What once was Stringtown is now just another part of Temple, TX. There are but two indictors of it's former existance. Stringtown Rd. and Dyess Grove Church. The church was built in 1895 and as of the last Texas Escapes report, still standing. So we pack up our camera and head out to see this 100+ year old church building.
Wait . . . that's not right.
The cemetary looks old enough, but this church! Perhaps there's a sign?
Well, that explains everything. Or not. Apparently the good persons of the area have decided to use "God's 10%" to continually upgrade the church, instead of building a new church and leaving the old one to stand as a testament to the hardship of those early settlers. Ah, but the cemetary!
The gate was not chained so we just let ourselves in. Most of the graves were from the early 1900s. The stones look newish concidering their age.
Okay, that middle one looks a tad older. The bottom one there is shaped like a tree stump. There were a couple of wooden cross markers. Just names, no dates.
And this particularly bleak stone set off by itself.
Not to mention the pile of rubble nearby.
Without further to-do we made our way down the length of Stringtown Rd. We wanted to see how far it went and passed a few interesting sites that we'll have to go back for if we want pictures. I know, I know, we could've just slowed down and taken them out of the window, but it's a good thing we didn't otherwise we wouldn't have gotten the images of this poor house at the far East end of Stringtown Rd.
On the lefthand side there you see a haybale which is blocking both of the entrances to the house. I don't know how or why it is there, perhaps a storm blew it over.
I had to crawl onto another haybale to take this picture through the window. The first time I attempted the shot there was a vulture in there that flew through the house giving me quite a scare! But I persevered and I'm glad I did. This detached closet filled with clothes being quite an interesting site.
And the back. The window and haybale near-symmetry was a pleasant visual suprise. Unfortunately that is all we got. Aaron heard a car pull up and stop so we made our way back around. The dreaded "nosey old man" had made an appearance. Rather than try to make a quick getaway or lie I tried striking up a conversation. He had no knowledge (or apparent interest) in the history of the church, though he did confirm that "they're always workin' on it" and asserted that we were on 'private property' even though there were no signs of any nature in sight. So we made our apologies and headed back West. We would have made a couple more stops, even for street pictures, but that old bastard turned around at the end of the road and followed us to make sure we were really leaving! We got run out of town! Or "what was once" town. We will go back for some street shots of interesting buildings, but it looks like those two other abandoned houses will be verbotten with that nosey old man around. Ah well, ya win some ya lose some.
