March 26, 2008

Henderson, Texas


I took these on at least two separate days, as the difference in cloud cover should make apparent.

henderson, texas
downtown

old bank in henderson
former bank building

opera house

bagley's pharmacy neon
bagley's pharmacy neon 2
washing & greasing
an old Sinclair service station

motel motel
main street, henderson
the white building in the center is the Masonic Lodge, c. 1884

henderson building facade detail
rusk county library
former M.E. Moses store

rusk county courthouse
Rusk County Courthouse, c. 1928 (Renaissance style)

thomas jefferson rusk statue on rusk county courthouse grounds
Thomas J. Rusk memorial; he is buried in our Oak Grove Cemetery

looking down fordall street
looking down Fordall Street at the Rusk County Courthouse

arnold bldg. no. 2 in henderson
According to a plaque, this is the Arnold Bldg. No. 2; it was added to the National Register of Historic places back in 1995. It's Art Deco details are well preserved.
another view of arnold building no. 2
henderson building with water tower
the palace theater
former Palace Theater, c. 1931 (Art Deco style)

ray pharamacy neon sign in henderson
mays-harris entrance
Old store entrance of the Wathen-Mays building, added to the National Register of Historic Places back in 1995

ren-ray pharmacy neon sign
Henderson's downtown is a small one, yet I somehow missed this last time I was there.
ren-ray pharmacy sign

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a well-preserved town (relative to most of the destruction that tends to occur in Texas). Our old neighbor in Houston, where we lived in an unappreciated 1920's area (read: abject ghetto), just wrote me to say that a beautiful old house, which was full of exquisite woodwork and molding, across the street from our former abode, was demolished and replaced by 4 story townhomes, 5 to a lot. I pray there's a special place in hell for real estate developers.

That's a pretty Texas sky, too.

Chris said...

Sounds like what you're describing there is "progress." It's a shame, but things age, things change, things fall apart. Sometimes it just makes more sense to tear stuff down, but not always. It kills me when it happens though.

Anonymous said...

The real shame of it is that the new townhome is constructed of wads of spit-covered toilet paper, meanwhile what this ticky-tacky construction replaced would have stood beautifully for a hundred more years.

Chris said...

"Spit-covered toilet paper"

Yuck!

Oh life's ironies...