Telling the stories of Texas with photographs (and words too...)
UP 4014 in Hearne, Texas
So we clocked 313.6 miles today… the longest road trip we’ve made in a while! But when a nearly-eighty-year-old locomotive that also happens to be the largest operating steam locomotive in the world is going to be only an hour Read More …
Don’t touch Hub’s BBQ!
Until recently, I had no idea that the “fight scene” in Secondhand Lions was filmed near Austin. This is the Cele Store, which is about five minutes east of SH 130 and Plufgerville. That’s right, this is where Hub McCann Read More …
Still rural… barely!
This is St. John’s Lutheran Church of Richland, Texas. The congregation was organized in 1878. Its building is the third to serve the church, and was completed in 1925. Last year when my parents were out here, we drove by Read More …
Sweet is the calm of Paradise the blest…
Last Sunday, a lady who is a member of this church (Palm Valley Lutheran Church, which is between Round Rock and Hutto on US 79) was a guest at St. Paul Thorndale. I said something along the lines of “Oh! Read More …
The Beautiful Stained Glass of First Christian Church of Taylor, Texas
The stained glass windows in the First Christian Church building of Taylor, Texas (now United Christian Church) are simply fantastic! I haven’t seen windows quite like this anywhere else. The architect for the 1891 Gothic Revival building was E.S. Mackin Read More …
George Washington, Howard Hughes, and Taylor Texas
This church in Taylor, Texas has a link to Howard Hughes, and maybe even George Washington! How so? Well, on December 9, 1877, twenty-two families met in the Odd Fellows Hall in Taylor and organized First Christian Church with the Read More …
And we were dancing to the music of the Dessau Waltz…
Not too long ago, I visited the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Dessau again at sunset. This church (which disbanded twenty-five years ago) and its cemetery are about all that is left of the little town of Dessau (though the area Read More …
Hymnals and Stained Glass at St. Paul’s United Church of Christ
Another view of the interior of St. Paul’s United Church of Christ in Falls County, Texas. The 1920 building still serves the congregation, which was founded a little over twenty-five years earlier in 1894.
Church of the Visitation – Westphalia, Texas
The Church of the Visitation stood here in Westphalia, Texas for nearly 125 years before burning in July. I wish I’d made it out that way before then, but I’m glad we stopped by yesterday. Fortunately, the congregation has a Read More …
Texas Eagle – Northbound Through Thorndale
“Listen… do you hear the train coming?” When I was a kid, my Uncle Gene Strickland would ask me that question whenever we were outside and we would hear the Seaboard Coast Line trains rolling through Youngsville, NC, some five Read More …