HomeMy WebLinkAboutCollege Park Mystery Anne Boykin - Re: College Park mystery
From: "Henry Mayo" <hpmayol @verizon.net>
To: "Bill Page" <BPAGE @lib „gw.tamu.edu >, <Ju...
Date: 12/30/2008 9:26 am
Subject: Re: College Park mystery
Bill,
Like you, I often find interesting deeds while looking for something else
at the courthouse. This College Park 'mystery' is in the area that I have
surveyed and researched back in the early -90's. I pulled our folder on the
project where we re- platted part of Block 8A, across the street (Galloway,
aka: West Dexter, aka: Welsh) from your Block 2 area. I'm sorry that I
don't have any information to help with your public school lead, but I
believe this $1 from Brazos Co. tract to Hopper was part of a series of Quit
Claims along what was an irregular curved Galloway Street. I have a copy of
a College Park plat filed in vol. 38, pg. 574 that shows the streets much
straighter and even has Galloway running across Welsh and diagonally through
Block 6 to the corner of Guernsey and Fairview! I guess the College Park
plat filed in Vol. 38, pg. 602 is more in line with the final way the
streets were built.
I believe this deed to Hopper from Brazos Co. was actually a type of Quit
Claim for land adjacent to his lot that was not being used by the street.
The City of CS was not incorporated yet, but Brazos Co. was the owner of
public streets in College Park at that time. If you want to dig deeper into
this area, I have several more deeds that you can have copies of, but I
didn't see any mention of a school tract on them.
Henry
Original Message
From: "Bill Page” <BPAGE @lib - gw.tamu.edu>
To: <Julie @BCSChamber.org >; <Aboykin @cstx.gov >; <johnblair83 @hotmail.com >;
"Henry Mayo" <hpmayol @verizon.net >; "Colleen J Batchelor"
<cjbatchelor @yahoo.com>
Sent: Monday, December 29, 2008 1:28 PM
Subject: College Park mystery
> So, I went to the courthouse this morning to do a bit of research on
> Woodville, and what I found instead was a mystery - at least to me -
> concerning College Park.
> While looking through listings concerning old Brazos County schools, I
> found this deed:
> Brazos County, Texas sold to J.S. Hopper, for $1, a plot of land (oddly
> shaped) in College Park, at the intersection of of the west side of
> Galloway Street and the west side of Angus Street; the deed does not
> give a lot or block number but does mention a point on the south corner
> of Lot 4 in block 2, and refers to the plat of College Park in the
> Brazos County Deed Records, volume 38, page 602). This deed was dated
> 27 January 1937 and filed for record on 13 February 1937. Brazos County
> Deed Records, volume 93, page 107.
> Well, okay, I looked back at the original plat for College Park, and
> this lot appears to be an unnumbered lot shown in the middle of that
> plat. The fact that it was not numbered - unlike all the other lots -
> is odd. Perhaps that meant the company owning College Park did not own
> the land, or perhaps it meant that they had already dedicated that land
Anne Boykin - Re: College Park mystery 2 I
> to some other purpose, such as a school.
> There isn't a Galloway Street in College Station, either - the original
> plat shows it running into Welsh St., but I drove around over there this
> morning, and there doesn't seem to be a street where the plat showed
> there to be one, but then again, keep in mind I have an awful sense of
> direction.
> The fact that the county sold the land for only $1 is weird, too. You
> see that one dollar" amount a lot when people are GIVING land to the
> county, but I can't recall offhand seeing the county SELL land for that
> amount.
> One possibility - and its only a possibility - is that the College
> Park developers gave the county the land for a school, which never got
> built - and in 1937 the county essentially gave the developers the land
> back.
> Another possibility is that there had been a school there at one time -
> perhaps an African American school - which had been torn down and / or
> moved by 1937.
> The following suggests, at least, there was a "Negro school" in or near
> College Park around this time:
> "Consolidated Has Increase; Negro Schools to Open," Bryan Weekly
> Eagle, 23 September 1936, page 1. "The three Negro schools that are
> to open Monday are at College Park, Wellborn and Shirock. No changes in
> the teaching force were made this year."
> And - perhaps - the following *might* suggest the school in College
> Park was moved to another location at some point ? ? ??
> Hughes, W.L., "History of A &M Consolidated School," Battalion, 19
> July 1945, p.2; 26 July 1945, p.2; 2 Aug. 1945, p.2; 9 Aug. 1945, p.2.
> The 3rd article contains this paragraph: "It became necessary a good
> many years ago to erect a new building for the colored children and
> furnish transportation. The budget for the colored school alone now
> runs about $15,000 a year. In the beginning the colored school
> consisted of a one -room school situated just east of the campus on what
> is now Highway 6. No transportation was needed. The budget for such a
> school was only a few hundred dollars annually. The colored school is
> now housed in a $12,000 building and is doing an excellent job of
> furnishing a practical education for the colored children. It is a 12
> grade school with 10 teachers. Vocational agriculture and home
> economics are featured."
> Just to make sure this is as complicated as possible, the earliest
> school - as far as I know - for African Americans in College Station was
> the "old Foster schoolhouse" - and I have zero idea where that was
> located.
> See:
> Washington Chapel was organized on the fourth Sunday in December, 1894,
Anne Boykin - Re: College Park mystery !� — 3
> in the old Foster schoolhouse by Rev. L.K. Williams and Rev. R.H.
> Littleton (See: Brundidge, Glenna Fourman, editor, Brazos County
> History Rich Past Bright Future, 1986, p.137).
> In theory, it should be possible to find the deed where Brazos County
> bought the land it sold in 1937 - if so, that deed *might* state the
> reason the county acquired the land, or, at least, who it got the land
> from.
> That might be remarkably difficult, however, because if the county got
> the land prior to the development of College Park, the legal description
> in the deed where it bought the land would not match the legal
> description where it sold the land.
> Unfortunately, the deed selling the land does not cite the earlier
> deed.
> Anyhow, as this demonstrates once again, I am MUCH better at asking
> questions than answering them <g>
> I hope everyone had a great Christmas!
> Bill