DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it — this one's mine to pass along. Now, Calvert, Texas has itself a park with layers. And I mean that in every sense of the word.
In 1868, the Houston and Texas Central Railroad gave this land to Calvert for use as a park. Railroad companies weren't always known for their generosity, but there it is — a gift, plain and recorded. That's where the story starts, though the ground itself remembers things that happened even before the gift was made official.
Because just a few years prior, in 1865, somewhere nearby, Company C of the 4th Texas Infantry Regiment — Hood's Texas Brigade — mustered under Major William Townsend. Hood's Texas Brigade. If you've spent any time in Texas, you know that name carries weight.
These men mustered right here in this corner of Robertson County, and the land absorbed it. Then came Reconstruction. And this is where the story gets a little strange, a little dark, and frankly a little difficult to picture — though once you do picture it, you won't soon forget it.
From 1868 to 1873, this park was home to what was called the Sky Parlor. Now, a Sky Parlor sounds almost whimsical, doesn't it? Like somewhere you'd go to watch the clouds roll in.
But here's what it actually was: a room built on a pole — like a tree house — and it served as a prison. A prison for Southern sympathizers during Reconstruction. So while the name floats pleasantly in the air, what happened inside it did not.
People were held up there, suspended above the Texas ground, as the political winds of the era blew hard and cold. The marker is plain about it, and so am I. Time moved on, as time insists on doing.
By 1895, the same Hood's Texas Brigade Association — veterans now, older men carrying memories — came here to be entertained. And that same year, 1895, somebody decided this park deserved something finer. A Victorian pavilion went up.
Two gazebos followed. Built for concerts, gatherings, and dancing. You go from a tree-house prison to a Victorian pavilion in a few decades, and that's Robertson County writing its own complicated chapters.
The Brigade Association came back again in 1912. This ground kept drawing people to it. And then, in 1937, the park received its name — Virginia Field Park — named for a landscaper, Mrs.
Virginia Field. Whatever shape the grounds were in by then, she had tended them, shaped them, cared for them, and Calvert decided that deserved to be remembered. So next time you find yourself in Robertson County, maybe slow down near Calvert.
That Victorian pavilion is still out there. And somewhere in the history of the soil beneath it: a muster, a sky-high prison, a dancing pavilion, and a woman with a gift for growing things. All on land a railroad once handed over and said — here, make something of it.
What the marker says
Land given to Calvert 1868 for use as a park by the Houston & Texas Central Railroad. Co. C, 4th Texas Inf. Regt., Hood's Texas Brigade, under Major Wm. Townsend, mustered nearby, 1865. Was site during Reconstruction, 1868-1873, of "Sky Parlor" (room built on pole, as a tree house) to serve as prison for Southern sympathizers. In 1895 and 1912, Hood's Texas Brigade Association entertained here. The Victorian pavilion and two gazebos were built 1895 for concerts, gatherings, and dancing. The park was named in 1937 for landscaper, Mrs. Virginia Field.