Protecting Round Top
On Thursday afternoon, I gave a speech to those in attendance at the Round Top town meeting. The meeting drew a large crowd
due to Mayor Vincent’s announcement of the idea to add a paved parking lot in the green space in front of the Bethlehem Lutheran Church. The idea was the result of the city trying to solve the problem of businesses not providing adequate parking for their customers. Vincent tried to make the claim that the church will benefit from the lot, though it is essentially on top of the children’s playground at the church, and lies in the view of the stone altar where Easter and wedding services are commonly held. Many members of the church can also attest that our small congregation does not need more parking, especially further from the Sanctuary. My speech, found below, received a standing ovation and several townspeople in attendance asked me to submit my it to the Fayette County Record.
Hi, I’m Avery Nelius, the daughter of Travis and Ashley Nelius. I am a senior at Round Top Carmine High School. I hold various officesin 4-H and FFA, and I’m on multiple varsity sports teams. Before I get any comments or thoughts, assuming that I am too young to be speaking on this matter, I would like to say that the assumption is not only immature and disrespectful to me, but it is incorrect. I am a 6th-generation Texan, and my family is blessed to have spent all 6 generations in the unfortunately changing town of Round Top. I have spent all 17 years of my life living in this quiet town, longer than some of you even knew it existed. The most I have spent away from here is a variety of vacations exploring our state and country, and I can confidently say that nowhere compares to the hometown I think of from almost a decade ago.
The Bethlehem Lutheran Church was established in 1866 by my ancestor Carl Bauer, a German immigrant, years before the
town was founded. This is the same church I was blessed enough to get baptized in, take my first communion, learn about the Bible, and get confirmed in. Unfortunately, this is also the same church where I said goodbye to my grandmother at her funeral. My earliest memories are at this church, making some of my closest friends, spending summer days playing in the field at vacation bible school, practicing and performing Christmas plays, worshipping at many Easter services at the stone altar, and racing around
in the grass to collect Easter eggs. This is a congregation that I know I can turn to for support and encouragement.
As the future of this community, the decision to turn this church field into a parking lot is not one that I will take lightly. The town of Round Top is not the town of Houston, one our mayor would know a lot about. As I stated previously, the exact field that has been proposed to be turned into a parking lot is one that I have memories of playing sharks and minnows in as a kid. The exact church field that has been proposed to be turned into a parking lot is the one where I have celebrated Easter with my family. The exact church field that has been proposed to be turned into a parking lot is the one where I have admired many wildlife and wildflowers each spring. The exact church field that has been proposed to be turned into a parking lot is one that our church has budgeted to build a fence around to protect it from trespassers during the antique fair. I could continue with all the ways this field has impacted me and the community, but that is not something an outsider can understand.
This is a piece of Round Top that the church has carefully protected, taken care of, and respected for the last almost 160 years.
I can attest that almost every time I pass the church, I see local families working to keep the property clean, neat, and presentable
for all visitors.
I am sure that many true locals can attest that this is about more than just taking church property to find more parking. Not
only are we losing what Round Top used to be, but we are losing a part of the original town that the true locals love. The town of
Round Top is being commercialized and redesigned so that newcomers can add to their net worth. I can speak for many of us that
not only do we feel disrespected, but we feel that our heritage and our family ties to the town have been ignored and outright disregarded. It is not something that any local asked for, appreciated, or wanted. The powers that are in Round Top don’t live here because of the history, beauty of the town, or their heritage. They are here to destroy, change, and control.
Thank you all for your time and consideration to this matter.