I love to visit historical sites, especially houses where people lived. It’s like taking a step back in time! I try to imagine what it would have been like to live in that era and try to learn about the lives of people who lived in those houses.

The W.H. Stark House is a great example of a beautiful, historical house built in 1894. Designated as a National Historic Landmark and a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark by the Texas Historical Commission, this 15-room Victorian mansion is located in Orange, Texas, and has been a community landmark and point of interest for many visitors through the years.

Now let me introduce you to the family who built the house:

• William Henry Stark was born in 1851. After a long courtship, he married Miriam Lutcher in 1881. He became a prominent businessman and philanthropist in the Orange, Texas, area. He died in 1936.
• Miriam Melissa Lutcher Stark was born in 1859. After marrying William Stark, they had two children. Frances Ann, however, died as a young child, so Lutcher became their only living child. Miriam was a collector and donated much of her collection to UT in Austin. This included works by Byron, a page from the Gutenberg Bible (circa 1456), and a first issue of the King James Bible dated 1611. She died in 1936, shortly after the death of her husband.
• Henry Jacob Lutcher Stark was born in 1887 to W.H. and Miriam. Later in his life, he established a private foundation to improve the quality of life in Southeast Texas, including education, the arts, and health and human services.

When I read about this family, it sounds like a family who cared about other people. They had a tragedy in their life, the death of their young daughter, but they didn’t let that keep them from being a productive and helpful family.

Visit the W.H. Stark House website to learn more about this beautiful house and family.

Tours are available Tuesday - Saturday from 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Admission is limited to individuals who are ages 10 years and older. Part of the tour includes stairs.

Consider the city of Orange, Texas, for your travel plans, a city that has a lot to offer!

We had been hearing about this museum, finally got to visit it a while back ,and really enjoyed it.  I imagine Lori, who blogs about being the wife of a cowboy at http://www.acowboyswife.com, would really enjoy it, too! 

The National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame is a beautiful museum dedicated to the women of the American West, and in fact, it is the only museum in the world dedicated to honoring those women who were really courageous and had trail blazing spirits that wouldn’t quit. The museum is actually famous and is known nationally for its educational exhibits, library, and photographs.  It’s a great resource to people all over the country and probably in other parts of the world as well. Our family enjoyed learning about the West and these extraordinary women through neat exhibits and hands-on experiences. Make sure you allow enough time when you go because you don’t want to miss any part of it.    Bring the whole family because it’s great for kids of all ages.

If you’ve never been to a wildlife park, I recommend going to one. We like to go to Fossil Rim Wildlife Park close to Glenrose, TX. It’s been named by USA Today as one of the ten great places to go on a safari in our country. We’ve been there quite a few times over the years and always enjoy it every time. The first time I went was probably twenty years ago with a bunch of public school teachers for a teacher’s workshop. A teacher friend and I signed up for this workshop together and had a lot of fun! That’s when I first became acquainted with it. Then in later years we took our family, one year took our daughter and son-in-law with us, and one year took my mother-in-law with us. It was fun seeing everyone’s reaction to the animals. One time I went with a dear friend of mine. We both had our sons with us and enjoyed the animals through the eyes of her young son. Now that we have a grandson, I can’t wait to take him when he’s old enough. Go to the link below for more info:

http://www.fossilrim.com/

If you’re traveling west in Texas on I-20, make sure you stop in Abilene and visit Frontier Texas for a great educational experience. It made the New York Times recently. We heard about it a couple of years ago and decided to stop and check it out. I thought it would probably be the average historical type of museum. But I was mistaken. It is not your average museum. I was impressed and highly recommend it. I don’t want to tell you too much…I want you to experience the state-of-the-art technology yourself. Visit the links below for more information.

My family enjoys going to Austin, TX, for a short vacation now and then.   My husband and I used to go before we had kids, and then when the kids were older we started going back again.   The State Capitol building is awesome and we’ve been there several times.  The last time we were in Austin, the new Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum had opened and we decided to check it out.  It’s within walking distance of the Capitol.   You know they say everything is big in Texas, well that’s true of this museum.  It’s three stories tall and even the outside of the museum is impressive.  But the neat thing about the museum is all the interactive exhibits it contains as well as an IMAX Theater.   We not only enjoyed going through all the exhibits and the IMAX but we also enjoyed eating in the museum’s Cafe.   This is such a fun place to go as well as an exciting learning experience not only for the kids but for adults as well.  We were really impressed with it and plan to go again when we’re in Austin for a family get-a-way. 

Click to see a picture of the museum.

On the west side of Ft. Worth on HWY 377 near the town of Cresson is a really neat place called the Pate Museum of Transportation.   It is an awesome place to take kids for a fun, educational trip.   Mr. A. M. Pate, Jr., started the musem in 1969 with a small collection.  It has grown through the years and now has treasured antique cars, airplanes, a railway palace car, Army tanks, a Navy minesweeper, to name a few.  The two rarest cars are a 1917 Premier, which is probably the only model of its kind in existence and has a push-button transmission, and a 1904 Schacht, which looks like a horseless carriage.   Our son really liked the periscope and enjoyed looking through it to see what was outside.  That was one of his favorite parts.  Many senior citizens could probably take a walk down memory lane looking at some of the vehicles.  It’s a fun place for the whole family, no matter what their age.

Click to see pictures from the museum.

The Collin Street Bakery is located in Corsicana, TX, and is famous for its fruitcake.  The bakery, started in 1896 by a German baker during the oil rush, makes its way to every state in the United States as well as many countries.  As many as 4 million pounds are sold every year.   Wow, that’s a lot of fruitcake!

My family received our first Collin Street Bakery Fruitcake, known by some Texans as a Corsicana Fruitcake,  as a Christmas gift when I was in high school.  I thought it was the best fruitcake I had ever eaten!  Several years ago my family drove by Corsicana and visited the bakery.  It was very interesting to learn about the history of the bakery and fun to sample different kinds of cakes.  Our son really liked it and asked if we could order one of their fruitcakes for Christmas.  Of course, we did.   Even if someone doesn’t like fruitcake that much, the bakery is fun to visit and sells all kinds of cookies and pastries. 

Click for picture.

This summer as we were traveling down I-35 towards Austin, TX, I asked my husband to take a short detour to the small community of Abbott, TX, which is just a couple of miles off the interstate.  I had always wanted to see the place where my mother attended high school.  Abbott just happened to be where Willie Nelson went to high school also.  Only he went there several years after my mother did.  The original high school was replaced many years ago, but it was neat to see the site where she attended even if it wasn’t the actual building.  We  drove a few more blocks to the main part of the community.  There were a few old stores still there and I realized that my mother probably went to some of the stores when she was a teenager.  And who knows, maybe Willie Nelson did also.

My mother passed away seven years ago, and so it meant a lot to me to visit where she had been even though the school had changed.  As we passed some old houses on the way back to the interstate, I thought about how some of my mother’s friends may have lived in those houses and she could have visited them.  I could imagine giggling girls talking about the cute boys in their classes , just as I had done, and just as our daughter had done.  Some things never change! 

Click to see picture of storefront  and other pictures in Abbott.

For those of you traveling in Texas, be sure to stop in West, Texas, the heart of the Czech community in this region.  However, West is not west.  In other words, the community of West is not in west Texas.  It’s actually in the central part of Texas and was founded in 1882.  It’s located on I-35 between Dallas-Ft. Worth and Austin.   West is famous for its Czech Stop/Little Czech Bakery which is well known for its “kolaches” (pastry buns filled with either fruit, poppy seeds, cream cheese, or sausage) and also for its cakes, pies, cookies, breads, and fudge.  They also serve a variety of sandwiches.  The bakery is right off of I-35 on the east side of the interstate.  It’s a family tradition of ours to stop there when we’re traveling.  

Click here for picture.

If you’ve never been to First Monday Trade Days in Canton, Texas, then be prepared for an all day experience.  Be sure to wear your most comfortable walking shoes.  There is so much to see!  And you won’t want to leave until you’ve seen it all.   Some people make a two day event out of it.   Bed and Breakfast accomodations are in the area which are always fun.   Two of my best friends from high school and I left kids and husbands at home and celebrated our 50th birthdays one weekend in Canton.  We caught up on each other’s lives and had a great time!   Here’s a little background on Canton.  It’s the county seat and was established in 1850.  There was a bitter fight to move the courthouse to Wills Point in 1877, but Canton eventually won.   That’s a good thing because we probably wouldn’t have “First Mondays” if Wills Point had won.    A famous recipe from Canton’s Dixie Hotel way back in the 1940’s & 1950’s was for “Osgood Pie from Dixie House.”  If you go to the Recipes Category of my blog you will find the recipe there.  If you make the pie, let me know how you like it.   And…if you decide to visit Canton, remember that First Monday is on the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday preceding the first Monday in each month.