Tarleton students inventory Stephenville historic sites

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The Erath County Courthouse is the center of Stephenville's downtown Historic District, an area where students from Tarleton State University have begun an inventory of historic commercial buildings.
The Erath County Courthouse is the center of Stephenville’s downtown Historic District, an area where students from Tarleton State University have begun an inventory of historic commercial buildings.

 

STEPHENVILLE (January 26, 2015) — Students from Tarleton State University have begun compiling an inventory of historic commercial buildings in downtown Stephenville.

The city of Stephenville has partnered with the university in this effort to identify and document historic commercial properties within the 25-square-block historic district that centers on the Erath County Courthouse.

Both graduate and upper-division undergraduate students receive academic credit in the historic preservation course offered by the Tarleton Department of Social Sciences. Professor T. Lindsay Baker, who has long-term practical experience in historic preservation, is supervising the students.

Together they will prepare standard inventory forms approved by the Texas Historical Commission, along with photographic documentation of the exteriors of buildings at least 50 years old. Copies of the completed inventory with photographs will be deposited with the Texas Historical Commission, in Special Collections at the Tarleton libraries, and with the city of Stephenville.

In addition to the buildings within the historic district, students will document an additional 30 identified historic structures. Many of these places within the city limits already are designated as Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks.

City officials are contemplating work with Tarleton students to undertake a similar inventory of historic residences when the Tarleton historic preservation class is offered again in spring 2017.

“This is an ideal example of collaboration between ‘town and gown,’” said Baker. “This is experiential learning in which history students both earn academic credit and get their hands dirty in studying the past.”

For more information, contact Dr. T. Lindsay Baker at 254-968-1886 or Stephenville City Administrator Pat Bridges at 254-918-1225.

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