History
Shackelford County's First Permanent Jail
Erected 1877-78 by architects and builders Thomas & Woerner of Fort Worth. Gerard B. Allen of St. Louis furnished ironwork. Initials on many of the native limestone blocks show masons' claims to payment for work. An early prisoner, John Selman, later killed notorious gunman John Wesley Hardin in El Paso.
History
Site of Reynolds Presbyterian Academy
Founded on counsel of the Reverend French McAfee; named in honor of a pioneer rancher, Barber Watkins Reynolds (d. 1882), the Reynolds Presbyterian Academy opened in 1898, with classes meeting in a vacant storehouse. A Richardsonian Romanesque-style building was finished and occupied 1899, and a dormitory added in 1907. Dramas, lectures, musicals drew patrons from a large region.
History
Smith's Station
From 1858 until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, a station of the Butterfield Overland Mail Route was located here. Despite a brief existence, it was an important stop of the early stage line that reached from Missouri to California. Stages made the trip in under 25 days, a marked improvement on earlier communication links with the rapidly developing west.
History
Texas Cattle Trail
In Memory of TEXAS CATTLE TRAIL - To Dodge City, Kansas and other northern points 1875 - 1890. (1964)
History
The Lynch Building
This was Albany's first stone mercantile store. It was erected in stages, combining Greek revival and Victorian Italianate designs. In 1878, W. H. Miller built one-story east unit, and permitted Albany Masonic Lodge to erect a second story. Local rancher J. C. Lynch in 1881 built the 2-story west unit. The "Live and Let Live" drugstore was an early tenant. L. H.
History
The Rev. John Brown, Clara Barton and the 1886-1887 Drought Relief
Scottish immigrant John Brown (1842-1903) moved west following his theological studies in New York. He married Mary Jane Matthews Larn near Fort Griffin and in 1884 became minister of Albany Presbyterian Church, just as West Texas farmers and ranchers were struggling to survive the effects of a prolonged drought.
History
Trinity Episcopal Church
The oldest church building in Albany. Methodists, who organized their church in 1873, built this sanctuary on Schoolhouse Hill in 1889, moved it to Main Street in 1909. Trinity Episcopal Mission, founded 1910, bought structure in 1913, remodeled it (1914), removed it in 1954 to this site (former location, Reynolds Presbyterian Academy) given by Watt Matthews, and added steeple designed by Floyd M.
History
Western Cattle Trail Crossings at Fort Griffin, The
Cattle have been important to Texas' economy since early Spanish mission days. Before and after the Civil War, routes developed for driving herds through Texas to sell in Missouri and Kansas. The best known was the Eastern, or Chisholm Trail, but cattlemen continued seeking new trails and markets.
History
White Elephant Saloon
(Blach Building) The land on this site, Lot 9, Block 3 of the original town plat of Albany, was purchased in 1882 by noted local restauranteur Charles Hartfield. He planned to build a restaurant next door, and the pending establishment was much anticipated by local diners. Shortly before his death in 1884, Hartfield sold the lot to Alabama businessman Max Blach.
Elsewhere in Texas
Hear it from the road
Whistlestop tells you this story automatically when you drive past. No searching, no tapping, nothing to ask.
