A Texas Road Trip 2.3 - Cestohowa

After Floresville I headed south in search of the tiny settlement of Cestohowa, one of the first Polish settlements in the United States.  It was only 22 miles but I had no addresses so no way of programming my GPS but I had handwritten out the directions on how to find this tiny community. This little house with a neatly kept lawn was my first clue that I was in the area and then I saw the church spire.

Like many of the Czech Catholic churches in Central Texas, the beautiful Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary looms on the horizon long before you get to the building.

Cestohowa was founded in 1873 by 40 Silesian families who lived in a nearby village (more on that tomorrow!).  For a few years it had a post office and a school but in the 1930s its population declined to about 100, the same as today.  For a small village, the church is massive.  The parking lot probably accommodates 200 vehicles and there are 65 pews in the sanctuary.  The interior of the church is simple but beautiful.

At the edge of the parking lot on the church grounds was this rather large bush with the red/orange blossoms which had attracted dozens of black swallowtail butterflies.  I had a larger lens in my car so after my photos of the church I retrieved the lens and captured many nice photos of these beautiful butterflies.  Just an extra added attractive which wasn't on my list of things to see.

A Texas Road Trip 2.2 - Wilson County Courthouse (Texas No. 68)

After spending much longer than I had planned in Seguin, I proceeded to Floresville, a small town of 6,000 35 miles to the south, to see the Wilson County Courthouse.  It was the most exciting visit of the entire trip because I fully expected the 1884 Italianate structure to either be gone or surrounded by a chain-link fence.  In October of 2011 the building was abruptly evacuated when engineers discovered major structural problems.  Employees had reported the upper floor seemed to be sinking with debris falling to the lower floor.  The walls were discovered to have cracks all the way to the foundation and one wall was bowing outward.  It was later reported that repairs could cost as much as $10 million and the county was considering whether or not the building should be abandoned.  At some point later I saw a YouTube video depicting scaffolding practically holding up the building and the further announcement that it was unknown what would be the ultimate outcome.  I had little hope of finding a beautiful building worthy of adding to my historic courthouse collection.  The news reports had stopped and no further information was forthcoming.

Imagine my surprise upon arrival on the courthouse square to see a fully intact structure, although gutted, and workers busy doing their trade.

Even Lady Justice seemed to be fresh, although she had a bird sitting on her head who stayed there the entire 10 minutes that I walked back and forth surveying what was happening.

All offices previously maintained in the building had been moved to various places around the small town but I noticed that the County Clerk's Office was housed in an annex attached to the building at the rear.  A very nice young clerk advised that evidently the problem had not been quite as severe as originally anticipated and that repairs were ongoing.  She suggested I simply walk to the front door, stick my head in for a quick peek, and no one would be worried or upset.  So I did just that.

I actually found painters who were working to complete the renovated staircase.  A friendly group, two of them came to the front door to speak to me and we had a nice conversation.  I couldn't help but ask when the renovation would be completed.  The fellow in the above photo said, "Well, they really want it done by the Peanut Festival," which has been an annual tradition in Floresville since 1938. He later told me the festival takes place the second week in October (which happens to be now, although my visit was in late September), so I really don't think it's totally done by this date.  But amazing strides have been made and I am thrilled that the people of Floresville have not lost their historic courthouse and have a beautifully renovated building which should last them at least another 131 years!

Of special interest:  When I told the painter about the bird sitting on Lady Justice's head he remarked that his friends, who had just given her a fresh coat of paint that morning, would not be happy to know about that.

The courthouse was originally red brick but in the 1930s the brick was covered with stucco.

Floresville is 290 miles south of Dallas and 320 miles southwest from my home in Garrison, Texas. Its most notable citizen is John Connally, governor of Texas who was a passenger in the car with President Kennedy at the time of his assassination in Dallas in 1963 and who was also wounded in that attack.

A Texas Road Trip 2.1 - Sequin's Historic Houses

One of the most delightful historic homes in Seguin is the Dietz-Castilla Dollhouse built in 1910 by Louis Dietz, a German immigrant carpenter who built the house for his five-year-old adopted daughter who arrived in Seguin on an orphan train.  Many years later Pablo Castilla, a successful Hispanic immigrant entrepreneur, purchased the Victorian playhouse and in 1967 donated the sweet little house to the Seguin Conservation Society.  Dietz and Castilla were friends and associates for many years.

What little girl wouldn't love playing in her own special dollhouse?  This photo was taken through on a window of the house.

Seguin was once known as the Concrete City for constructing many buildings out of one of the first forms of concrete using limestone.  The Zorn house (aka Sebastopol), a Greek Revival private home constructed in 1856, is considered one of the country's best preserved examples of 19th century experimentation with concrete construction.  I drove by the house to take a photo and noticed a sign that said a tour would be starting at 9 a.m.  It was 9:05 but I decided to see if I could join the tour when I discovered I was the first visitor of the day so I received a private tour by a very knowledgeable and informed gentleman.  I wished I could have stayed in Seguin longer because I had the most fun in that little city of the entire trip.  But I had to be on my way because the second day was the longest with the most stops.

A Texas Road Trip 2.1 - Seguin

Life is ever changing, isn't it.  I had to be away another few days because this time my laptop crashed and it had to have a new hard drive.  That's two computer failures in the past few months.  I now have computer services again and the sale of my family's property is speeding down the road.  I finally have a land survey scheduled and an appraiser should be contacting us soon.  An attorney is preparing sale documents, deeds, et cetera.  At present I have a driving trip planned to Arizona before the end of the month to take some items that need to be transported and I'm hoping for my final move before Thanksgiving or at least by the end of November.  All this means I won't be posting or visiting while this relocation occurs.  In the meantime I'll try to post the remainder of the road trip I took in September and the following post is the first stop of the second day in Seguin, Texas.

Seguin is a lovely city of 25,000 35 miles east of San Antonio and is named for the political and military leader during Texas' fight for independence from Mexico and continued to be an important force throughout the early days of the Republic and later  after Texas' admission to the Union.  This large beautiful statue of Seguin dominates the plaza in the central portion of the city.

Seguin's first church and bell tower built in 1849 still stand and have been lovingly restored.  The two doors for the church entrance illustrate an earlier practice of having a door for the women and children and a separate door for the men!

St. James Catholic Church in the early morning light

A Texas Road Trip 1.4 - Coryell County Courthouse (Texas No. 7) Revisited

Stop four on my road trip took me from Waco  40 miles west to Gatesville so I could take another look at the Coryell County Courthouse.  Like Waco I had been through here in the past but was not all that pleased with my photo of this beautiful courthouse (see original photo).  As I stopped on the north side of Main Street it looked the same as it had four years previously: pecan trees hiding the details, a washed-out sky, that bright while sunlight that caused overexposure problems and turned the white statuary into ghosts.  I kept looking for a better angle so I got back in the car and decided to check out another view.  As I drove past the south entrance the scene was completely different.  It was more open and visible, clouds suddenly appeared above to give some definition, and at this point I decided that the entrance on Leon Street had to be the main entrance and the north side was actually the back of the courthouse.  I wondered why the official address on Main is not the front of the building.  A short while later I found the answer.  Keep reading.

Constructed: 1897
Architectural style:  Beaux Arts
Materials:  limestone and red sandstone

Since my last trip I had discovered the many Post Office murals in Texas and I had learned that Gatesville had one, so the next stop was to see Joe DeYong's "Off to Northern Markets" painted in 1939.  In the foreground the cook drives his chuck wagon along the trail while the cowboys are driving a herd of horses and a much larger herd of cattle.  De Yong was a real life cowboy and western artist, a protege Charles Russell at his Montana studio, and also worked on a technical advisor in the movie industry.  At the time he produced the mural he was also working with Cecil B. De Mille on the set of Union Pacific.

As I was taking my photograph, a gentleman stopped and asked if there was anything about this big painting (10 feet long, 5 feet high) that bothered me.   I told him I loved everything about it but for some reason the mules pulling the cook's wagon seemed a little off.  He explained that the mules are depicted as pacing where both legs on the same side of the animal move forward together, rather than a trot where two legs diagonally from each other move forward together.  He said only horses pace, not mules.  I thought the mule bodies looked a little more like horses than mules but otherwise I had no complaints.  We discovered he had grown up in Nacogdoches near where I live and I explained why I was driving through town and mentioned my dilemma about the address of the post office seeming to be on the back side of the building.  That's when I learned that what is now Leon Street was once Main Street but many years back when a major U.S. highway came through the town the town fathers felt that the main road should be called Main Street so they reversed the names of the streets but the courthouse kept the same address so today the back side of the courthouse is believed by many to be the main entrance when in reality it is not.  Strange!

As I headed out of Gatesville to my final destination much further south I crossed the Leon River.  Texas has some beautiful very wide rivers and they are very difficult to photograph from the roadway.  As I drove off the bridge I noticed a paved road to the right which led to a small parklike area with a boat ramp so I stopped for a few snaps and spotted a white egret.  He waited very patiently while I took several photos, seemed to be oblivious to my presence, and we both eventually went on about our day.

I hope you're all having a pleasant weekend now that autumn is official here.

A Texas Road Trip 1.3 - McLennan County Courthouse (Texas No. 6) Revisited

Stop 3 on my September road trip included a must see in Waco, county seat of McLennan County.  Yesterday's post featured a mural concerning the McLennan family's settlement of this area of the state.  I visited Waco on my first Texas courthouse road trip back in the summer of 2011 but the photo I took did not include the building's dome, which happened to be under renovation at the time.  It was well worth the revisit!  You can see that first photo HERE.

Constructed:  1901
Architect:  J. Reily Gordon, the master courthouse architect (and my favorite!)
Materials:  limestone, concrete and marble with a Texas red granite base
Architectural Style:  Beaux Arts
Inspiration:  St. Peter's Cathedral, Rome

The dome was completely restored but today it appears that the left arm of Themis, the Greek goddess of divine law and justice, seems to have been damaged and the scales of justice have disappeared.  During the renovation the statute was restored, replacing the blade of the sword which had blown off in a previous storm.  Wind storms in this area are known to cause many problems for the intricate details of these historical buildings.  But I think you will agree with me that this is one of Texas' finest!

A Texas Road Trip 1.2

Stop two was in the little town of Mart in McLennan County 20 miles outside of Waco to see the Mart Post Office mural.  McLennan Looking for a Home by Jose Aceves features a buckskin clad Neil McLennan, a Scotsman who was born on the Isle of Skye who later found a home for his family on the Bosque River near present day Waco in 1845.  All of us who were born west of the Mississippi are descendants of such brave pioneers who came from other places, whether it be Tennessee or Virginia or other parts of our country or from Czechoslovakia, Poland, Germany, the Canary Islands and other parts of the world who embarked on a journey seeking a new way of life in the mid-1800s.  This mural speaks to me and reminds me of the struggles and bravery of my ancestors in settling a new land, one far away from a life they once knew.

Aceves was born in Chihuahua, Mexico but came to our country during the Mexican Revolution and exhibited extensively in the El Paso region.  He was paid $670 for this beautiful piece measuring 5 by 12 feet in 1939.  Like so many of the post offices built in the 1930s, the light streaming in from upper windows as well as a fluorescent fixture immediately above the artwork made it difficult to photograph but I was able to burn in the lightened area to somewhat alleviate the blur which appeared in the lower left corner./  

A Texas Road Trip 1.1 (Day 1, Stop 1)

Here I am returning after another long absence.  My plate has been very full lately.  I was again inundated with work for several days before my trip and the work piled up and came thundering down upon my return.  Then I was advised that the buyer for my farm has been approved for financing through the USDA in a program which supports young adults in the agricultural industry.  So now I've been involved in the many things that will need to be accomplished to close escrow, which on a farm is about five times more complicated than if you're just buying or selling a house.  Environmental studies and land surveys are just a part of the process.  It could take possibly as long as two months for those things to happen.  The ultimate outcome will of course result in my returning to Arizona, hopefully by Thanksgiving and surely by Christmas.  I have taken a temporary leave of absence from my work to help me deal with all these issues.

So here goes with that Texas road trip I promised you a few weeks ago.  Normally I just edit a bunch of pictures and throw them in a bucket and sort of draw them out randomly but this time I've decided to show you what I saw in chronological order.

My first stop was in Teague, Texas, 130 miles west of home, and my only purpose was to see the Post Office mural which I had heard about.  Its title is Cattle Roundup and it was painted by Thomas M. Stell, Jr., in 1940.  Upon first glance one might think this was an appropriate mural for this area of the state but upon closer examination,  many of the details are not authentic.  Teague itself is considered a part of East Texas and the landscape portrayed by Stell doesn't exist.  Stell was a native of Cuero, Texas, and taught at the Dallas Art Institute and surely was aware that saguaro cactus does not grow in Texas.  The armadillo is also out of place in a plains locale and I can't imagine a mother vulture putting her nest of eggs on top of a rock out in the hot Texas son.  The cowboy's boots look more like Dutch clogs than cowboy footwear.  And the baby saguaro is almost laughable.  It's definitely an interesting piece and Teague is no doubt pleased, as it should be, that it is one of the elite towns that has a Post Office mural.

As I left the post office I noticed a mural just across the street on the side of a large building portraying the early days of Teague when the railroad was an important part of its economy.  As most towns, Teague evidently had a nice depot with a hotel within a short distance.  The mural seemed to be a bit faded but I was happy I had stumbled across it.  Today Teague has 3,500 residents and seems to be a quiet little town.

As I drove over the railroad tracks and out of town I glanced to my left and there was the depot!  Obviously restored and very beautiful, there was a big train engine parked there and when I went back to explore a bit I realized the engine was running.  Before I left it actually backed up a few feet!  A note here about the photo.  When my computer crashed not too long ago I naturally lost my Photoshop program which I primarily used to run some Topaz filters.  I eventually found my Photoshop box but the disc was missing and it still had one use on it.  I had the serial number and I know there is a way to download it from the web but I searched for longer than I usually spend doing anything and was unable to find out how to do that.  While I was looking around on the web I ran across a program called Smart Photo Editor, opened a trial version of it, and while playing around I came up with this wacky shot of the train and the depot.  This is really out of character for me but I decided to pay for the program and I had a lot of fun for too many hours yesterday playing with this new toy.

And sitting right next to the depot was the Teague Hotel.  I think I found a couple of jewels in a little town that most people only pass through!

I'll try to spend a couple hours visiting your blogs today.  Then I must go see about getting new tires for my truck in anticipation of a trip to Arizona!

Milam County Courthouse (Texas No. 67)

Constructed:  1892
Material:  Cream-colored limestone
Architectural Style:  Renaissance Revival
Interesting Fact:  Because of its limestone construction, the courthouse is considered to be 60 percent fireproof.

Ben Milam Statue on the Courthouse Grounds

Milam County is named for Ben Milam, the legendary Texas hero who gave the ultimate sacrifice for freedom in San Antonion early in Texas' battle for independence.  His fateful words of "Who will go with old Ben Milam into San Antonio" rallied volunteer troops from a bedraggled army who was tired and hungry and cold to continue rather than withdraw from the Siege of Bexar San Antonio on December 5, 1835.  By today's standards Ben Milam was still a young man but in 1835 many were considered very old by the time they reached the age of 47, Milam's age at the time of his death.  

The old Milam County Jail across the street from the courthouse was built in 1895 and today is the Milam County Historical Museum.

Cameron, a small town of 5,700, is the county seat of Milam County and is located 140 miles northwest of Houston, 145 miles south of Dallas, and 185 miles southwest of my home in Garrison.

From Crockett to Carnegie Hall

One day while rambling around Crockett, Texas, I stumbled upon this somewhat rustic sculpture in a small park in Crockett, a little town of 7,000 people about 75 miles from where I live.  The plaque on the pedestal concerned one Lightnin' Hopkins, a name unknown to me but I assumed he must be an important figure to deserve a special place in a park, and I also was drawn to other items in the area.

As it turns out, "Lightnin'" Hopkins was just one of a significant number of blues artists who passed through this area during the 1940s performing at the Camp Street Cafe.  In his early years I've heard that Hopkins lived in Crockett and played at the cafe and also performed for tips at a local barber shop.

Working primarily in bars and honkytonks in the Houston area, Hopkins made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1960 alongside Joan Baez and Pete Seeger.  His statue faces the Camp Street Cafe, where all these music legends gathered to perform throughout the 40s, 50s, and 60s.  The cafe remains a happenin' place to this day with performances scheduled in the next two months by Mikki Daniel, Nicholas David, and Pipp Gillette and will host the World Championship Fiddlers Festival next month.  I'm unfamiliar with all these artists, as I was the mid-century blues artists, but they're all confirmed on that great resource we call the Internet.

And best of all, there's a mural commemorating the famous blues artists that performed on Camp Street.  But what is the most amazing is that this gorgeous mural was painted by a high school senior, Robert Morrison, as part of a community project to earn his Eagle Scout status in 2013.  I wanted to find the owner of that car and tell them I need them to please move that vehicle for a few minutes so it wouldn't block my view, but ...

The artists pictured on the mural, from left to right, are Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Frankie Lee Sims, "Blind" Lemon Jefferson, Sam John "Lightnin'" Hopkins, "Texas" Johnny Brown, "Big Mama Thornton," and "T-Bone" Walker.

The young Mr. Morrison had plans of entering Baylor University in the fall of 2013 and pursue a career in medicine.

*****

I'm back from my road trip and let me tell you, if it could, it happened!  I got some great photos but I earned every one of them.  It will take me a few days to start processing and posting them so in the meantime I'll be showing you some courthouses and murals and other things that have marked my life here in Texas for the last five years.

Nature's Colors

Another lengthy hiatus for me.  The problem this time has simply been an abundance of work - you know that old feast or famine cycle.   For those of you who don't know I work as a proofreader for several court reporters  and I read deposition transcripts.  Most of them are boring but I think it keeps my brain stimulated.  Labor Day weekend I read 900 pages and this past weekend another 700 and there were a couple of smaller things in the days between.  I actually find it to be a fun job.  I have a quote taped above my desk by H.G. Wells:  No compulsion in the world is stronger than the urge to edit someone else's document.  

I had planned to leave this morning on another extended courthouse trip through South Texas but I had to delay that for a couple of days.  That's assuming I can get my itinerary complete, reservations made, oil changed, GPS reprogrammed, laundry done, pay the bills, and all those things that are entailed in taking a week-long trip.

So I'll make a huge effort to visit all of you before I leave but I'm not planning to take the time to schedule posts for while I'm gone.  So keep the blogging fires burning and I'll be back in about a week with more courthouses, hopefully another painted church, some post office murals, and we must always leave room for pleasant surprises along the road!

White Picket Fence - J.P. Randle House, Gonzales, Texas

For those of you who know me, you are well aware that I'm obsessed with  19th century architecture, especially that associated with historic buildings here in Texas.  The white picket fence in front of a beautiful home  has been a wish of many people for many years.

The same wish might have been held by James Polk Randle of Gonzales, Texas, when he built this lovely home for his family.  I  traveled through Gonzales (550 miles round trip from my home) for the second time this summer and had enough to time to photograph about six of the some 80 historical homes in this city which played a pivotal role in the independence of Texas from Mexico.

The Randle house is currently receiving a new paint job.  Most recently it had pink and blue accents.   The pink-turned columns on the second floor balcony are visible in the first photograph as well as the blue finial on a pink foundation on the fence.

Randle, who actually was born in Gonzales in 1845, built this home for his family in 1898.  After being a traveling salesman he was the owner of a successful dry goods store, in addition to organizing a local bank.

Linking to Teresa's GOOD FENCES

Classic or Reinvented?

There seems to be a lot of interest in classic cars these days here in rural East Texas.  Almost every local festival or holiday celebration has a few,  Here's one I photographed back on July 4 at the Timpson Frontier Days.

For some reason I didn't take a photo of the entire vehicle but let me tell you it is a pickup truck, although you can't see the bed.  But if I'm not mistaken, this front portion is a typical 1960s VW Bug. VW has produced a few Beetle pickups in the past but they seem to be more flat-nosed than this one so I think this car has been reinvented rather than being a classic.

The owner, the fellow in the yellow, was super excited about his vehicle.  He wanted to tell me how much he'd put into this project and how much he was going to sell it for.  I think both figures were tall tales.

I think this is a reinvention.  The color is all wrong, Cup holders didn't come along for many, many years (and I don't recall seeing a three-space cup holder ever), and the stitching on the upholstery looks a little amateurish.  Ladies of my age group, remember the dyed-to-match shoes we used to get to go with our prom dresses?  I think that's where he got those seat belts.

Classic or Reinvented?  What do you think?

Small Town Progress

The little town of Garrison, Texas, population 895, seven miles from where I live is the closest community which has a post office, a school, three gas stations, a small cafe, a hardware store, a couple of beauty parlors, no barber shops, a nursing home, a dollar store built just in the past year (we're really getting big-time), four churches within the city limits, about a hundred in a 10-mile radius, and TWO banks.

I was surprised when I came here almost five years ago to discover that my bank, the one that's been here for almost a hundred years, didn't have an ATM machine.  The other bank has one I'm told, but I go to the one the old timers used, including my parents and grandparents, not that new one further down the only highway that runs through town.  Many years ago a double-lane drive-through window was added and things continued on as they do in small towns.  But some four months back I noticed that the lane closest to the window was blocked with orange cones.  I frankly don't like to use the other one where you have to put your transaction in a pneumatic tube which is then whooshed through an unseen tunnel and arrives somewhere inside the bank and you have to speak to the teller through a microphone system which is only somewhat better than most of those at fast-food places where you place your order for a cheeseburger with no onions or special sauce with mustard and tater tots and a small Coke, only to hear back some kind of cackling and static similar to a ham radio that sounds something like "Thankie mush, that'll be **** burgas with yumyums **** and screechie **** wunchie, no pickles, sclhskche fries with extra keshup,and a meejum Pepsi."

I figured my days at the bank drive-through might be limited because when I go to that window when I'm in the car I'm too low to comfortably reach the tube and when I'm in the truck I'm too high.  When I asked the teller why the other lane was closed she excitedly told me we were getting an ATM machine and it would be placed in that lane closest to the bank where it would be in full light during the nighttime hours and one would not have to leave their vehicle to access the machine.  That sounded pretty good.  An ATM coming to Garrison.  Wow!  Then about two months later a camera was installed along with a newer microphone system so that you can actually see the teller you're speaking with and understand them perfectly.

But where's the ATM machine that was supposed to go in next to the window?  The bank tells me they haven't heard any more about it, so once again, progress seems to be somewhat stalled here in the tiny little town of Garrison.