HICKORY GROVE HERITAGE

Brenham, known as Hickory Grove in the early 1800s, has served as Washington County seat for over one hundred and fifty years. The Brenham Heritage Museum has tackled the complex task of archiving and interpreting much of the county’s history, an extensive series of events and personalities that helped shape the Texas of today. The Museum occupies a landmark Classical Revival structure that was completed in 1916 and served as the Brenham post office until the 1960s. The building’s style, drawn from Classical Greek and Roman principles of design, survives as one of the state’s best examples of the architectural movement. The museum moved into the building in the 1990s and maintains a series of changing and permanent exhibitions on all things Washington County. Exhibits on Brenham commerce and industry, an archive of historic photographs, and interactive exhibitions that draw on the family histories of county residents are a few of the museum’s offerings. The Brenham Heritage Museum is developing two additional exhibition locations and collections in the downtown area as well – the Brenham Fire Museum and the Brenham Bus Depot.