The pathetic state of Varner-Hogg

History buffs in the know around Brazoria County call the Varner-Hogg Plantation a "hidden jewel," maybe because it's out-of-way, tucked a couple miles northeast of the burg of West Columbia.

It's been a state historic site since 1958, when Ima Hogg, daughter of Texas Gov. James Stephen Hogg, donated it to the state.

It's a house museum full of the furniture, artwork, kitchen implements, and other stuff that they used back in the olden days, but if you go to visit there now you will discover, after paying your $6 admission fee, that half of the damn house is off limits.

That's right. The second floor of the plantation house is closed to the public because the air conditioning system is leaking condensation all over the place.

I got a peek up there anyway. There's sheets of platic draped between chairs and such that have been fashioned into troughs into which the AC condensation drips (see picture). The wooden ceilings of the historic home are buckling because of the condensation and at least one of the period rugs has been damaged by the drip, drip, dripping water.

I'm told they "fixed" the AC system once, but to no avail, and the current state of affairs has existed for the last year.

Of course, even though half of the plantation house is closed to the public, the state hasn't cut its admission price in half.

It's not the $6 fee that chaps me, though, it's that the state of Texas, during its last legislative session and the "special sessions" that followed this past summer, couldn't come up with the few thousands bucks or so that will be needed to fix the air conditioning system.

Apparently, our local lawmakers were too busy carrying water for the Texas Chemical Council and the concrete aggregate lobby to get anything done.

That's just not right.

In recent years, Brazoria County has seen some of its citizens try to take advantage of the area's unique history of being site of the first Anglo colony in what eventually became the Republic of Texas, and then the great State of Texas after we joined up with the Union.

A statue of Stephen F. Austin has been erected in Angleton, and there's an annual festival dedicated to the way-things-were back in the Austin Colony days, and the county operates a fine history museum next to the courthouse.

Brazoria County is, indeed, the land where Texas began, like the signs at the county line say, but as far as the State of Texas and the Varner-Hogg Plantation is concerned, we can only conclude Brazoria County is the land that Texas forgot.


[varner-hogg website]