Master builder Abner Cook designed and built the house in 1855 as a suburban estate many years before the surrounding area was settled by other homes and businesses.

The two-story Greek Revival home features prominent Doric columns and Mr. Cook's signature "sheaf of wheat" balusters.

General George Armstrong Custer was stationed in Austin during Reconstruction, occupying the blind school and, no doubt, visit the Neill–Cochran House.

In 1958, the Cochran family sold the property to The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in The State of Texas.

The game, "Sterling's Gift", features a fictional story based on published memoirs and diaries that helps the player solve a 150-year-old mystery involving George Custer's wife Libbie.