In Seguin, a lamp post downtown is becoming just as important during the day as it is during the night.
These downtown fixtures are not only permeating a soft glow in the evening –– they are shedding light on some of the city’s most unique and often untold historical stories.
The ability to share these stories found in the deeply rooted chapters of Seguin’s history book is what essentially led to the launch of the Historical Downtown Plaque Project. Inspired by volunteers at the Seguin Heritage Museum, the project works to coin and publicly display tidbits of Seguin’s history throughout the historic downtown district.
All folks need to do is look up the next time they walk around or drive through the various blocks of downtown. Doing so will open up a world of customized plaques hanging, similar to that of some of the city banners, on the first initial set of sponsored lamp posts.
Among the favorites for Donna Brawner, a museum volunteer who helped bring the project to reality is the spotlight of the Seguin Street R.R. as sponsored by The Daughters of the Republic of Texas Seguin Chapter-Abishai Mercer Dickson.
The plaque reads:
“Getting to and from the depot along North Austin Street was often challenging. The dirt road would turn into a muddy quagmire when it rained. Passengers were then forced to take a detour through the pasture behind the buildings on the main street. In 1886, to make the one-mile trip from the courthouse easier, light rails were installed and the mule drawn streetcar service began. It never got beyond mule power, but the trolleys improved over time changing from open passenger compartments to fully enclosed ones. ‘Maud’ the mule pulled the trolley. All total, ten Maud’s were rotated for the job. By 1915, with more and more people buying automobiles, and with the main road finally paved, the streetcar service was no longer required.”
Brawner says she credits fellow museum volunteer Douglas Manger for the initial inspiration for this project.
She says while on a visit to San Angelo, working as a curator with the
Fine Arts Museum, Manger couldn’t help but be drawn to the large silver switch boxes wrapped with black and white historic photographs.
However, after TxDOT turned down efforts for a similar project here in Seguin, Brawner and Manger say they eventually stumbled onto an even “brighter” idea.
“Doug and I were strolling around downtown Seguin, and we were looking at our switch boxes and we decided they weren’t in good locations,” Brawner said. “People would never see them so we were standing across from the courthouse. I remember this and we were like, how we can make this work? And, we were both looking at the lamp posts and we went, ‘the lamp post!’ because they had the little banners hanging from them that they put up occasionally.”
Although the stories stood strong on their own, Brawner felt that the design of the plaque had to be equally as important.
“I wanted to make sure that people knew that the Seguin Heritage Museum was sponsoring this because I don’t feel that people in Seguin — half of them know we have a Heritage Museum,” Brawner said. “So my main thing was to make sure at the very top, it said Seguin Heritage Museum and we have Juan Seguin as part of our logo and so when I started playing around with the layout, I matched the brown to the brown signs that were already downtown and then I researched typefaces that were prevalent at the turn of the century and I used combinations of those and then Douglas suggested the Sepia Tone (effect) on the pictures so they looked old timey. It was very simple. We had the copy about it and then we had the sponsored by. But I think the absolute killer part of this is the job that Douglas does on the pictures. He will take pictures that have cracks, that have tears, that the exposure is so blown out on one end and so dark on the other and when they come back, they are perfect. They are beautiful.”
While they would love to share the entire story on each plaque, Manger says they are limited to only providing a small glimpse into the past.
“This is the purpose of it all — to bring up this history and they are soundbites,” she said. “It’s not an elaborate copy but it is enough for people to say ‘hey, I never knew that. I had no idea.’ Manger said. “And we keep discovering some gems.”
Brawner, who oversees layout, says there is always something new to learn about our local history and, without fail, is always in awe.
“We were working the power plant and Saffold Dam — bought by Steve Parker (Seguin City Manager) and so what we discovered was Seguin was probably one of the fourth cities in the entire United States and Canada that had hydroelectric power. I mean little Seguin — New York, Niagara, somewhere in Wisconsin, Austin but Seguin also had this power, and it was one of the first cities in Texas that had this power. I mean that’s amazing,” Brawner said.
With nearly 35 of the 55 lamp posts still needing a sponsored plaque, Brawner remains optimistic that the telling of the area’s great stories will continue as it has with another favorite historical posting. This one involves a recognizable name in San Antonio but whose legacy reportedly began in Seguin.
“An interesting one was when we did Guadalupe College, the Black College,” Brawner said. “That was fascinating and just what an amazing thing it was at the time that Seguin had, I think one of two black colleges in the whole state, and that college was going to be the premier black college in the state but unfortunately, it caught fire and another fascinating aspect of that sign was that George W. Brackenridge out of San Antonio, he saved it from financial ruin at one point. He just took the whole thing and said, here’s money. I’ll fix it, and they were able to keep going, and so you just look at what different people did at different times because George W. Brackenridge had an office here in Seguin, and that’s probably how he got involved in it before he went to San Antonio.”
Manger says the stories that the community can select from are limitless. Plus, he says individuals can sponsor their own family contributions to Seguin.
“Just the overarching message here is that we care. We care about Seguin,” Manger said. “We care about its history, and we want people to have a broader understanding of what has transpired through the generations. The second thing is we’ve got all these people coming into this area. They are setting up shop or moving into homes that are stark, no landscaping, nothing stimulating to speak of right now — maybe later when things mature but they need something to give them heart — something that has a soul to it, so these signs do (that). They are very soulful. They are very engaging. So, I think that’s important for a community.”
Although the plaques have been designed for lamp posts, Brawner says the project also allows for building display. An example currently sits outside Vogue Shoes, the site of an early-on smoke house operated by the Turner Family.
“If they don’t want to put it on a lamp post, they can have it mounted on the building with the building owner’s permission if they don’t actually own the building,” Brawner said. “It will be the same size, but they will only get one side unless they want us to mount two of them together.”
There is still plenty to celebrate, uncover and/or discover about Seguin. Brawner says the cost of each plaque is $500 with the turnaround for install roughly four months if not sooner.
“People were so thrilled that they were contributing to their part of Seguin history and I think that is what is so wonderful about this,” she said. “It’s a community project. It highlights Seguin’s history. It shows how historical Seguin really is and how it’s really a little gem of a town as far as history goes.”
Meanwhile, there’s no doubt that the launch of the museum’s plaque project in the 2020s will also one day find its way into our history books. But until then, the Heritage Museum celebrates the “now” and “today” of just finding our way under one of those lamp posts. •
The Seguin Heritage Museum is located at 114 N. River St.
The museum can be reached at 830-372-0965.
