Marion County Depression Era Roadside Park

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. You're rolling through Marion County now, and if you slow down just a little, you might notice a roadside park that has more history packed into it than most folks would ever guess from the picnic tables. Let me tell you about it.

Back during the Great Depression, when the country was on its knees and people needed work and purpose in equal measure, President Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration was out here trying to answer that call. And the National Youth Administration, the NYA, took on this particular patch of ground. Development began in 1935, after the Mary Louise Hussey family conveyed the land over for the purpose.

That's worth sitting with for a moment. A family gave up that land so something good could be built, something that would belong to everybody passing through. The work took a few years, and when it was done, in 1938, what stood here was a place where residents and travelers alike could pull over, rest their bones, and share a meal under the open sky.

A pleasant venue, the marker calls it, and in the midst of some of the hardest years this country ever saw, pleasant was no small thing. But time, as it tends to do, had its way with the place. The park fell into disrepair.

Sat there quietly going to seed, the way neglected things do. That might have been the end of the story. It wasn't.

In 2008, something stirred. Attentive citizens and organizations, the Marion County Historical Commission, and state agencies all decided this place was worth saving, and they cooperated to restore it and earn it a listing in the National Register of Historic Places. A Depression-era park, built by young people who needed work, on land given by a family who believed in something, restored by a community that hadn't forgotten.

That's the kind of story a roadside park doesn't usually get to tell.

What the marker says

This roadside park was constructed by the National Youth Administration (NYA) with the support of President Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration (WPA) during the Great Depression. Development began in 1935, after the Mary Louise Hussey family conveyed the land upon which the park would be located. Following its completion in 1938, the park provided residents and travelers a pleasant venue for resting and picnicking. The park eventually fell into disrepair. In 2008, attentive citizens and organizations, the Marion County Historical Commission, and state agencies cooperated in the park’s restoration and its listing in the National Register of Historic Places. 175 Years of Texas Independence 1836 - 2011