Forgotten Texas - Small Town Charm OF INDEPENDENCE

[Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] 40 years ago all of this were just Fields yeah and that's a kind of being here in this tranquil place it's like the smell of the flowers the wind chimes just it is zen-like gorgeous very peaceful now that is some Bandstand oh yeah about having one of those in your garden I love it come out here and have the coffee every day yep another beverage in the evening and the smell of the Roses oh yeah this is my type of place absolutely it is it's just one of those you come here it is so just Serene and and you can't help but smile it's gorgeous so there's just over eight Acres nursery and you can just walk around it and then there's about 21 Acres further up the road that isn't open to the public and that's where they grow all of their produce definitely worth having a little walk around though oh for sure just get some exercise nice breeze smell of the flowers breathe in nature yeah it's just walk up through the rose Arch oh look bunny rabbits okay do you know why they're called bunny rabbits they don't look like bunnies to me they're called bunny rabbits or snapdragons but their real name is anti-linum hmm I used to have them in my garden in England there's different colors oh and they've got pansies oh and look at these These are violas like baby baby pansies yeah they're gorgeous bunch of pansies I don't really smell and the poppies oh wow look at This Old House beautiful so there's only one original structure which we'll go and take a look at all the other structures I think they're old they've been relocated to the area everywhere you look it's just magnificent it's God I know it's amazing isn't it now this is my type of house look at this I love the wraparound porch imagine just sitting here having a cocktail now this is called uh champlies green and it was built around 1900 so relocated to this area and uh we can go and can we go inside no appearing oh wow how nice in this Garden it's gorgeous it's a great little church yes it is so I wonder where this church came from because obviously they relocated it to this right property on the stained glass right there in the top even the doors I like it's just the narrow but tall doors bird's nest open no nope that's a shame see if we can peek in the window oh yeah we'll have a walk around and I've even got a wildflower Meadow be quiet we'll try to sneak up on Andrew while she's filming oh we've been spotted so did you know that they still use this church they do like weddings and ceremonies and things in here yes I did and apparently they also open it up for special holiday for festivity I can't say that word first activity that's the word yep yeah like Christmas Easter things like that they've got a funky Cemetery right by the church Rest In Pieces cracked up oh this must be their planters that have broke uh recently that's pretty neat busted now when I first saw this I actually thought it was their animal Cemetery because they've got so many cats roaming around and little cat houses everywhere yeah that's what I thought this was but fun so this is a Victorian style potting shed isn't it great oh this is good oh I'd love one of these in my garden if we had a garden yeah who's the begonias somebody left their cup succulents don't know what succulents I'm not a great succulent fan but it's cute have you seen this um thermometer so this building is the only original building to the property and apparently it was in a real state but they they've done it up what a lovely little cabin though yeah it was a kitchen a kitchen a kitchen oh okay it's an old kitchen up the hill Stone steps but again lovely little porch oh oh oh I know somebody that could do with one of these our friends in South Dakota you know who you are rich and Patty you can eat one of these that'll make my life a lot easier when I come and look after the chickens now I've just noticed oh yeah seller we can't get down yeah get down in there this is so if this was a kitchen if that would be obviously like a cold store I would imagine yeah and now they just use it as part of a little gift shop great I love these sort of things yeah because it adds so much character to a property I mean everything around here it just is it is very Tastefully done as well oh look at they've got those huge wind chimes [Music] [Music] [Music] laughs [Music] music of despairs isn't this lovely I could just imagine sitting out here the only thing that spoils is the traffic noise yeah but all the plants make up for it so this actually is original to the property but it's been moved this is the old Corn Crib where they used to store corn and if you look somewhere there's actually cutouts or corn imprints in the wood so I've Been Told hmm [Music] so this is Baylor on the hill so there were three dormitories here or was it an actual the whole school the original University was established in 1945. and all the occupants were here so there were several buildings yeah but in 1851 they decided to separate the boys and the girls so the boys remained here on Windmill Hill and the girls went across the way to Academy Hill I think when they do that it causes more problems then the boys are more likely to get in trouble and get hurt to try to sneak around to find the get to the girls that's a funny story about that there's a little stream it's not well a river stream and the boys used to call it the River Jordan and they would have to cross the River Jordan to get to the promised land this is now All That Remains yeah it's a cute little Park picnic tables and over there that was the Bell Tower okay but they knocked the main building down in 1935 which is such a shame yeah I know that's which is something else that we always say it's like those old buildings they don't make them like that anymore and people leave them abandoned and they go into disrepair and it's such a shame that they can't be refurbished or somebody did buy it to just kind of keep it up a bit so that it still stands well there's a quarry nearby and that's where they quarried all the stone to build the bit to build the buildings yeah but it is still a pretty impressive it reminds me of a head frame of all the mines that we've been to but it kind of does it's just it's cool to see this stuff like I said it's a shame that the buildings weren't able to be salvaged but uh so this was an additional building and I think this was built in 1859 and this is Houston Hall and did you know the walls were two and a half feet thick oh wow that's 30 inches yeah that's just cool I mean it's it is neat you can kind of see where the building I guess over there where the picnic tables were too the ground the grass hasn't regrown because that's where the you know the footings Footprints of these buildings were still a few Stones left in there yeah you can see how wide they are yeah but again beautiful area you can see why they chose this spot and also it's like it's funny because seen the photographs when it was first open and stuff and it's horse-drawn carriage with the college students up to the door it's just incredible so judge Robert Baylor who died in 1873 was originally buried here on the site of the campus and this was his grave now I say was because sometime between 1917 and the early 1920s it was his remains were removed and are now in another uh Garden um in oh good grief Baylor College which is in Belton this is the college well it's hand dug a 48 foot deep but nobody knows when it was built or who built it and their first reference to it I believe was in 1857. 1856. hmm a mystery [Music] so this is the Robertson's house it was built in 1846 as a two-story structure it was extensively restored in 2004 which is now obviously a private residence [Music] Jerome B Robertson which was a general in the Confederate Army he also served as a commander of the famous Hutz Brigade this is called the Adobe house and it is actually now the visitor center did you know that when they were renovating in 2008-2009 they had thought that it was the only Adobe structure in the whole place but found that it wasn't it was made of Fieldstone with a stucco finish true story this was Senator Sam Houston's house it's now listed on the historic places and he lived here with his family and they did actually move away I believe in 1859 they went to Houston and then on to Huntsville but when he passed away his widow Margaret returned here to Independence and it's built they believe around mid-1850s so there you have it this is what's left of the Town Square and it's starting to rain now did you know the independence wasn't always called Independence no it used to be called Coles calls calls yeah and then when the state of Texas declared independence in 1835 oh no 1836 that's when the town changed its name to Independence nice apparently or so Legend has it this was the store The General Store and it was built in 1939 by water C lookameyer and he used the stones from Baylor mail campus and it has been in continuous use as a grocery store and petrol station and a community hub it's pretty neat it's a nice piece of Americana yeah small town look at this mural mural I can never say that word of the they kind of look like Pioneers I don't know the wood rich wide Rich Road rich I don't know how you pronounce them because a lot of them also were German yeah and I can never pronounce the general the German words and I wonder so what is this wonder how old it is a cowboy mural right there yeah Woodridge Independence Art Studio still has a flag flying what a quaint old building actually it's pretty good pretty good it's pretty big I'm so tired walking around all day can't get my words out so this is a cotton gin and this was where the farmers brought their cotton to be processed it's one of the little foundations in the buildings were all a part of this little cotton gin so that Plantation House was built before the Civil War and is the best preserved Plantation House of its era in the whole of Texas but it's private property [Music] this has actually I think been moved here from Mill Hill Mill no Mound Hill that's right um but they believed that it was around built in 1891. and it's just a one-room schoolhouse don't think we can get in I'll have a look oh there you go the old gay Hills School it says on the sign oh it's fully furnished inside oh we can get in bonus oh how cool is this I'll leave the door open for the light and look at their iPads yeah and save the reminiscent of Fort Totten and uh this met Laura Ingalls definitely Laura Ingalls yeah see now I wonder what year books started coming in notepads because I you know I don't know that we've got nice little stove in the middle of the room and uh cool if you sat if you sat here you'd be toasty yeah I think maybe a little bit too hot actually I think it's funny how the the desks can't be moved you know like the seat is uh part of the table or the desk and where was it uh where it where we went to and the the little kid had to write a hundred times I will not dip Becky's braid into our Inkwell yeah see now the desks I remember having old desks like this but only probably because our school was too cheap to get any new ones but and I remember the inkwells all of our desks had inkwells we never used them obviously we were using Burrows although saying that I did used to write with a an ink because I liked the way it looked kind of like calligraphy style yeah I had a calligraphy pen growing up but and our desks at school this you've just got the little shelf yeah and you remember the desks that we had you lifted up and you had your school books inside and down and then we'll be sitting there and can you remember when you had somebody next to you and you were right you'd be like that to stop them copying tests yeah stop them copying you or you had that one kid that was just like stop looking at my shut up I don't know I never looked at other people say I didn't get good grades yeah but I was the one probably always looking at your paper [Laughter] [Music] so Bill 1820 Circa and I've just peeked in the window and it's all fully furnished so I'm wondering whether or not we can get in I doubt we'd be able to get in this store no what a shame because it's all fully furnished I don't know whether or not the camera will pick up that not in this window the uh the dirt we've got a double bed with a cot by the side a baby crib an old gown with a pinafore some flour bag of flour or a sack of flour what's in this one kitchen table or sorry dining room table exactly a little Kitchen strawberry in the back what a shame we couldn't get in so remember I said that the Houstons lived in that beautiful Greek style house well in actual fact Sam Houston didn't this cross here was their original Homestead they owned several properties now when Mrs Houston turned after her husband's death that's when she moved and lived in the Town Square in that beautiful house you might recognize this style of building we saw several of them when we were doing the LBJ like the what they call them the dog truck dog Trot yeah because you've got roomy the side and in the middle is a cool spot so the wind would come through and this would be where they would gather dub type yeah dog Trot house [Music] this was the original site of Baylor University yeah and originally it had 24 students when it first opened so all right 24 students then they separated to the men's and women's so the women stayed here and the men went over to that Park we were at earlier that's correct yeah I got that the wrong way around so yes this was the original site and then the boys moved over oh [Music] oh and the wind is picking up so we might have to hurry this along but what an impressive one mood now in the air but also here the original site I know it's famous Baylor College Baylor University yeah you're a university excuse me and uh and again because of mainly because of the railroad didn't come into town that was one of the main reasons why it ended up moving to Waco and then the boys moved to Waco and the girls moved to Benton I think Benton Missouri Benton Texas Benton Texas if I'm wrong I'll put it the correct uh down below and this is what it originally looked like see that's the entrance so you would walk in walk through the entrance and these are the columns they're still remaining and then all of this to the right none of this obviously remains anymore think about before the move the the students that walked up this path yeah through these doors to their University and what they went along to become in life you know it's kind of intriguing it's pretty impressive one of you they would go up here sorry I'm late teacher there's a rainstorm up front I believe at some point you can actually see the windmill where the boy's dorm was because as I said earlier the boys would come across the River Jordan well the boys dorms back that direction to the promised land should be able to see it at least that's what I read I can see the uh can you see the church oh so the church is where the flowers are yeah okay so behind these trees look at these trees aren't they amazing amazing and they would have been around when these kids went to this University I would imagine [Music] [Music] well they say everything's bigger in Texas that's the biggest wind chime I've ever seen [Music] oh [Music] love these big chairs what does this remind you of Havasu can't get up yes look at that and uh come five foot three and a half and that half an inch is very important but I can make it now are we gonna be able to get back out I probably won't be able to get back out though can we have a chair like this actually I wouldn't want to check this well it needs to be a little bit longer then I'd be comfortable for the feet okay this would be my happy spot absolutely sit out here read a book just watch the time go by have cucumber and salad cream sandwiches and I'm getting hungry and I want to move here I know it's funny we kind of say that in every state that we go to it's like we fall in love with the state but like I said there's in driving along there's so many aspects of different places driving through Texas that we've come to and it is just a very homey feeling kind of area like I said the people make all the difference in the world and that's everywhere we've been the people have been incredible and it's just so so lovely hello sweetheart do you keep all the mice at Bay I think Stevie wants a tickle really I bet this is the life isn't it you got to run in the garden keep the rodents down people come over give you a tickle she's a sweetheart I wonder if she lives in that uh catch house over there yeah [Music] [Music] foreign [Music]