Sunday Sitdown
Dorothy Harris
Houston County Museum
By Greg Ritchie
Messenger Reporter
The Messenger continues its Sunday Sitdown reports where we speak with our local pastors, educators, businesspeople, students and interesting people of all walks of life in Houston County. To see the full video interview, click on the link below.
How did you get involved with the Houston County Museum?
“I am originally from Pasadena and my grandfather bought a farm here in Latexo. I came back and forth from Pasadena to Latexo all my life. I had to go to Houston for a while and I always could not wait to come home to Latexo. I got the opportunity to come back home and I said, ‘My next move will be Latexo Cemetery. I love Crockett, Houston County and the people. I’ve been involved with the museum since 2009. I became a volunteer and at that time, there wasn’t anything here – everything was just in boxes. We acquired a lot of the display cases from the Bush library. I was offered to be the president of the museum and I said, ‘No.’ Finally, they wore me down and we began setting it up. We still add things periodically people bring us from around Houston County.”
Tell us about the people who come here, they come from all over the world?
“From all over. Three weeks ago, I had a man come from South Africa. He was amazed at what we call ‘pioneer’ farm implements. He said, ‘We still use those today.’ People continuously bring us new things. We have things from the historical Houston County schools – if it happened in Houston County, we will accept what you would like to donate.”
How does the museum actually operate?
“We operate solely on donations and volunteers. We have been lucky. There are several foundations who give us a donation. The city of Crockett helps, too. People come in from out-of-state or out of the country and make donations. We can always use donations but we are in desperate need of volunteers. There’s only three of us. We are here from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.”
The Houston County Museum is located at 101 South First Street in Crockett. For more information, call (936) 544-9520.
Greg Ritchie can be reached at [email protected]
