Despite its name, the Old Stone Fort was never a military fortification but a multipurpose stone building constructed around 1779 by trader Antonio Gil Y'Barbo as his home and mercantile headquarters in early Nacogdoches. Over the following decades it functioned successively as a trading post and warehouse for the import-export firm of Barr and Davenport, which dealt in goods exchanged with regional Indian tribes and early Anglo settlers; a private residence for a series of owners, including empresario John Durst; and a general store and commercial building operated by Texas Declaration of Independence signer John S. Roberts. Its sturdy construction also drew it into civic and military use during Texas's turbulent early decades: it briefly served as a headquarters for Mexican military commander Jose de las Piedras, was seized during the 1826-27 Fredonian Rebellion, and functioned as a courtroom for the Republic of Texas under Judge Robert McAlpin Williamson in 1837. By the late nineteenth century the building had become a stable and blacksmith shop before falling into disrepair; its owners dismantled it in 1902 and sold the stones as souvenirs. In 1936, as a Texas Centennial project, a faithful replica was reconstructed using surviving original stones on the campus of Stephen F. Austin State University. Today the Old Stone Fort operates as a history museum, housing exhibits on East Texas's Spanish colonial, Mexican, and early Republic-era past for students, researchers, and visiting tourists.