Washington-on-the-Brazos State Park
April 27, 2001
Located near what remains of the town of Washington, this park is the site of the adoption of the Texas Declaration of Independence on March 2, 1836. The Visitor Center contains a museum depicting the events leading up to independence and details about the people involved. The park also contains a reconstruction of Independence Hall (at right) on its original site and the Barrington Living History Farm.
After viewing the museum exhibits, we walked around the grounds, past Independence Hall and down a path where we found signboards indicating where businesses and buildings had been when Washington was an active town. The path eventually led down to where a ferry had crossed the Brazos during that time.
We then drove over to the Living History Farm, finding many groups of school children learning about life in the 1850's from the costumed staff. The main house was an unusual design that we had not encountered before, consisting of two buildings with two rooms connected by a breezeway. One building contained a sitting room, or parlor, and a dining room. The other building housed two bedrooms. Outside the dining room, in the breezeway, was a wash stand. In back of the house were the cook house (on the left), the outhouse, the hen house, and the smoke house. Across from the house, and down a path, were a large barn and the slaves' quarters.
Homestead house with cookhouse at left Barn and slave quarters
Although being a small park, this site was very informative about an important part of Texas history and farm life at that time.
Admission: $3 person
