The Echols School-Echols, TX

Behold the ruins of Echols School, along side US Hwy 84 in Limestone County.  I can't find anything about the school or the former town of Echols, TX other than this blurb from the Texas State Historical Association:

"Echols was near Farm Road 2310 and U.S. Highway 84, eight miles west of Mexia in northern Limestone County. Two churches, a school, and several houses represented the community on county highway maps in the 1940s. The school was consolidated with the Mexia Independent School District in 1960. Only one church remained at Echols in the 1980s."

We think this was the bathrooms, which were added on later after indoor plumbing was available. 

Keystone Hotel-Lampasas

The Keystone Hotel, located on 2nd Street in Lampasas.  

There's not much written about this place.  Apparently a few murders have happened here back in the late 1800s.  

Each room I looked into had a fire place.  

It was used as a savings and loan at one point.  It looks like this was the bank counter and teller windows.

Lampasas School for African Americans when segregation was legal and socially acceptable

This is probably about all the supplies it was provided when it was in use...

Hostess House Lampasas

Kinda boring...But cute.

I did manage to find this ghost story about the park:

In the 1800's the only daughter of the richest man in the town fell in love and got pregnant by one of there slaves. She told her father and he had the slave hung. After she had the baby she went and jumped into the Sulpher springs with her newborn baby and drowned. But the body mysteriously floated up to the top of the springs 15 years later. It is now said that the ghost walks around the grounds were her house used to be but is now a Intermediate school and wandering around the old slave house with her baby looking for her lost love to show him the baby.

Lometa Santa Fe Depot: In desperate need of historical commission's protection

Located in Lometa, TX right off of US Hwy 183.


According to the Texas Santa Fe Company History:

"Because it was a junction point with a branch line, the Lometa station had many more structures than most of the similarly remote country points.  Structures other than the depot which were listed in the 1921 inventory include a freight platform (32 feet wide, length 83 feet, extended 76 feet in 1921), a cotton platform (25 feet by 84 feet),a stock yard (one chute and one pen, located immediately west of the Potts warehouse), several water closets, coal house, coal bin, several tool houses, oil sump, two Otto water cranes, several water tanks and pump houses, an oil tank, 4 stall engine house, turn table, storehouse, sand house,  engineer’s bathhouse, foreman’s office, car knocker’s shed, gate house, coal bin, two section foreman’s houses, and three bunkhouses for the section crew.  As was the case for all engine terminals, there were also considerable facilities buried in the ground for the movement and storage of fuel oil and water.  At the beginning of the 21^stCentury there remain few visible traces at Lometa of any of this infrastructure."

This is what intervention looks like-the Santa Fe Depot in Lampasas, TX:

A Brownwood Mystery: Hotel Brownwood

I was lollygagging around Brownwood the other night and was drawn to this building.  I just knew it was a dilapidated old hotel, and I was right.

I walked around the entire building and it was completely sealed, along with its secrets.  There wasn't any graffiti anywhere.

There's not much information on it on the internet either.  I do know:

• It opened on November 21, 1930
• It has 225 rooms
• It cost $2.00 to rent a room in 1930
• In the 1960s, it was used a dormitory for students of nearby Howard Payne University
• AKA The Browntowner
• Ghosts?  Most likely

This is how it looked in its heyday. 

Click Here to see a photograph of it from 1930.

I would not have been able to relax here

The Relax Inn in Goldthwaite, TX

Note the bottom sign, which reads: "Open-Hill Country Guns & Ammo-The Woman Cave"  WTF

I opted to stay at the Holiday Inn Express in Brownwood instead.  30 miles out of the way but comfort and safety are priceless.

Stunning Dilapidation in Goldthwaite

I saw this gem in Goldthwaite, TX.  I think it's beautiful. 

It's next door to the local nursing home.  According to a local, it has had many different owners over the years, each promising to restore it.  But the restoration never seems to come to fruition.  The local also said that kids think it's haunted (who wouldn't?) and hover around it during Halloween time. 

I can't find anything about the house other than it's worth about $120,000 and is 5212 square feet.  The county appraisal district does not even list the year built.  

There is no way that house is safe to live in, but yet I observed a satellite dish on the roof. WTF.

I would've gone closer but I was in town on "state business" and everyone knew it.

Roughneck Self Advocacy

Seen in Waco, TX

A real shame: The Rainbow Lounge Raid of 2009

On June 28, 2009, the Rainbow Lounge, a LGBT club in Fort Worth, was raided by the Fort Worth Police (FWPD) and the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) for suspicious (homophobic) reasons.  A patron was seriously injured in the raid.  Several TABC employees were fired but neither that agency nor the FWPD will admit the reasoning.

It's a fun place with really nice people.  How dare they.  The bartender said that threatening notes are still left on the front door saying another raid is imminent.

Kind of a shame...

The Armour Swift Meatpacking Plant-Forth Worth Texas:

I'm a strict vegetarian, but I love decaying historical buildings.  It appears as if this old meat packing plant is going to be torn down soon.  Click here to see the Fort Worth Star Telegram article, which includes a history of the property.


I was not willing to jump the fence in broad daylight with tons of cars driving by.  But click here to see some pictures from someone who was.