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:
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.
