Old-Fashioned Feeling IN HISTORIC MOUNT VERNON

Mount Vernon-Next Weekend-Dec. 2015-Mallory Old-Fashioned Feeling ENJOY SMALL-TOWN CHARM IN HISTORIC MOUNT VERNON

Former Mount Vernon mayor Mike Edwards looks out onto the square from the picture window of the mercantile store, M.L. Edwards & Co., that his grandfather opened in 1900. Grandfather Edwards built this expansive two-story structure a century ago, re-using red bricks from building that burned on the site. Grandson Edwards now offers gifts and collectibles, but the store could double as a museum. Wooden pull-out cabinets that once displayed hardware items line one wall. An original freight elevator, operated by a hand-pull rope, still reaches the second floor where the family once operated a funeral home.

"This was a place where you could buy things in `ones,'" says Mike, "not massproduced packaging like today."

A young woman pokes her head in the front door and asks Mike if she can move his pickup. "We're clearing the square to get ready for the festival," she explains. He describes where he stashes his keys in the pickup, adding with a smile, "Put it wherever you want, but it needs gas!"

"Seems like there's always something happening on the square," he says. "It's a fun place to be. And we're getting a whole new generation of people coming in."

Indeed, in the northeast Texas town of Mount Vernon--a place of authentic oldfashioned charm--old is new again. Around the square, historic buildings have been restored and sometimes adapted to new uses.

Queen of the scene is the Classic Revival-style 1912 Franklin County Courthouse. The paint is barely dry on the edifice after a $6.9 million restoration, inside and out, directed

by the Texas Historical Commission. The limestone columns and district courtroom proved so nostalgic that film crews and actor C. Thomas Howell came to town to shoot scenes for this year's movie, Spirit Riders.

Topping the courthouse is a cupola with one of only two hand-wound clock mechanisms of its kind in Texas. The clock keeps time over a quintessentially quaint square with tree-shaded gazebo, walkways, and benches. Locals and visitors rub elbows on the lawn, in businesses rimming the square, and during a bevy of year-round activities.

The square fills with local fruits and veggies at weekly farmers markets during growing season, May to October. For more than 40 years the annual CountryFest (second Saturday in May) takes over the square with a stew cook off, car show, kids games, "42" dominoes tournament, and live music. Several years ago, Mount Vernon proclaimed itself the "Wine Tasting Capital of East Texas" and began hosting the Piney Woods Wine Festival (third weekend in May) and the Wine in the Pines Festival (fourth weekend in October). The square absolutely swarms with glass clinking, as 16 or more East Texas wineries offer sippings of regional wines.

All this hubbub comes, like a fine wine, at the end of hard work and a good harvest. A concerted effort by local business, civic, and historical groups--with government help--has reinvented the seat of one of Texas' tiniest counties. Grants and loans of the last 20 years helped 40 businesses repurpose or rehabilitate neglected structures, setting the stage for a steady tourist trade. If you take the driving tour of 60 homes built before World War I--each with its own historical sign--you'll see why the Texas Historical Commission named Mount Vernon a "First Lady's Texas Treasures" town. Preservation is part of the local DNA, says B.F. Hicks, attorney and historian, whose preservation work extends to natural preservation at his family's nearby 900-acre Daphne Prairie, one of the state's largest remaining tallgrass prairies. (For tours, call 903/537-2264.)

The 1930s Depression devastated Mount Vernon's economy. Home and business owners couldn't afford new construction, so they maintained the buildings they had...the very same buildings now restored for new uses. "Nothing gets old if you tear it down," adds B.F. Hicks. "Our town has had an appreciation of historic buildings for decades."

That appreciation rings true on a walk around downtown. Two 1890's commercial buildings house the county chamber of commerce and a genealogy archive. A 1900 bank is now the public library. Side-by-side structures on the square feature antiques, gifts, and decor at Coe & Co. and women's fashions at Saucy Ladies.

A block south of the square, the 1940 native-rock firehouse is now the Old Fire Station Museum. Downstairs exhibits feature sports and entertainment memorabilia of native son Don Meredith. He's remembered as the original Dallas Cowboy, because he signed as quarterback even before the franchise was official. He later became an actor and sidekick commentator of Howard Cosell on ABC's Monday Night Football. Upstairs displays couldn't be more different. A dim-lit, climate-controlled showroom boasts eggs of 200-plus bird species, including the extinct passenger pigeon, Carolina parakeet, and heath hen. Gathered before the hobby was outlawed in the 1930s, the collection was brought to Mount Vernon by A.W. Nations, a butterfly collector whose cases of 75 butterfly species line the walls.

The Old Fire Station Museum also arranges tours of other Franklin County Historical Association sites--an 1894 railroad depot, an 1883 farmstead, and the 1880s house of the tallest soldier in the Civil War, Col. Henry Clay Thruston, whose homestead boasts period furnishings, picnic tables, and a nature trail.

Historic preservation in Mount Vernon got a dose of culture a decade ago when local classical musicians and fans created Mount Vernon Music, a nonprofit performance hall in a converted 1907 church. Roughly once a month (September through May), audiences fill vintage pews in the small ex-sanctuary for up-close performances. The MVM Players,

comprised of area professional musicians, perform many of the classical shows. Other featured groups range from the Wyeth String Quartet of Fort Worth to the swing-jazz band, Texas Gypsies.

The music you hear at Cake Lady Bakery Cafe will be the humming of the cake lady herself, Donna Manincor. "We're just one big happy family here," says Donna, who moved from the Dallas area to open her bakery-cafe in a 1960s eatery, The Alp Cafe. Lunch means blue plate specials (from meatloaf to chicken and dumplings), plate-sized chicken fried steaks, and homemade hamburgers on homemade buns. Donna's bakery case overflows with fruit and nut pies and tall iced cakes--strawberry, chocolate, and Italian cream. Weekends bring giant cinnamon rolls, soft inside and cinnamony-nutty outside. When they're gone, they're gone.

"People always say Mount Vernon is like Mayberry," says local resident Stephanie Hyman, referring to the idyllic setting of the Sixties TV hit, The Andy Griffith Show. She and husband Brad moved back to Brad's hometown four years ago and bought several 19thcentury structures on the square. The historic Hill Building now dishes up enchiladas and rellenos as 3 Brothers Mexican Restaurant. Rehabilitation work is almost done on the historic Fleming Building, ready for a new tenant that will help fulfill the Hymans' dream for downtown.

"We want to keep Mount Vernon like Mayberry," she adds. "We want the square to be a place for locals and tourists to come together and enjoy real small-town hospitality." MOUNT VERNON For information on Mount Vernon, call the Main Street Program, 903/537-4070 () or the Franklin Co. Chamber of Commerce, 903/5374365 (). For lodging nearby, try Deer Lake Cabins (903/860-3898; ), with 14 cabins, chuckwagon cookouts, horseback riding, and 15

miles of trails. Or check out Selah Ranch (903/632-1122; ) with a retreat center and three cabins open to the public. Selah also boasts two world-class disc golf courses. Find two more disc golf courses at Trey Texas Ranch (903/537-4365; ), which also offers a "42" dominoes parlor. Mount Vernon's disc golf venues host annual tournaments, including the Amateur World Doubles Championship in late May or early June.

--00--

RESOURCES: General & wine events: Main Street Alliance Director--Carolyn Teague, cteague@ Re: history and Daphne Prairie: B.J. Hicks Heritage sites: Elaine McFeely, Franklin County Historical Association, Old Fire Station Museum Old Depot Museum; fcha-; fchadirector@mt- Re: dominoes & Trey Texas Ranch: Diane Newsom, Franklin Co. Chamber of Commerce: --Stephanie Hyman stephanie_hyman@ --Cake Lady Bakery Cafe; Donna Manincor; Thecakeladybakerycafe --Mike Edwards; M.L. Edwards & Co.; 903-563-9399 cell --Coe & Co; Kitty Ramsay --Saucy Ladies; Carol Cober --SELAH RANCH; Dave Hickerson; () --DEER LAKE CABINS; Randy White, mgr () --Mount Vernon Music; Mark & Ute Miller; mail@ ()

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download