Historic Victoria - Part 1

St. Mary's is the second oldest Catholic Church in Texas (the oldest is the San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio which I had the privilege of seeing and photographing last December), having been established in 1840.

In 1866 five sisters from a group of nuns in Brownsville came to Victoria and established a convent called  the Monastery of Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament after their original order in Lyons, France, and one year later opened a school which eventually became known as the Nazareth Academy .  Today the school is in more modern quarters behind this building.  The Academy attained high school status in the early 1900s,  now has students K through 8th grade and is one of the oldest Catholic schools in the state.  This building was constructed in 1904 and is next door to St. Mary's about one block south of DeLeon Plaza.

Three blocks from the courthouse sits this beautifully detailed Queen Anne house, built by Joseph D. Mitchell in 1893.  Mitchell was a successful rancher, civic leader, legislator and naturalist who also enjoyed national recognition as a conchologist and entomologist.  The house eventually became a mortuary after the death of Mitchell and his wife and in 2009 it underwent a complete restoration and now serves as office suites for several local businesses.

I know nothing about this beautiful home and simply took the photo because of its beauty with the gated drive, wrought iron fence, and luscious pink azaleas which were in full bloom at the time of my visit to Victoria.

Next door to the Mitchell House was this house with a very unusual "spider web" door.  The house was very pretty but my eye was drawn to the doorway and I didn't take any other photos.  My research later revealed that originally it belonged to Thomas D. O'Connor, a legendary cattle king who lived in Victoria. It is still occupied by descendants of the original owner.

TOMORROW:  Historic Victoria - Part 2

De Leon Plaza - Victoria

The old Victoria County Courthouse, unlike most of its sisters throughout the state, actually sits across the main square rather than in the middle.  Victoria's square is known as DeLeon Plaza, named for Martin DeLeon, the Spanish empressario who founded and named the city.  Victoria is one of the cities in Texas over which the six flags which have governed this land have truly flown, the Spanish flag, the French flag, the Mexican flag, the flag of the Republic of Texas, the flag of the United States of America, and the Confederate flag.

In the photo above, you can see a portion of the new (1967) Victoria County Courthouse to the right of the retired structure.  The two buildings are connected by a walkway and today the only entrance to the historic courthouse is through the present courthouse.

There are plenty of places to rest on the plaza, which is shaded by beautiful ancient live oak trees. The red building in the foreground is the Rosebud Fountain and Grill.  It's been there since 1910 as a drug store, a book store, a stationery store and a diner. This corner is considered to be the oldest drug store corner in the state, having been the site of a drug store since 1847.

Almost every courthouse in the South has a veterans monument honoring native sons who fought in the Civil War.  Victoria has perhaps the most unique of those monuments, which typically depict a young boy in uniform carrying a rifle.  This sculpture was crafted by noted artist Pompeo Coppini, who made an agreement with the local chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy that if they would let him design the statue it would be a more fitting tribute to the men who fought than any other Confederate statue in the state.  He was paid $5,000 for his work which was completed and erected in 1912.

(NOTE:  This is a photography blog and I make no comments of a political nature on any subject, or at least I don't intend to.)

The four streets surrounding DeLeon Plaza are filled with many restored 19th Century buildings.

Providing all that great shade are the many live oak trees, which are much older than the plaza itself.  I was intrigued by the fact that a number of them have exposed root systems which have simply been surrounded by concrete to create walkways and curbs and show no evidence of having damaged any of the trees.

And who could resist taking a photo of young lovers relaxing and resting on a warm spring day in such a beautiful setting!

TOMORROW:  The buildings of historic Victoria

Victoria County Courthouse (Texas No. 57)

The Victoria County Courthouse in Victoria, Texas, has been retired since the 1960s, having been replaced by a more modern structure in 1967.  It had been slated for demolition but was saved due to overwhelming support from local citizens, but it sat crumbling and further deteriorating for 30 years until those same citizens decided it was time to do something about it.  Through private donations, a bond issue, and local inmate labor, the nearly $6 million renovation was completed and the courthouse rededicated in 2001.  It has been named one of the ten favorite courthouses in the state.

Constructed:  1892
Architectural style:  Romanesque Revival
Architect:  James Riely Gordon
Materials:  Blue Muldoon sandstone and limestone according to one source or Texas granite and Indiana limestone according to another

Victoria is a beautiful community of 62,000 people.  It is known as the Golden Crossroads due to its location within a two-hour drive of Corpus Christi, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin.  It was established in 1824 and is named for General Guadalupe Victoria, the first president of independent Mexico.

Over the next few days I will feature some of the sights which can seen in the city.

St. Mary's of the Assumption

St. Mary's of the Assumption in the community of Praha is the home of one of the famed painted churches my cousin and I visited on our wildflower and painted churches trip in April.  Unfortunately we were unable to view the inside because of a renovation which is currently taking place.

Praha was once a thriving little town settled by Czech immigrants in Central Texas.  Today it's population is 25, although many parishioners from surrounding areas call this their mother church.  The church renovations are scheduled to be complete by August 15th in time for the annual Feast of the Assumption homecoming festival when literally thousands come for the festivities which have been held on August 15 of every year since 1855.

Other than being the home to St. Mary's, Praha's only other distinction is being the town which suffered the largest ratio of war deaths during World War II than any other place in the U.S. when nine young men from Praha gave their lives between February 1944 and February 1945 fighting to defeat the Axis powers.  All good Czech boys, their names were Robert Bohuslav, Rudolph Barta, George Pavlicek, Jerry Vaculik, Joseph Lev, Eddie Sbrusch, Edward Marek, Adolph Rab, and Anton Kresta.  Three identical memorials have been built in their honor on the grounds of the church and they are remembered in services each Memorial Day.

Nesting Phoebes in the Carport

Ray Nell's Gift

Crinum Lily

This beautiful Southern heirloom lily was a gift to my mother a number of years back from her oldest niece, Ray Nell.  Mother had remarked on an occasion that it had never bloomed.   My cousin died suddenly last February and of course Mother went to her final resting place last fall.  This week the lily started blooming.  It's absolutely beautiful.  She had planted it up by our road on the edge of turn-in to the driveway.  I suppose the real reason it decided to bloom this year was because of all our rains over the past six months.  The spot she chose is too far away from the nearest water spigot to be able to water it during dry times.  It's a very common plant in the South and thrives here because of the heat and the amount of humidity.  I would love to take it back to Arizona with me when I return but it belongs here.

* * * * *

SOUTHERN NAMES

Don't you just love those two-word, languid names that once were so prevalent in the South?  My cousin Ray Nell had one of those names.  She was the oldest of four girls and I suppose Aunt Lillian and Uncle Huey were dreaming of a boy as their first child and back in those days everyone took pot luck with what might be coming on that birth day.  And for 82 years she was known as Ray Nell, not Ray, not Nell or Nellie, or some nickname.  

I had another cousin whose real name, swear to God, was Bob Wayne.  Well, that's not so unusual you might say.  Come on, HER name was Bob Wayne.  She was called Bob Wayne but as time went on and she moved to the city she became known as Bobbie.  Of course, she just moved further into the South to Louisiana so the geographic location probably didn't have anything to do with the name evolution.    

I went to school with two sisters who were both named Barbara.  I guess that was their mother's favorite name.  They were close in age and were distinguished by their middle names and they were called Barbara Ann and Barbara Allen (yes, her middle name was spelled A-l-l-e-n).  In later years she was just called Sister.  Of course back in those days there were no Jennifers, Stephanies, Tiffanies,  Kathys, Brendas, Lindas, Melindas, Belindas.

Then there's the names for the boys.  I have a cousin whose name is Jimmie Ray (not Jimmy) and what do we call him?  Jimmie Ray, of course.  What else?  Then we've all heard of Billy Bob, Johnny Mack,  My mother's youngest brother's name is Joe Buck.  The story is my grandmother's neighbor named him.  I guess after seven kids she just couldn't come up with another name, or maybe because she had five girls she just didn't know any middle names for boys.  

My neighbor's name is Howard Lee.  If anyone ever called him Howard, we wouldn't know who they were talking about.  My dad's name was Howell Bennie.  Howell is sort of a neat name, unusual, but Bennie?  Ever known anyone named Bennie?  Anyone who ever called him by his first name usually called him Hal because -- well, just because.  He spent most of his life with a various nicknames, Shorty and Bucky being the most common.

Nicknames are a whole 'nother story.  We won't even go there.  But what's your favorite memory of names and the person they belonged to?  Isn't it weird how our name eventually becomes part of the fabric of our lives?  Can you even imagine calling your best friend Christina something like Kate or Joyce?  What if your son changed his name from Jeff to Wilson?  Huh?  It just doesn't work, does it?

Post Office Murals - 9 (Brady, Texas)

Another reason for stopping in Brady was to see the Post Office mural.  It's called Texas Immigrants and was painted in 1939 by Gordon Grant.  It portrays a group of early day settlers into this area of the state who have turned to view a band of Indian hunters pursuing buffalo across the landscape.  Artists who were commissioned for murals for the nation's post offices were given no funds for travel expenses, and Grant, who lived in Santa Barbara, California, could not afford to travel to Texas to research the area in order to choose an appropriate subject.  Instead, he relied upon library research of the Brady area and his own correspondence with the local postmaster, and his mural was accepted by the community as one of incredible authenticity.  He received $620 for his effort.

Architecture of the Old West

In my way of thinking, some of Texas' old jails are more beautiful than its old courthouses.  The old McCulloch County Jail in Brady is just one example. Designed in Romanesque Revival style like the courthouse featured in the previous post, this three-story red brick beauty was built in 1909 a few blocks from the courthouse.  The first floor served as living quarters for the sheriff and his family and occasionally deputies.  The second floor housed prisoners while the third floor consisted of the twin towers.  The underside of the third floor had a hanging ring with a trap door to facilitate the quick demise of bad guys.  The fate of this jail, like so many of Texas' other historic jails, was to become a museum and today houses the Heart of Texas Museum.  Lying "Deep in the Heart of Texas," in 1963 the Texas legislature declared that the geographical center of the state was five miles west of Brady.

Another building on the courthouse square in Brady is the old (and new) Palace Theater.  It was built in 1927 across the street from the courthouse and showed movies in this bustling little Old West town until 1955 when the 450-seat theater was closed.  It became a jewelry store and then later sat vacant for six decades.  In 2007 the building was declared one of Texas' twelve most endangered historical places.  Due largely to the efforts of local citizenry, the Palace was refurbished and reopened in 2014 with an audience capacity of 176 complete with the most modern digital equipment.

McCulloch County Courthouse (Texas No. 56)

Original construction:  1899
Restored and Rededicated:  2009
Style:  Romanesque Revival
Material: Sandstone
Interesting Fact:  Although there appears to be a place in the tower on each of the four sides of the building for a clock, the courthouse has never had a clock.

The county seat, Brady, claims to be the geographical center of Texas.

Tropical Storm Bill Causes Texas Floods

Yesterday I had an appointment in Nacogdoches and crossed this bridge during my travels.  At Main Street only about two blocks from historic downtown, the water in Lanana Creek was higher than I've ever seen it.  Usually when you cross this bridge you can't even see the creek below.  Today it's almost up to the floor of the bridge and only about six feet from the parking area of a small office building.  You can see the tiny bit of pavement in the lower left where I pulled in behind the building.  If that pile of debris that you see protruding from under the bridge on the left continues to be caught, pretty soon the creek will be dammed and the water will overflow into a commercial business area.  Another creek which runs through town flooded today trapping residents in their homes and many were forced to evacuate.  Several county roads were closed and about .2 mile from my home there was a downed power line laying across the road that I didn't even see until a nanosecond before I drove over it!  After almost seven straight hours of downpour (and I am talking blinding rain) this morning on top of rains every day the past week, the front finally moved northeast this afternoon and we're expecting some drying over the next few days.  That Texas swimming pool I told you about a week or so ago is continuing to fill!  Watch out Arkansas and Missouri.  Here comes Bill!

The Reader on the Courthouse Square

A few days ago when I posted a photo of the Jasper County Courthouse I intended to include this photo in the same post.  I just discovered that I failed to do so, so I guess you could say better late than never.  I just hope someone is watching out for the condition of the bench he sits on!

Downtown Color

An antique store in the small town of Rusk, Texas, hopes to capture some attention with colorful updates to some furniture pieces that no one would probably otherwise chose to purchase.  A bright idea!

The Master Architect of Nacogdoches

Although I don't live in Nacogdoches, it is my county seat and my go-to place for everything other than the local dollar store, beauty shop, and bank.  When the nearest community is only 898 people, one needs to find a place to buy groceries, go to the doctor/dentist, library and other amenities that those of you who live in cities take for granted.  Therefore I've become very attached to this oldest town in Texas for its significance in the state's independence back in 1836, its rich and colorful past, and the mere fact that it was the earliest known settlement in this part of the world.

The above sculpture was made possibly by the Friends of Historic Nacogdoches, the seventh such artwork of notable persons who called this old town their home.  Dietrich A.W. Rulfs was a German-born architect who was responsible for designing many of the historic homes and commercial buildings in this community between the years 1879 and 1926, thereby transforming the frontier town into a modern city.

The bronze sculpture sits in front of Rulfs' most notable work, the Roland Jones House, only one block from downtown, which was built in 1896-1897.  The late Victorian residence was commissioned by Mr. and Mrs. H.P. Matthews for their daughter and her husband, Roland Jones.  Matthews was a railroad executive and Jones a businessman.

Today the beautifully restored mansion is home to a local bed and breakfast.  If you would like to see the inside rooms and read a more detailed history of the family who lived here for four generations, you can visit the B and B website.

Only in Texas

Last month as I was driving through Longview, Texas, on a day trip I decided to stop by my favorite place to shop.  I noticed there was a new addition - a pump jack which was actually pumping oil!  Only in Texas will you find an active oil well in the middle of a retail business area!

Jasper County Courthouse (Texas No. 54)

Constructed:  1889
Style:  Renaissance Revival
Material:  Originally red brick and later covered with stucco
Interesting fact:  Jasper County was one of the original 23 counties created following the Texas Revolution in 1836.

County seat:  Jasper, Texas, population 8,200
Nickname:  Butterfly Capitol of Texas
Location:  130 miles northeast of Houston, 230 miles southeast of Jot 'em Down, 870 miles east of El Paso, 830 Miles southwest of Jasper, Indiana (those last two mileage figures make for an interesting comparison regarding the great state of Texas)
Interesting fact:  One of the primary locations for recovery of the Space Shuttle Columbia wreckage in February 2003

Whiskers

Babies and Baby Mamas

A few weekends back a neighbor asked if I would feed his dogs and cats for him while he was away for a few days.  The first evening I pulled up to his place his cows were along the driveway checking me out.  I don't think there's any doubt who this baby belongs to.

I'm sure the above baby has the same Baby Daddy as the one above.  A few more generations and the babies will be solid black just like their daddies.

If You Had All the Money in the World ...

... what would you do with it?

I would buy the old Paramount Theater in Marshall, Texas (which just happens to be for sale), rehab it back to its glory days, and show only my favorite movies, such as Gone With the Wind (1939), To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Charade (1963), The Graduate (1967), Bonnie and Clyde (1967),  Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), Easy Rider (1969), The Godfather (1974), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Sophie's Choice, (1982), Pulp Fiction (1994), Fargo (1996), Good Will Hunting, (1997), The Pianist (2000), The Italian Job (2003),  The Devil Wears Prada (2006), Bridesmaids (2011), Bernie (2011), Whiplash (2014) and at least 50 others.

I'd light up the marquee at night and serve free buttered popcorn and Milk Duds, or Junior Mints if you prefer.

Dreams, dreams.  But it would take a lot of money to fix all the water damage that's quite apparent even on the exterior.

What would you do with an old movie theater?

Iris

We had some beautiful bearded irises growing along our fence lines this spring.  Most of my mother's iris were the traditional purple and yellow, although she had a few hybrid varieties, and I had sent her rhizomes from my iris in Phoenix a number of years back.  None of those bloomed this year.  I'm sure they were varieties which grow best in dryer conditions and there were few dry days in Texas this spring.  I can't tell you the names of any of her iris but if you like flowers, I'm sure you will appreciate these without their names.

The flower above is a frilly pale lavender specimen.

This one is even a paler lavender.

And this pale peach-colored beauty belonged to my grandmother, an avid gardener who has been gone for 44 years.  I'm so happy some of her flowers still exist today.  It's not so fancy or frilly as the flowers we see hybridized these days but I love it's beautiful, muted color and it's very tall, standing well above the other plants in its garden setting.

The bright orange portion on this plant is the beard.

Barn at Ammannsville, Fayette County, Texas

Seen Along the Roadside

Queen Ann's Lace and Vetch

I am leaving today for a week-long trip into Central Texas.  I've posted photos to be published while I'm away but I won't be commenting until I return at the end of the week.

Sandhill Crane

Texas Zoo - Victoria, Texas

Newton County Courthouse (Texas No. 53)

"People stood around the square all night crying and consoling each other.  That courthouse means a great deal to Newton.  It's where we saw our boys off to war and where we had community celebrations.  We mark our time by the clock tower striking."  So said one of the residents of Newton, Texas, in August of 2000 after a catastrophic electrical fire in the attic gutted the 1902 Newton County Courthouse.  All that remained were the outer walls and a few interior walls on the first floor.  The building sat abandoned for six years until restoration work began, being made possible by grants from the Texas Historical Commission and other donations totaling $6 million.

Newton County is the easternmost of Texas' 254 counties.  The county seat, Newton, has a population around 2500 and is the only incorporated town in the county.  Newton is 18 miles west of Merryville, Louisiana, 100 miles southeast of where I live near Garrison, 150 miles northeast of Houston, and 893 miles east of El Paso.

Something whacko just happened on this post.  This post was scheduled for tomorrow but when it published this morning it seems to be combined with the post that was scheduled for today!  I must have somehow put the same date for the scheduling info so today you get two at no charge and there won't be another one tomorrow!  I am going to be out of town next week and I've been trying to to schedule something for each of the days of my absence.  Here it is Friday, I haven't even left yet and I've already screwed up!

Post Office Murals - 8 (Kilgore, Texas)

A few months ago I drove over to Kilgore (about 60 miles northwest of me) to photograph the Post Office murals.  I had the address of the Post Office from the book I had been studying and as I drove up to it, I knew something was wrong.  It was vacant, appeared to be abandoned.  On that day it actually had a chain link fence around it and tall grass.  Weeks later I discovered that the murals were now located in the East Texas Oil Museum and I was able to eventually return.  When the old Post Office was closed the General Services Administration, now responsible for these murals painted throughout the country in the 1930s and '40s, decided to put them in storage in Baltimore.  The citizens of Kilgore were outraged and began a campaign to keep them in their community and after much negotiation the oil museum agreed to take the pantings and care for them in a way that the GSA demanded (humidity-controlled environment, 24-hour security, availability to the public).

There are four separate murals displayed near the ceiling on three walls of a tiny gift shop.  They are difficult to see, much more difficult to photograph, but at least they remain.

This first is called Pioneer Saga and depicts a group of travel-weary settlers stopping by a stream.

Drilling for Oil is extremely large and long.  The lighting was not conducive to a good photo and you can see the details.  Kilgore was the center of the Texas oil boom when oil was discovered in the area in 1930.  I remember even early in the 1950s when the entire town of Kilgore was in a shadow from all the oil derricks and almost every house had lawns decorated with drilling pumpjacks.

 "Music of the Plains" is an irregularly shaped mural illustrating a singer and her accompanist, perhaps representing the development of Texas folk music whose grass roots went on to heavily influence today's country/western music.

The last and my favorite is called Contemporary Youth, romantically portraying a young couple dancing and in the background a boy playing with a model airplane.  The four murals taken together show the transition in the lives of Americans in just a 100-year period.

This group of Post Office murals was painted by Xavier Gonzales (1898-1993) a Spanish-born artist who came to the United States in 1928.  He was paid $2,600 for the four panels, one of the highest prices paid to any of the artists who were commissioned to do Post Office murals.  Another of his murals was painted for the Mission, Texas, Post Office.  His wife, Ethel Edwards, painted a mural for the Lampasas, Texas, Post Office which I hope to see when I travel to that area next week.

The Beauty at High Hill

St. Mary's is considered the queen of the painted churches.  And you can see why.  A massive year-long restoration of the artistry was accomplished in 2011.

Birdman asked if there are any Lutheran churches in Texas.  Yes, Birdman, there are, but between 70 and 90 percent of the Czech immigrants were of the Catholic faith.

Czechs began immigrating to Texas in the 1850s and immigration continued until after the turn of the century.  They came primarily from Bohemia, Moravia, and Austrian Silesia because of the abundant availability of good, cheap farmland and the Czechs and Germans were instrumental in establishing the heartland of Texas.  By the turn of the century over 250 Czech communities had been established.  Today there are 200,000 Czech Texans, over 13,000 who still speak Czech dialects.