The Country Store

The Court House

Court House Annex

Del Paso Museum

Old Museum House

Police & Fire Station

West Texas Sentinel

The Country Store:  The first floor is filled with farming items.  The second floor has a lot of old farm equipment, parts, etc., on the right half.  The left half is storage for a lot of old cars.  They have even put an old Cadillac car on the roof just to the left of the smoke stack.  The smoke stack is a story in itself.  There is a large furnace on the first floor which was used for the making of powdered eggs for all the troops during World War II.  It was called the "Egg Plant" and eggs were brought in from all over the place.  The GI's from this area kind of held off telling anyone where they were from because not too many of the GI's like powdered eggs. Drawn December 1987

The Lamesa Court House...This is one of two great architectural buildings that was built in Lamesa and then ruined.  You can see on the right side (East), the beautiful large slab of marble above the entrance to the Court House.  This is the way the 4 sides of the building looked when it was originally built.  On the left side (South) the structure that now is offices with the jail on the top floor. The North side has also been ruined by putting the large air conditioning equipment there.  The West side has not been changed and looks like the East side.  Drawn December 1987

The Court House Annex....This building was once the Church of Christ.  It was sold to the city for a few dollars when the congregation got small and they moved to another building.  On the left are the DA's offices.  To the right with the large windows is where the town meetings are held on the first floor.  Downstairs, where the lower windows are located, is where the probation officers are located. Half are the Adult and Juvenile Probations offices are located.  Drawn December 1992

The Lamesa Dal Paso Museum....I was told that the McNew Building was once a Hotel.  There was a Soda Fountain located on the corner. The entrance is in the middle of the building.  When you enter you find yourself in a large room with chairs and an information counter.  To the right is a room with all of the Soda fountain furniture with stools in front of a big mirror.  Just like the old days.   There are stairs that lead up to where there are a lot of rooms filled with different items about the history of Lamesa and the surrounding area.  In the middle is a large room that can be used for displaying things from crafts to art.  Drawn December 1987

Drawn December 1987

Lamesa's Old Museum House....This house was Lamesa's first 3 story house.  It is a Sears/Roebuck house.  When Sears/Roebuck was really growing in the early part of the 20th Century they got into the building of houses.  I saw a program on TV that focuses on famous people and it showed the many different types and styles of houses they had.  They even had a catalog showing them and the price.  They bought up huge amounts of forests, built their own logging and saw mills.  When a house was ordered it was shipped out complete.  Everything that was needed to construct the entire house was loaded on a flat bed and sent by rail.  That's how it came into Lamesa, I was told and that every board was numbered.  The plans showed where every board, window, door, etc., went.  I talked to a man who had done some repair on the house and he said that he had seen some numbers on the ends of the boards when he was replacing some of the siding.  There are communities around the U.S. that consists of nothing but Sear/Roebuck houses.  After the Dal Paso Museum became the town's museum for Lamesa.  I had a student in my class whose parents bought this house.  On Holloween they would fixed it up to be real spooky and invite kids in..  I was told that the house had all kinds of hiding places in it.

Old Police and Fire Station....This is the #2 great architectural building that has been ruined.  All one has to do is look at the entrance to the building to see that at one time this was a beautiful building.  The two beautiful ionic columns attest to that.  The beautiful large slabs of marble stand out on the lower and upper part of the building.  And then there are the bricks.  Why?  I was told that they had drilled holes in the side of the building and put iron rods in them to support the placing of the bricks against the building.  The left part of the building was the police station with the jail.  The right side housed the fire trucks with an office upstairs for the on duty firemen.  The dad of Wilbur Ray, Director of the Adult Probation Office, was the fire chief when Wilbur was born in the late 1920's.  His dad put him on the seat of the fire truck and drove all over town blowing the siren.  His brother Ronnie is the Arson Investigator.

Drawn December 1987

West Texas Sentinels Like old sentinels they stand The windmills of yesterday Some are shiny and new While others are old with decay. They stand to remind us all Of the days when they were grand Pumping water for man and beast Across the West Texas land. Their whirring and gentle knocking When the wind turned each blade. The water tasted so good Sitting in the windmill's shade. Some stand at attention Others are at ease Some are strong and healthy Others have a fatal disease.

Their blades may be missing Decayed boards here and there Warped and crooked legs Hold the windmill in the air No sadder sight can there be Than the passing of a windmill Serving the best it could Now it stands forever still. These West Texas Sentinels Tell their story to one and all. Some have died on the battlefield Others stand ready for their call. Poem by Richard J.D. Regnier Dussart Workshop