November 24, 2012 - Old Jailhouse Walk (YRE)

"Come and Take It!"  This defiant phrase can be seen on flags all over Gonzales, Texas.







 
The first battle of the Texas Revolution was fought on October 2, 1835 in Gonzales.  A small group of  Texians successfully resisted the Mexican forces who had orders from to seize their cannon. (A Texian was a resident of Mexican Texas or the Republic of Texas.) As a symbol of defiance, the Texians had fashioned a flag containing the phrase "Come and Take It" along with a black star and an image of the cannon which they had received six years earlier from Mexican officials—this was the same message that was sent to the Mexican government when they told the Texians that they had to return their cannon.

The Old Jailhouse

We began our 10k walk at the Old Jail Museum. 









 
















We continued past the Gonzales County Courthouse, a fabulous landmark built in 1896 in the Romanesque Revival style.  Our route began to follow the town's Historic Driving Tour route as we entered a residential area.  Gonzales (pop. 7237) has a large number of historic homes.  Many of them are well-preserved and have plaques indicating the date of construction and the name of the original owner.  There were homes from the 1850s through about 1915, with a majority from the 1880's and 1890's.  There was an interesting mixture of architectural styles, including Greek revival and Victorian.  Many of the houses featured expansive verandahs.

The walk included Memorial Square and Confederate Square in the downtown area.  Most of the downtown comercial buildings seemed abandoned.

As we passed the Municipal Building a gentleman approached me and asked if I was a visitor.  He welcomed me to Gonzales and told me about the three different self-guided walking tours that are available. (I had indeed noticed a brochure for these walking tours at the Old Jailhouse/Visitor's Center.)

The next destination was the Masonic Cemetery. On the wat back from the cemetery we walked through an uninteresting industrial area behind the municipal building.  Then we headed back into the Historic District.  At one point we saw an old building (built in 1851) that used to be a college.

Our final destination was the Gonzales Memorial Museum and the Eggleston House.  The Museum contains the "Come and Take It Cannon."  Unfortunately, we didn't know that when we were doing the walk, or we would have taken the time to go into the Museum.  This is the kind of information that ought to be included in the walk instructions.  The Museum also memorializes the "Immortal 32," the  32 men from Gonzales who were killed at the Battle of the Alamo.

Walk Route: B-

Walk Instructions: D
(There was no map.  There were no explanations of the points of interest.)