Exterior of the Museum of Regional History | |
Established | 1971 |
---|---|
Location | State Line Ave. and 3rd St., Texarkana, Texas |
Coordinates | 33°25′20″N94°02′36″W / 33.42222°N 94.04333°W |
Type | Local history museum |
Website | Museum of Regional History |
Offenhauser Insurance Building | |
Area | 0.2 acres (0.081 ha) |
Built | 1901 |
Architectural style | Commercial style |
NRHP reference No. | 71000922 [1] |
RTHL No. | 9497 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | February 25, 1971 |
Designated RTHL | 1965 |
The Museum of Regional History (originally the Texarkana Historical Museum) is a local history museum in Texarkana, Texas. [2] [3] It is the first and oldest museum in the Texarkana metropolitan area; [4] [5] it was established in 1971. [3] It is located in the Offenhauser Insurance Building, which was built in 1879, [4] making it the oldest brick building in the city. [2] [3] [6] [7]
The Museum of Regional History narrates the history of the region, from its indigenous Caddo people and early Spanish and French explorers, to its agriculture and early industry, to its relationship to railroads, World War II, and the civil rights movement. [2] [7] [8] Its Caddo collections include jewelry, pottery, and tools as well as rare images. [9] Its most prominent collection documents the region's musical history, which includes Scott Joplin (widely recognized as the "Father of Ragtime"), Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter, and Conlon Nancarrow. [2] [4] [5] [8] This collection emphasizes jazz and folk music, and includes one of Joplin's pianos. The museum also has an exhibit on Texas Congressman Wright Patman. [9]
The Museum of Regional History additionally houses the Wilbur Smith Research Library and Archives, [2] [4] [5] which holds photographs and research materials, [3] including rare books and other documents. [9] The archives also includes the Texarkana city directory collection and Pioneer History files. [9]
The museum is compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. [9] It is also both a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark and on the National Register of Historic Places. [10]
Bowie County is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 census, the population was 92,565. Its legal county seat is Boston, though its courthouse is located in New Boston. The county is named for James Bowie, the legendary knife fighter who died at the Battle of the Alamo. Bowie County is part of the Texarkana metropolitan statistical area. Bowie County is no longer one of the seven dry counties in the state of Texas. Both the city of Nash and the city of Texarkana have since passed laws to allow the sale of beer and wine.
Miller County is a county located in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2010 census, the population was 43,462. The county seat is Texarkana.
Scouting in Arkansas has a long history, from 1913 to the present day, serving thousands of youth in programs that suit the environment in which they live.
Fouke is a city in Miller County, Arkansas, United States. It is part of the Texarkana, Texas - Texarkana, Arkansas Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 859 at the 2010 census. Fouke is located at the intersection of U.S. Highway 71 and Interstate 49 in Miller County, Arkansas. It is 10 miles west of the Red River, 11 miles southeast of Texarkana, and 17 miles north of Louisiana. It received brief widespread attention in the early 1970s due to sightings/claims of a bigfoot-like creature known as the "Fouke Monster," as well as the subsequent fictitious docudrama movie The Legend of Boggy Creek, which played nationwide.
Texarkana is a city in the U.S. state of Arkansas and the county seat of Miller County. The city is located across the state line from its twin city, Texarkana, Texas. The city was founded at a railroad intersection on December 8, 1873, and was incorporated in Arkansas on August 10, 1880. Texarkana is the principal city of the Texarkana metropolitan area, which is ranked 274th in terms of population in the United States with 150,098 in 2016 according to the United States Census Bureau.
Texarkana is a city in Bowie County, Texas, United States, located in the Ark-La-Tex region. Located approximately 180 miles (290 km) from Dallas, Texarkana is a twin city with neighboring Texarkana, Arkansas. The population of the Texas city was 36,411 at the 2010 census. The city and its Arkansas counterpart form the core of the Texarkana Metropolitan Statistical Area, encompassing all of Bowie County, Texas, and Miller County, Arkansas. The two cities had a combined population of 67,592 at the 2017 census, and the metropolitan area had a total population of 150,098.
Joplin, officially known as the City of Joplin, is a city in Jasper and Newton counties in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Missouri. The bulk of the city is in Jasper County, while the southern portion is in Newton County. Joplin is the largest city in Jasper County - even though it is not the county seat, and it is the 12th most-populous city in the state. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 50,150. The city covers an area of 35.69 square miles (92.41 km2) on the outer edge of the Ozark Mountains. Joplin is the main hub of the three-county Joplin-Miami, Missouri-Oklahoma Metro area, which is home to 210,077 people making it the 5th largest metropolitan area in Missouri. In May 2011, the city was ravaged by a violent EF5 tornado.
The Ark-La-Tex is a socio-economic tri-state region where the Southern U.S. states of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas join together. The region contains portions of Northwest Louisiana, Northeast Texas, and South Arkansas as well as the extreme southeastern tip of Oklahoma, partly centered upon the Red River, which flows along the Texas–Oklahoma state line into Southwestern Arkansas and Northwest Louisiana.
Historic Washington State Park is a 101-acre (41 ha) Arkansas state park in Hemsptead County, Arkansas in the United States. The museum village contains a collection of pioneer artifacts from the town of Washington, Arkansas, which is a former pioneer settlement along the Southwest Trail. Walking interpretive tours are available throughout the 54 buildings. Washington served as a major trading point along the Southwest Trail, evolving into the Hempstead county seat and later the capital of Arkansas from 1863 to 1865 when Little Rock was threatened during the Civil War. The original plat of Washington was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 as the Washington Historic District.
East Texas is a distinct cultural, geographic, and ecological area in the U.S. state of Texas.
Northeast Texas is a region in the northeast corner of the U.S. state of Texas. It is geographically centered on two metropolitan areas strung along Interstate 20: Tyler in the west and Longview/Marshall to the east. Mount Pleasant, Sulphur Springs, Paris and Texarkana in the north primarily along Interstate 30, Jacksonville and Palestine to the south are also major cities within the region. Most of Northeast Texas is included in the interstate region of the Ark-La-Tex.
The Texarkana metropolitan statistical area (MSA), as defined by the United States Office of Management and Budget, is a two-county region anchored by the twin cities of Texarkana, Texas, and Texarkana, Arkansas,, and encompassing the surrounding communities in Bowie County, Texas, and Miller County, Arkansas. As of the 2016 census, the MSA had a population of 150,098. Texarkana is a subset of the broader Ark-La-Tex region.
The Texarkana Gazette is a daily newspaper founded in 1875 and currently owned by WEHCO Media, Inc. It serves a nine-county area surrounding Texarkana.
Texarkana Union Station is a historic train station in the Texarkana metropolitan area serving Amtrak, the United States' national passenger rail system. The Arkansas-Texas border bisects the structure; the eastern part, including the waiting room and ticket office, are in Texarkana, Arkansas, but the western part is in Texarkana, Texas, meaning stopped trains span both states. The station was built in 1928 and was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
The United States Post Office and Courthouse, also known as Texarkana U.S. Post Office and Federal Building and as Texarkana U.S. Post Office and Courthouse, is located on State Line Avenue in Texarkana, straddling the border between Arkansas and Texas. It is a courthouse of the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas and the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
Caddo Mounds State Historic Site (41CE19) is an archaeological site in Weeping Mary, Texas. This Caddoan Mississippian culture site is composed of a village and ceremonial center that features two earthwork platform mounds and one burial mound. Located on an ancient Native American trail later named by the Spanish as El Camino Real de los Tejas, the settlement developed hundreds of years before the arrival of Europeans and Africans to the region. Archaeologists believe the site was created in approximately 800 CE, with most major construction taking place between 1100 and 1300 CE.
The Orr School is a historic school building at 831 Laurel Street in Texarkana, Arkansas. It is a single story wood frame structure, with a hip roof that has exposed rafters. It is clad in white shiplap siding. The interior has a long, narrow hallway dividing classrooms on either side. The school was built c. 1880, and is the only surviving building in Texarkana associated with the life of the noted African-American composer Scott Joplin (1868-1917), the "father of American Ragtime". The building was originally two stories in height, but was reduced to one in 1920, when then hip roof and some of its Craftsman-style window treatment was added. It was purchased from the city by the City Federation of Women's Clubs in 1958.
The Caddo Valley Academy Complex is a collection of former school buildings in Norman, Arkansas. Set well back from Main Street (Arkansas Highway 8 near the junction of 9th Street and Smokey Hollow Road, the complex includes a two-story fieldstone main building, a smaller single-story home economics building, both located northwest of 9th Street, and a large concrete block gym with a gabled roof, located across 9th Street from the other two. The main school, built in 1924, is an outstanding local example of Craftsman styling; the 1937 home economics building also has Craftsman style; the gym was built in 1951, and is vernacular in style. The school was used until the local schools were consolidated into a new facility in 1971.
The Department of Arkansas Heritage (DAH) is a department of the U.S. State of Arkansas responsible for preserving, promoting and protecting Arkansas's natural and cultural history and heritage. The department consists of eight separate divisions: four heritage museums and four heritage resource agencies. The department’s central office coordinates and promotes all division efforts to make information and materials about the state readily accessible to all Arkansans through heritage and cultural events, educational resources and special publications. The common goal of all divisions is to seek out and protect the legacy and lore of Arkansas and what distinguishes it from other states.
The Ace of Clubs House is a historic house museum in Texarkana, Texas. The house is distinctively shaped like a club, from a deck of playing cards, with three octagon-shaped wings and a fourth rectangular wing adjoining at a central octagon-shaped stair hall. The structure was built in 1885 as a private residence, in an Italianate Victorian architectural style. The design resulted in the house having 22 sides. The two-story house also features a 20-foot (6.1 m) tower and a spiral staircase.