Tour shows county sites that would be impacted by TTC
By JANET HOBIZAL

A tour was made of the Glen Flora, Spanish Camp and Egypt area this past Monday to illustrate the historic sites that many residents have been concerned about losing in the wake of the proposed Trans Texas Corridor.

Texas Department of Transportation officials were on hand, represented by Doug Boohar, TTA division; Daniel Harris from the Environmental and Cultural Affairs Division; Lisa Hart, an architectural historian; and Lynn Smith, who is an engineering consultant from HNTB and an advisor.

The Glen Flora Spanish Camp Historical Society - along with the Historical Cemetery Preservation Association - took the group to the historic sites. Members included Michael Corbett, Duncan Corbett, Garland Berry and Janet Hobizal.

The group was appointed as historical consultants during the public hearings process for this area of Wharton County.

The tour began in Glen Flora and the historical homes and buildings in downtown were pointed out by Michael Corbett.

He is an architectural historian who lives in Berkley, Calif., but his family has owned property in the Spanish Camp area for over 100 years.

In the 1970s he wrote the book, Splendid Survivors, which was instrumental in saving many historic structures in downtown San Francisco from demolition.

The group also looked at the old Masonic Lodge. It was pointed out that this building was an anchor for the African American community from the 1920s to 1980. It provided a civic center and meeting place for the Masons, Heroines of Jericho and the Eastern Star Organizations. Due to the efforts of these organizations, numerous African American students received scholarships.

Duncan Corbett, President of the Historical Society, showed the group the historic plantation home that once belonged to James Winston, the grandson of Jane Long, better known as the "Mother of Texas." He is in the process of restoring the plantation home. The father-in-law of Winston was J.D. Newell, who owned the property first and the family cemetery was shown on the property. The oldest grave is dated 1849. There is also an old slave cemetery on the property, not to mention that the property was one of the possible camp sites for the Mexican army on their way back to Mexico from The Battle of San Jacinto. It was also pointed out that many of the slave descendants from this plantation still reside in Spanish Camp. They visited Camp Zion Cemetery where many of the former slaves are buried.

Daniel Harris was interested in the history of the many historic churches in the area and it was explained to him how each church is from a specific plantation and the focus of these churches was faith and education.

Other historic sites included in the tour were the Duncan Spade Ranch, Heard Northington Plantation Home, The T.L. Pink school, the East Gate-Sorrel cemetery. This cemetery is in the process of being restored by the Historic Cemetery Preservation Association. The restoration efforts made an impact on the TxDot representatives. There were several comments about the combined community effort to highlight the area's rich history.

Janet Hobizal is an archivist with the Wharton County Historical Museum.