Richard Carter Park Project

A project adopted by the A&M Garden Club, which the Brazos Heritage Society supports, is to enhance Richard Carter Park in College Station, Texas, the city’s only historically significant park.  The park, acquired by the city in 1983, is the site of the Richard Carter homestead.

According to the Texas Historical Commission marker found at the park’s entrance:

In 1831, Richard Carter (1789-1863), Virginia native and War of 1812 veteran, came from Alabama and received a grant of land within the Stephen F. Austin Colony at the site of what is now the City of College Station.  He became one of the area’s wealthiest land and slave owners, raising cattle, corn, and cotton during the years before the Civil War.  Carter was appointed to the first Board of Commissioners after Brazos County was created in 1841 and helped survey Boonville, its first county seat.  Evidence of the Carter home and the family cemetery has been found in this area.

Additional information about this early settler may be found at the Texas State Historical Association’s Handbook of Texas Online at the following link:

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fcaaq.

The park, consisting of 7.14 acres, is located at 1800 Brazoswood off Earl Rudder Freeway.  Developments in the park include an Interpretive Center with displays about Richard Carter and the reconstructed original water well.  In addition, according to the City of College Station website:

There is an open play area, a discovery garden area featuring decks, seating, indigenous plants, a historical marker, and a bronze statue by Albert Pedulla.  The sculpture was installed in 1986 and symbolizes the staking of the claim by Richard Carter, which resulted in the settlement of College Station and the Brazos Valley.  The development of this park was an officially sanctioned Texas Sesquicentennial Project.  In 1991, the graves of Richard Carter, his wife, and family members were moved from an adjacent site to the park itself.  Additional lights were added in 1998.

The A&M Garden Club has received grants for the Richard Carter Park project from Texas Garden Club Projects-Arbor Day and Seeds for Life.  In addition, some donations for trees and native plants to go into the park have been received.  Other supporters of this project include the College Station Parks and Recreation Department and Keep Brazos Beautiful.

In March during Texas A&M University’s Big Event, the A&M Garden Club added verbena and muhly grass in restored beds around the Interpretive Center as this year’s Phase One.  

A fall planting will occur to coincide with the College Station 75th Anniversary celebration.  There is also the goal of replacing the signs in the Interpretive Center, which have become weathered, faded, and cracked.

Additional funds are needed to accomplish the Club’s vision.  Donations from individuals and groups will be gratefully accepted.  Checks made payable to the A&M Garden Club may be mailed to P. O. Box 443, Wellborn, Texas 77881.  The A&M Garden Club Treasurer is Mary Staffel.  Please include on the check’s memo line that this contribution is “for the Carter Park restoration.”

Additional information about this worthy project will be forthcoming.

Photographs of the Richard Carter Park may be viewed on the Smilebox below.