September Newsletter
SEPTEMBER 7, 2022
WELCOMING SAMANTHA HUNICK
Preservation Texas has hired Samantha Hunick as our statewide Communications Manager and Central Texas Program Officer (CTPO). Sam grew up in Marble Falls and is a graduate of Texas A&M University with a degree in Environmental Design. She received her master’s degree in Preservation Design from the Savannah College of Art and Design.
With her excellent graphic design skills, Sam will help to develop print and online communications, manage our social media channels, and coordinate our membership programs. Importantly, Sam will serve as a first point of contact for members and stakeholders within a 28-county region of Central Texas. This position has been made possible in part by the generous support of The Burdine Johnson Foundation.
Sam will begin working with Preservation Texas on September 8th, and we look forward to the contributions that she will make to Preservation Texas on behalf of our members and our historic resources statewide.
BASSETT FARMS CONSERVANCY UPDATE
CULTURAL LANDSCAPE REPORT COMPLETED
The preparation of a Cultural Landscape Report for the core acreage of Bassett Farms Conservancy has been completed by MIG, Inc. The site history was prepared by Preservation Texas staff. Funding for the report included a grant of $50,000 from the Still Water Foundation and $30,000 from the Texas Historical Commission’s Texas Preservation Trust Fund.
The cultural landscape report focuses on the core of the 2,400-acre property: the original Home Place (1871), the Blum Place (1887), and the Hirshfield Place (1897). MIG identifies and analyzes cultural landscape features and characteristics, making recommendations for their long-term treatment.
The report also recommends the listing of the entire property in the National Register of Historic Places, and summarizes the property’s significance as follows:
As a surviving and substantial visual record of the broad patterns of land settlement as well as the intricate details of development, Bassett Farms is a significant cultural landscape in the history of the region and of Texas. It reveals the way this landscape was settled and used on a daily, seasonal, or yearly basis. This cultural landscape tells the story of early settlers, the Reconstruction Era Freedom Colonies, and the ups and downs of this life from the mid-19th century through the mid-20th century. It is the record of the aspiration and challenges to establish a life — a good life — in a time and context that were never easy, yet clearly rewarding in many ways, and over time.
GRANTS UPDATES
PT AWARDED $25,000 GRANT FROM NATIONAL TRUST
Preservation Texas has been awarded a grant of $25,000 from the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Fondren Fund for Texas. This funding will support the development of focused preservation plans and engineering studies for projects that will be awarded grants through our National Park Service-funded Texas Rural African-American Heritage Grants Program. Preservation Texas is grateful for the support of the National Trust.
PT AWARDED $2,500 GRANT FROM THE TEXAS HISTORICAL FOUNDATION
Preservation Texas has been awarded a grant of $2,500 from the Texas Historical Foundation toward the restoration of the storefront of the circa 1915 White’s Hardware Building in Kosse (Limestone County). The building will serve as the future Bassett Farms Conservancy Visitor Center; it had been the Kosse City Hall for nearly 30 years.
The approximately 1,800-square foot one-story brick structure will serve as an exhibition gallery for permanent and temporary exhibits, a meeting space for public programs, an office for Bassett Farms Conservancy staff, and a curatorial facility for Bassett Farms Conservancy artifacts and archives.
Since acquiring the building, non-historic materials have been removed from the interior and plans are being finalized for the restoration of the floors and the installation of new electrical and HVAC systems.
The Texas Historical Foundation has been supporting preservation efforts across Texas for decades. We thank the Foundation for the grant, and extend a warm welcome to their new executive director, David Preziosi, who was formerly the executive director of Preservation Dallas.
The future Bassett Farms Conservancy Visitor Center is located in downtown Kosse and provided a backdrop to the 2022 Kosse Homecoming Parade
