Touring Jefferson Texas…Part II

  Sorry about not getting all of our Jefferson trip in yesterday…I was wiped and couldn’t sit at the computer one more minute…I also wanted to make sure I got as much in about this great little town as possible.

(Remember to clik the pics for larger looks at Historic Jefferson)

  Above is the Jefferson Memorial Park, with a bust of the President, a fountain, gas lights and benches to sit…It goes from one street clear through to the other. We strolled leisurely up and down the streets.  There is a ton of things to do here…Boat trips down the Big Cypress Bayou, home tours, museums, restaurants, art studios, over 40 bed and breakfasts , 2 historic hotels and many antique shops.  We strolled into one of the antique shops and found this lovely lady lounging about on a shelf…She exhibits the calm serene aura of Jefferson, she didn’t even open her eyes to check us out..and, yes, she is a real cat.

…and I just bet you never had a kornbread sandwich!! Neither did we…I couldn’t get past the idea and Dennis hates cornbread.I mentioned the architecture here.  It is a mixture of Greek revival and New Orleans French.  Everywhere you look the flowers are gorgeous!!

The photo on the left is the Jefferson Hotel, in the middle is a balcony on an old building now apartments, and on the right is the Jefferson Carnegie Library.  In the very center of the street where 4 streets meet in front of the library is this statue..

  This statue is Hebe, the Greek goddess of youth. I wanted to drink from it, wash my face in it and fill jugs with it to take home.  Seriously, it has 6 different drinking outlets, 2 at each of 3 different levels.  So, there are 2 for humans, 2 for horses and 2 for dogs….I kid you not, that was the plan.  It was donated to the city of Jefferson in 1913 by the children of Jacob and Ernestine Sterne.  The Sternes came to Jefferson pre-civil war and ran the post office.  They were a Jewish couple who were very active in civic and cultural affairs of the town.  At the house on the corner behind the statue were these azaleas and wisteria..

There was an arbor just next to Jay Gould’s Pullman car that had fabulous white wisteria draped from it…and yes, they were real..smelled great, too.

Yesterday I had photos of the lovely Excelsior Hotel..The original entrance is still there and if you will note, the old wooden threshold of the entry is worn down from people stepping through it through the years…

…Note the dip in the wood on the left…to me it is touching history when you step on it..but…I am weird like that. Dennis makes fun of me when I touch old stuff, close my eyes and say I am channeling history…(I could say it when I touch him, right?  Below, the photo on the left is the Federal Court and Post Office building from 1890-1964..now a museum..Middle is a Confederate Memorial Statue in front of the county courthouse, and on the right is one of many B & B’s.

  

  The sun was coming out and it was warm and humid…I suggested we duck into a place called Auntie Skinner’s Riverboat Club…Dennis was definitely ready for a cold draft…and I don’t mean air conditioning.  Auntie’s place, so the story goes, was named for a song, “Auntie Skinner’s Chicken Dinner”..and I’m not going to challenge anyone about that story.  It definitely was housed in a very old building, wooden floors and old brick walls..

The staff in Auntie Skinners was very friendly.  They claim to have “the best East Texas cuisine” and also the” best live rhythm and blues music.”  If you look closely, you will notice 3 big brick archways toward the back of the room on the right…These lead to a stage and dance floor, plus another bar…

We got cooled off for $14.50; 2- 16oz. drafts and 2 big Rum and Cokes..not bad..We walked around and went down by the river where the riverboats turned around to go back to New Orleans.. We were amazed by this very old railroad trestle, no longer used and covered in vines.

I’ll just be this town was jumping back in the day!! Speaking of “in the day”, the entire town was entirely flooded back in 1945. We found an aerial photo of the flooding…and on one of the buildings there was a mark on it showing how high the water got.

   We really enjoyed the day we had in Jefferson.  I haven’t covered it nearly enough, but my giga -whatevers won’t take too many more pictures. If you want to see more, I strongly suggest you go to this link Jefferson, Texas .  It has sooo much more information that I just don’t have room to cover. I have just one final photo to add.  This last photo is of 2 vintage, classic museum pieces..but don’t be fooled..both of them run like brand new!!

….Time to put this blog to bed.  I have been jumping up and down from the computer so Dennis could pull up the weather radar. We have a big red line of thunderstorms creeping every closer to our campground.  Our NOAH weather radio has been screaming at us to pay attention, and our internet and TV both went out once.  But…we escaped the bad part and just got thunder and some rain (to rinse off the pollen)..I will post again tomorrow. Thanks for reading all the way to here…hope you enjoyed Jefferson. We will definitely return!!