Wallisville Heritage Park

WHP
Kevin Ladd, Director

WALLISVILLE HERITAGE PARK

IS STEEPED IN LOCAL HISTORY

Located in Chambers County halfway between Beaumont and Houston, the Wallisville Heritage Park has often been described as one of the best-kept secrets in Southeast Texas.

In addition to operating a museum and archives on Chambers County history, the facility includes a genealogy library and research center filled with approximately 2,000 books. The center also boasts some seven hundred vertical files on pioneer families of the county. The library and vertical files are open to the public at no charge.

Although genealogists can stop in and visit the library at any time, there is also a local genealogy group that holds monthly meetings in the library in the fourth Friday of each month. Membership in the club is free. Anyone interested in attending a meeting can gather up their family genealogy records, a brown bag lunch and drop in for one of the meetings.

Heritage Park Director Kevin Ladd says the library and museum has always followed a relaxed atmosphere. Many folks visit the library on a regular basis, bring along a sack lunch or cooler, and just spend the day there. Researchers are welcome to eat lunch in a small kitchen in the museum.

The research center has previously published two books dealing with local history. "Chambers County: A Pictorial History" was published back in 1988 and received the T. R. Fehrenbach Award from the Texas Historical Commission. A more recent publication, "Chambers County, Texas in the War Between the States," written by Ladd, covers the lives of 205 Confederate and 11 Union veterans from the county. The book recently earned Ladd an award from the Sons of Confederate Veterans, who inducted him into their Bonnie Blue Society.

The staff of the museum is currently working on several future book projects dealing with various records from the Chambers County Courthouse. The first project will cover Chambers County marriage records. Ladd says he is also working on a cookbook with recipes organized along historical time periods. The museum is trying to contact anyone who ever lived in Wallisville and other towns in the county. The museum also has an active volunteer group. Additional volunteers are always needed and can assist with various projects.

The Wallisville Heritage Park is open on Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is located at Exit 807 on Interstate 10 at Wallisville in Chambers County. For additional information, call the museum at 409-389-2252.