Cultural Landscape

The preparation of a Cultural Landscape Report for the core acreage of Bassett Farms has been completed by MIG, Inc. The site history was prepared by Preservation Texas staff. Funding for the report included a grant of $50,000 from the Still Water Foundation and $30,000 from the Texas Historical Commission’s Texas Preservation Trust Fund.

The report focuses on the core of the 2,400-acre property: the original Home Place (1871), the Blum Place (1887), and the Hirshfield Place (1897). MIG identifies and analyzes cultural landscape features and characteristics, making recommendations for their long-term treatment.

The report also recommends the listing of the entire property in the National Register of Historic Places, and summarizes the property’s significance as follows:

As a surviving and substantial visual record of the broad patterns of land settlement as well as the intricate details of development, Bassett Farms is a significant cultural landscape in the history of the region and of Texas. It reveals the way this landscape was settled and used on a daily, seasonal, or yearly basis. This cultural landscape tells the story of early settlers, the Reconstruction Era Freedom Colonies, and the ups and downs of this life from the mid-19th century through the mid-20th century. It is the record of the aspiration and challenges to establish a life — a good life — in a time and context that were never easy, yet clearly rewarding in many ways, and over time.

Pond at the Bassett Home Place.