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Sideglances in The MirrorBy SARAH GREENEMIRROR READERS who see Texas Highways magazine will notice a familiar face on page 40, illustrating a story on Big Spring. Tumbleweed Smith, whose column appears on our editorial page each Wednesday, is pictured in the broadcasting station where he tells a radio audience “the stories of the outsized characters and everyday folks who give Texas its energetic image.” He’s quoted in the story as saying that Big Spring is “a high-energy place.” And the region around it definitely qualifies. It has many wind turbines generating electricity, and 300 more will appear this year, the story says. Also featured are the 15-story Settles Hotel, inspired by the oil boom of the 1920s and now being restored, and the impressive WPA-built municipal auditorium where Big Spring’s symphony orchestra plays. Under each of the original seats is a place to put your hat — a striking symbol of how times have changed in three-quarters of a century. FOR ANYONE enchanted by Texas history, news of the devastating fire that struck the governor’s mansion on June 8 came as a personal blow. Oh no, the Sam Houston bed! That was my first thought, quickly relieved when I learned that all the contents of the mansion had been removed as part of a current renovation. Arson has been blamed, and the Department of Public Safety has been criticized for failing to provide sufficient electricity. What stuck me was the absence of sprinklers that could have doused the fire before it destroyed the roof and blackened the six Ionic columns across the front of the 1856-vintage building not far from the capitol in downtown Austin. Why, I wondered, had no sprinklers been installed when $4 million was spent to restore the mansion in 1979-82 when Bill Clements was governor? AS A MEMBER of the Texas Commission on the Arts in 1979, I was one of those charged with approving changes in the mansion. (This was a statutory duty of the commission, which was the late Gov. John Connally organized in 1965.) Led by the commission’s chairman, the late John Ben Shepperd, several of us joined the wife of the governor-to-be, Rita Clements, on the day in late 1978 when she first visited the mansion. She was welcomed by Janey Briscoe of Uvalde who, with her husband Gov. Dolph Briscoe, was about to end a 6-year tenure in the mansion. We learned that plans were afoot to replace a lot of the furnishings with pieces more in keeping with the American Empire period when the mansion was built. NUMEROUS Victorian pieces — chairs upholstered in red velvet and elaborate rosewood furniture — had been donated by Miss Ima Hogg, the Houston philanthropist who lived in the mansion as a child when her father, James S. Hogg, was governor in 1891-95. The idea was that since Miss Hogg had died in 1975, her feelings could be set aside in favor of historic authenticity. To refresh my memory of that day, I turned to Gov. Rick Perry’s webpage, which has a wonderfully complete virtual “tour of the mansion.” I was pleased to see that I was properly impressed by the Sam Houston connection. THIS IS ITS description of the upstairs bedroom (one of four): “Today the central piece in the room, and possibly the most historically significant piece relating to the Governor’s Mansion, is the Sam Houston bed. It is believed to have been purchased by the state when the Houstons lived in the mansion. The purchase of a superior mahogany bedstead at the price of $30 appeared on a bill dated Dec. 24, 1859. Two children were born in this bed, Sam Houston’s eighth child Temple Lea Houston, in 1860, and Sam Houston Allred in 1937. “Throughout the room are reminders of Sam Houston. The plaster bust of Houston was sculpted by Elisabet Ney in 1900. The painted photograph depicts Houston as an older man and was given to the mansion in 1935 by his descendant, Temple Houston Morrow. There are also letters and documents with Houston’s signature. “The photograph of First Lady Margaret Lea Houston was a gift to the mansion from Mrs. Price Daniel, her great-granddaughter.” HAVING FOUND the mansion in a state of disrepair when Gov. Clements took office, he and his wife undertook the mansion restoration project by getting the Legislature to appropriate $1 million. Then they organized a nonprofit corporation, Friends of the Governor’s Mansion, which raised approximately $3 million in private funds to redecorate the interior. Today, an Empire breakfront houses half of the Governors’ Memento Collection established by Mrs. Price Daniel in the 1960s. She contacted family members of past governors and asked them to donate an item that was either used in the mansion while the family lived there or a personal family item. A tradition was established whereby each successive governor and first family leave a memento representing their term in office to be displayed in the collection cabinets in the house. I was interested to learn that Miss Hogg’s touch is still evident in a beautiful oval mahogany banquet table made in England in the late 19th century, bought with state funds in 1942 under her guidance. COMMENTING ON THE fire, Austin American-Statesman columnist Kelso suggested, tongue in cheek: “Why not turn the joint into lofts with a penthouse for the governor and his family? Or how about something of the mixed-use sort, with affordable housing and iconic businesses? “Think about it. If it had been a privately owned and operated condo building instead of the Governor’s Mansion, we probably wouldn’t have had this fire problem because the property would have had tighter security. . . “Also, there’s the design factor. “Any student of feng shui would quickly point out that the stodgy old cotton plantation-lookin’ building near the Capitol just doesn’t mesh with the city’s new lofty design. Not that I like the new downtown look. . .” Gov. and Mrs. Perry have been living in a rented house during the mansion renovation. But the Clementses were ahead of the curve 25 years ago. They moved into a high-rise condo building a few blocks from the mansion. All the legions who rally round the “keep Austin weird” cry might add “viva the Governor’s Mansion” to their cheering list. I’d certainly endorse it. Sarah Greene Archives sgreene@tatertv.com |
