Origins of Freedman's Town

Located in Houston's Fourth Ward, the original Freedman's Town settlement was founded soon after the emancipation of enslaved blacks on June 19, 1865, at the end of the Civil War in Texas. Positioned west of downtown and directly south of ...

Houston Cotton Exchange and Board of Trade

Founded in 1874 to facilitate trade in the expanding cotton market. This Victorian renaissance revival edifice, designed by Eugene T. Heiner, was built in 1884-85 by contractors Max Kosse and James S. Lucas. The exchange room and galleries were situated ...

Five-Masted Beauty

A brief shipbuilding boom following WWI put the shipyard owned by the Mathews Brothers woodworking mill back in business. The building of the Jennie Flood Kreger, Belfast's largest and only five-masted ship, was overseen by company president Orlando Frost. Frost's ...

Broiler Capital of the World

Belfast in the mid-20th century was firmly established as "Broiler Capital of the World". Hundreds of thousands of chickens were raised in giant barns throughout Waldo County. At the peak of the industry 22,000 birds per hour were made ready ...

The Oldest Manufacturer

Mathews Brothers Company, started in 1854 by Spencer Mathews and his two brothers, is the oldest manufacturing company in Belfast. After fire destroyed the original factory in 1873 (panel #24), the company reopened just 70 days later on this site. ...

First Cedar Encampment

Iron ore having been discovered at Iron Springs, Brigham Young called missionaries to Iron County to make iron. A militia of 35 men was organized in Parowan, Nov. 5, 1851, under Captain Henry Lunt. Part of the company left Nov. ...

Pioneer Iron Works Blast Furnace

Utah Historic Site

To satisfy an urgent need for manufactured iron products, a small group of English, Welch, Scotch, Irish and American pioneers answered a call from Brigham Young to become "Iron Missionaries" to settle Iron County and to make iron. ...

Chaffin Grist Mill

In 1866 Louis R. Chaffin, at the request of Apostle Erastus Snow, placed a gristmill in Cedar City. His son, Henry, ran it until 1868 when Louis returned from "The Muddy." Adjoining land was purchased in 1875. Excavation by Alva ...

Lafayette at Corbin’s Bridge

Pursued by British Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton, the Marquis de Lafayette camped just west of here near Corbin’s Bridge on 2 June during the campaign of 1781. Commanding more than 3,000 Continental soldiers and militia, Lafayette sought to move northward ...

Fredericksville Furnace

Charles Chiswell established the iron-making community of Fredericksville near this point of Douglas Run, a tributary of the North Anna River. The furnace had been in blast for about five years when William Byrd in 1732 toured the site in ...