacts and records recalling pioneer days in Texas, when Bastrop (Mina) was a western frontier colony on the Old San Antonio Road, El Camino Real.

The site for this building was purchased in 1850 by John Corneilson from the Corporation of Bastrop for $80.00 and resold by the owner in 1853 to C. C. McGinnis, Bastrop County Judge (1866-1867), for $480.00. The western boundary of this lot extended farther at that time, later having been washed away by the flood of 1869, and subsequent high waters of the Colorado River. Constructed of native timber and locally made brick, the property had a number of owners during the years, and various uses, including those of a tannery, furniture craft shop and the residence of a river ferryboat operator.