Geocode: Washington

Essential to good health, common table salt has been prized for hundreds of centuries. Unlike today, salt was not always so readily available, and colonists and pioneers depended on imports from across the seas. Historically, salt was an integral part of many civilizations. Come to the kitchen and learn about brine for food preservation and mordants, examine colorful varieties and large crystals of halite with a device used by early mineralogists, and inspect Texas and Gulf Coast maps illustrating salt deposit distributions. These aspects of salt and many more are awaiting you this weekend at Barrington!

Essential to good health, common table salt has been prized for hundreds of centuries. Unlike today, salt was not always so readily available, and colonists and pioneers depended on imports from across the seas. Historically, salt was an integral part of many civilizations. Come to the kitchen and learn about brine for food preservation and mordants, examine colorful varieties and large crystals of halite with a device used by early mineralogists, and inspect Texas and Gulf Coast maps illustrating salt deposit distributions. These aspects of salt and many more are awaiting you this weekend at Barrington!

Enslaved men and women, such as Jerry, Mary, Willis, and Jake, were an integral part of the full story of Barrington. Cooking a hot meal after a hard day of work was a daily routine and typically included their ration of cured pork and cornmeal supplemented with seasonal vegetables from their garden. Come join us as we demonstrate cooking a traditional meal in the style of enslaved foodways using period ingredients and methods

Enslaved men and women, such as Jerry, Mary, Willis, and Jake, were an integral part of the full story of Barrington. Cooking a hot meal after a hard day of work was a daily routine and typically included their ration of cured pork and cornmeal supplemented with seasonal vegetables from their garden. Come join us as we demonstrate cooking a traditional meal in the style of enslaved foodways using period ingredients and methods

Sign up to join a hearth cooking school on either Saturday or Sunday, for a class on how to cook a period seasonal meal. No experience needed, but class fills up quickly! Class will run from 9a-2p, and is $45 per person. Contact Laura Fisher at 936-878-2214 x248

Though the weather is cold outside, there’s still much work to be done indoors repairing and conditioning leather harness for the next plowing season. Join us by the warm fire as we give all of our leather gear a once-over. Grab a brush and learn how to care for leather using a period saddle soap, or take a turn sewing on the stitching horse!

**Due to Covid-19, the event will be virtual this year. Stay tuned for more info.
Walk the candlelit paths at Barrington Plantation and experience a Texas Christmas in the decade before the Civil War. Discover the origins of some of our favorite Holiday traditions as costumed interpreters bring to life the festivities of the season with musket-fire, music, dancing and more! Tour the historic home of the last President of the Republic, Dr. Anson Jones, as the family enjoys their Christmas gathering. Visit the plantation’s quarters to hear how the enslaved at Barrington celebrated the season. Sip a hot cup of cider, cozy up to the fire and begin your holiday season with Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site!

**Due to Covid-19, the event will be virtual this year. Stay tuned for more info.
Walk the candlelit paths at Barrington Plantation and experience a Texas Christmas in the decade before the Civil War. Discover the origins of some of our favorite Holiday traditions as costumed interpreters bring to life the festivities of the season with musket-fire, music, dancing and more! Tour the historic home of the last President of the Republic, Dr. Anson Jones, as the family enjoys their Christmas gathering. Visit the plantation’s quarters to hear how the enslaved at Barrington celebrated the season. Sip a hot cup of cider, cozy up to the fire and begin your holiday season with Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site!

What special foods do you enjoy at the holidays? Like you, the Jones family hosted visitors and enjoyed a varied diet full of exotic treats to mark the season. We’ll be making a few of these foods this weekend and talking about many others. Discussions and kitchen activities ongoing.

Dr. Jones noted in his journal on Dec. 29, 1847 – “Hired Mr. Bowen… Sent Him with two hands to Cedar Brake to make rails.” With the main crop fields turned fallow, now is the time to repair and restack fencing around the farm. Come help us clear and build up our fences so that they’ll be ready to defend the new crop in spring!

Dr. Jones noted in his journal on Dec. 29, 1847 – “Hired Mr. Bowen… Sent Him with two hands to Cedar Brake to make rails.” With the main crop fields turned fallow, now is the time to repair and restack fencing around the farm. Come help us clear and build up our fences so that they’ll be ready to defend the new crop in spring!

Mental health treatment looked very different in the 1850’s than current recommendations. We know Dr. Jones suffered from low spirits throughout his life and found it difficult to treat with medicine and advice available to him at the time. Listen to discussions about interventions for mental health maladies ongoing throughout the day.

Mental health treatment looked very different in the 1850’s than current recommendations. We know Dr. Jones suffered from low spirits throughout his life and found it difficult to treat with medicine and advice available to him at the time. Listen to discussions about interventions for mental health maladies ongoing throughout the day.

Butchering livestock was a very necessary way of life in the mid-19th century. Their main source of meat, pork, has been preserved by drying, salting and smoking for centuries. Join us for our annual butchering and curing weekend, where we will be butchering a hog on Saturday and beginning the curing process on Sunday. This program will be ongoing, so if you wish to see every step, you must attend the entire event. Program is dependent on cool weather.

Butchering livestock was a very necessary way of life in the mid-19th century. Their main source of meat, pork, has been preserved by drying, salting and smoking for centuries. Join us for our annual butchering and curing weekend, where we will be butchering a hog on Saturday and beginning the curing process on Sunday. This program will be ongoing, so if you wish to see every step, you must attend the entire event. Program is dependent on cool weather.

What games do you play on a rainy day? Victorian Texans had many imaginative games to entertain themselves without Nintendo’s, Wii’s, TVs, or computers. Play in the past and take home some fun ideas from a world without electronics.

What games do you play on a rainy day? Victorian Texans had many imaginative games to entertain themselves without Nintendo’s, Wii’s, TVs, or computers. Play in the past and take home some fun ideas from a world without electronics.