(Seguin) — More of Seguin’s history will soon be on display in downtown Seguin. The Heritage Museum is working with the city of Seguin to install up to 25 plaques on period light poles in the downtown area.
Doug Parker and Donna Brawner, of the Heritage Museum, say that the plaques will all be sponsored and will feature information about Seguin’s history. Brawner says they’ve got several stories about Seguin that will be shared through this new program. She shared one of those stories during a recent presentation to the Seguin City Council.
“This one is the one that was bought by the Daughters of the Texas Revolution. It’s got the First Depot on one side, with the description of who sponsored it, and then on the back side of the sign it has the trolley with Maude — the mule pulling it out of there.
And we tried to put an anecdote or a little story on each one of them, in addition to the history. So people that are walking around Seguin will actually see our history. They’ll see some of our old buildings. They will see what went on in some of these old buildings. It’s endless,” said Brawner.
Parker says they will initially start with eight locations, and more signs will go up as sponsorships come in. He says the signs will be a nice addition to downtown Seguin.
“This is going to enhance the historical district of downtown Seguin. It’s going to enhance the attractiveness, the education, the tourism, and so forth,” said Parker.
Earlier this summer, the Seguin City Council approved a policy that would allow the signs to go up in the downtown area. Blaire Friar, assistant Main Street and CVB director for the city of Seguin, says the new policy will clearly spell out how these items and others can potentially be placed on the historic light poles in the downtown area.
“It is very similar to our street banner policy. That’s kind of where we got the whole outline. So, only non-profit organizations can request it, and it is only for the promotion of local events or history. The city has the first priority to use the light poles. So, we always have first choice. Applications are submitted through the Main Street Department. They have to be submitted at least one month in advance. An event, similar to the banner (policy), can promote up to 14 days before the event, and then has to come down within five days after (the event). Pick up is all through us and we’ll arrange that. The one thing that is a little bit different with these is that the Heritage (Museum) signage can only be up from February 1 through October 31, since during the holiday season — November through January — we decorate our light poles with garland and lights. So, they will come down during that period so that we can decorate for Christmas, and then they can go back up after that,” said Friar.
The city’s Historic Preservation & Design Commission discussed the program with the museum and the commission approved the basic design concept of the plaques, but each sign will have to be approved by the Historic Preservation Officer before the fabrication of the plaque.The Main Street program is working with the Heritage Museum to determine the best locations for each of the plaques, so that they are less likely to be damaged.
The policy for the use of the historic light poles was formally adopted by the city last month.