- Joined
- Feb 23, 2013
- Location
- East Texas
Part I - Beginnings of the Present Park
I previously featured a thread on what was formerly known as Old Washington Historic State Park, Arkansas, and realized that I hadn't visited there in years and had no recent photos showing it, so took advantage of the wonderful Spring weather we've been enjoying lately to travel there this past weekend to make a photo survey of most of the restored buildings in what was once one of the earliest and most important towns in this entire region. Washington owes its existence mainly to its location in what was then far southwest Arkansas on the Southwest Trail leading from the center of the then-Territory to the Fulton Ferry crossing of the Red River and then on to Mexican Texas near what is now the Twin Cities of Texarkana.
Like another regional Antebellum gem I have featured before, Jefferson in East Texas, Washington today owes its survival as a well-preserved historic site to the fact that in the 1880's a then-new rail line bypassed it eight miles to the southeast thereby creating a new town called Hope. Ravaged by at least two fires that destroyed much of its downtown, the county seat was removed to the new town and Washington reverted to a sleepy hamlet waiting to be rediscovered in the post-WWII era, thereby saving a large collection of antebellum homes that has been added to by the State with the addition of other nearby structures that have been relocated here, plus the reconstruction of several of the most important ones from the Territorial period. Gradually, as most - but not all! - remaining residents left, the town has been reborn as the present Historic State Park seen and mapped above.
For our particular purposes Washington is best-known as the last capital of the Confederate State of Arkansas after its relocation first to Hot Springs and then here following the capture of Little Rock by a Federal army under Maj. Gen. Frederick Steele in September of1863 as recounted on the historical marker above.
The 1836 Hempstead County Courthouse above and below was chosen by Governor Harris Flanigan as the Arkansas State Capitol and remains today. It was the first structure to be restored in 1929 using the very first appropriations voted for historical restoration in the entire state.
Below, the 1836 Hempstead County Courthouse and reconstructed Clerk's Office at right seen from across the Town Square:
Washington also enters the realm of myth and legend as the birthplace of the legendary Bowie knife, supposedly crafted by local blacksmith James Black for either James 'Jim' Bowie or his brother Rezin Bowie in the 1830's. "Built by the Pioneer Washington Restoration Foundation in 1960, the blacksmith shop is an interpretive center with two working forges" in order to allow demonstration of both wood and coal fires in the forging process. The space below located immediately to the rear of the present structure is thought to be the actual location of Black's shop.
Other reconstructed historic structures include the Morrison Tavern Inn above and below, also "built by the Pioneer Washington Restoration Foundation in 1960... Its design was based on an original 19th-century building that once stood at this location." According to tradition and legend its guests included David "Davy" Crockett and Sam Houston while on their respective ways to Texas.
Below, another reconstruction, the Williams' Tavern reproduces one from 1832 and serves as the park's restaurant, serving lunches from 11 am to 3 pm. The menu is mainly sandwiches and desserts typical of lunch fare, but there's also a daily plate lunch special; during my visit I feasted on tender roast beef, mashed potatoes with brown gravy, green beans, and a huge slab of jalapeno cornbread, washed down with iced tea and followed up by a big bowl of pecan cobbler topped with vanilla ice cream!
Next, Part II - a slew of Witness Trees and a historic cemetery!
I previously featured a thread on what was formerly known as Old Washington Historic State Park, Arkansas, and realized that I hadn't visited there in years and had no recent photos showing it, so took advantage of the wonderful Spring weather we've been enjoying lately to travel there this past weekend to make a photo survey of most of the restored buildings in what was once one of the earliest and most important towns in this entire region. Washington owes its existence mainly to its location in what was then far southwest Arkansas on the Southwest Trail leading from the center of the then-Territory to the Fulton Ferry crossing of the Red River and then on to Mexican Texas near what is now the Twin Cities of Texarkana.
Like another regional Antebellum gem I have featured before, Jefferson in East Texas, Washington today owes its survival as a well-preserved historic site to the fact that in the 1880's a then-new rail line bypassed it eight miles to the southeast thereby creating a new town called Hope. Ravaged by at least two fires that destroyed much of its downtown, the county seat was removed to the new town and Washington reverted to a sleepy hamlet waiting to be rediscovered in the post-WWII era, thereby saving a large collection of antebellum homes that has been added to by the State with the addition of other nearby structures that have been relocated here, plus the reconstruction of several of the most important ones from the Territorial period. Gradually, as most - but not all! - remaining residents left, the town has been reborn as the present Historic State Park seen and mapped above.
For our particular purposes Washington is best-known as the last capital of the Confederate State of Arkansas after its relocation first to Hot Springs and then here following the capture of Little Rock by a Federal army under Maj. Gen. Frederick Steele in September of1863 as recounted on the historical marker above.
The 1836 Hempstead County Courthouse above and below was chosen by Governor Harris Flanigan as the Arkansas State Capitol and remains today. It was the first structure to be restored in 1929 using the very first appropriations voted for historical restoration in the entire state.
Below, the 1836 Hempstead County Courthouse and reconstructed Clerk's Office at right seen from across the Town Square:
Washington also enters the realm of myth and legend as the birthplace of the legendary Bowie knife, supposedly crafted by local blacksmith James Black for either James 'Jim' Bowie or his brother Rezin Bowie in the 1830's. "Built by the Pioneer Washington Restoration Foundation in 1960, the blacksmith shop is an interpretive center with two working forges" in order to allow demonstration of both wood and coal fires in the forging process. The space below located immediately to the rear of the present structure is thought to be the actual location of Black's shop.
Other reconstructed historic structures include the Morrison Tavern Inn above and below, also "built by the Pioneer Washington Restoration Foundation in 1960... Its design was based on an original 19th-century building that once stood at this location." According to tradition and legend its guests included David "Davy" Crockett and Sam Houston while on their respective ways to Texas.
Below, another reconstruction, the Williams' Tavern reproduces one from 1832 and serves as the park's restaurant, serving lunches from 11 am to 3 pm. The menu is mainly sandwiches and desserts typical of lunch fare, but there's also a daily plate lunch special; during my visit I feasted on tender roast beef, mashed potatoes with brown gravy, green beans, and a huge slab of jalapeno cornbread, washed down with iced tea and followed up by a big bowl of pecan cobbler topped with vanilla ice cream!
Next, Part II - a slew of Witness Trees and a historic cemetery!
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