Hop in for Our (3rd Annual!) Drive Across Fayette County

Even if the calendar doesn’t quite say it’s Spring, Mother Nature certainly says it’s here.

And for the third consecutive year, we decided to leave the newsroom behind for a day, hit the road and drive wondrously and aimlessly for a day around Fayette County to celebrate the end of winter.

We saw the site of the state’s first college, the world’s smallest active Catholic church, fancy cheese, really expensive boots, and had an amazing lunch.

We’ve got an open seat in my pick-up, so come along ...

It was a beautiful Friday morning. Reporter Andy Behlen grabbed a map and his camera. Record retiree H.H. “Pancho” Howze brought a pair of binoculars, and we were off.

We headed west from our newspaper in downtown La Grange over the newly renovated truss bridge over the Colorado River and then turned southwest onto FM 609.

Our first stop was the under- construction Holy Rosary Catholic Church atop a hill that’s one of the higher points in the county.

The previous church was destroyed by a gas explosion back in 2022. Now after a few years of planning, work is progressing quickly on the first new Catholic church in the Diocese in over 40 years.

But luckily the construction crew only works Monday- Thursday, so church staff members Roxann Redding and Miguel Rios opened up the gates and let us walk in for a tour.

The concrete has been poured and the massive steel beams are up – Roxann even gave us a marker to sign some of the beams. When it’s done (around Easter time next spring) it will be a beautiful tribute to enduring faith.

We even got to see some of the charred items that survived the explosion and the pair of more-than-a-centuryold refurbished bells that will sit in the massive steeple.

Then it was back onto 609 heading towards Flatonia.

Right before we got to town, a series of igloo-like structures beckoned. We turned off into Flatonia Glamping RV Retreat where we walked among a series of the most futuristic overnight shipping containers and dome rentals anywhere in Fayette County.

We drove into downtown Flatonia and parked on Penn Street right in front of the nowshuttered Friendly Tavern, and then walked over to the Flatonia Argus newspaper office.

Editor Melanie Berger and Publisher/Owner Paul Prause showed us around the charming office of what is Fayette County’s oldest newspaper, established in 1877. The duo do an amazing job of covering this corner of the county – and they have the statewide awards to prove it.

Before we left, Prause gave us a gift, copies of the April 7, 1994 issue of the Argus with the front page story from when he and Maxine Vyvjala purchased the newspaper.

Getting from one of Flatonia’s oldest businesses to one of its newest was just a short walk across Penn Street. We stopped by Fayette County Outfitters which was just opened about six months ago by Kevin and Kristen Laney.

They had all sorts of western wear, hats, fishing gear and guitars.

Andy grabbed one of those guitars off the shelf and wowed us with his playing ability (he used to play/sing in a band prior to his Record career).

Fayette County Outfitters even has a new outdoor stage area they plan to use increasingly for community gatherings and open mic nights. Nearby infrastructure is going in for a food-truck-friendly plaza.

The Laney’s daughter, Taylor, is the driving force behind Darlin’s Diner just down the block, the restaurant that, since opening in 2020, has regularly been voted the best place to get breakfast in Fayette County. Between Darlin’s and Fayette County Outfitters is the Flatonia Rail Museum which just happened to be open Friday morning (it’s also open Saturdays). We popped inside and Dennis Olsovsky gave us a tour of the place, which includes some amazing model train displays. Dennis turned them all on for us and gave us some train history of Flatonia.

Flatonia is one of the few places in the country with rail lines leading in all four directions, and the town’s growth was linked to the railroads.

Pancho, a prolific rail passenger, bought an Amtrak hat there.

By then it was nearly lunchtime and we headed to one of the best lunch places in the county, Jaime’s Cafe, which is housed inside the Flatonia Auction Barn.

Auctions in Flatonia are on Mondays but the place was still hopping on this Friday.

Baseball and softball tournaments were going on in town, and one lucky bus load of kids was fueling up at Jamie’s between games.

We all ordered the fried catfish and shrimp plate, which comes with three different sides (I chose the broccoli salad, the fried cabbage and the cucumber salad) and a dessert. It was all amazing.

Pancho took home enough leftovers for another entire meal.

Then we had to leave Flatonia and head back to La Grange – Pancho had an afternoon doctor’s appointment that cut his day with us short.

So it was just Andy and I from there on out. After dropping off Pancho we drove east out of La Grange and turned onto Rocky Creek Road, where supposedly the old Chicken Ranch used to be. We found a couple of clearings that might have been the turn-off for the brothel, which closed in 1973, but the no trespassing signs were aplenty, so we heeded the warnings.

From Rocky Creek Road we turned right onto Ruether Road and then left onto Old College Road towards Rutersville.

There atop a hill, two large historic markers on either side of the highway got our attention.

This was the site of Rutersville College, which as the big granite Texas Centennial Marker there states was “the first institution of higher learning in Texas, recommended in 1837 by Martin Ruter, D.D. chartered as a Methodist School in 1840, granted four leagues of land by the Republic of Texas.”

Now the only sign of higher education there is a Little Free Library by the marker.

Across the road is the burial place of the college’s first President, Reverand Chauncey Richardson, who came here from Vermont.

The college’s student body grew from 63 students in 1840 to a peak of 194 students in 1844, but a series of factors eventually led to its closure, though the still-thriving Southwestern University in Georgetown was formed out of the remnants of Rutersville College.

The entire campus of Rutersville College was demolished more than a century ago, but the school bell from Rutersville’s Main Building is on display at the campus at Southwestern.

From the old college grounds, we made the short trip into Rutersville and then turned on Highway 237 towards Warrenton.

There the antiques vendors were out in full force setting up for the spring shows. We drove around Bar W Field and chatted with Belva Urban and her daughter Renee from Industry as they were unloading a truck of antique furniture to sell.

Then we walked over and chatted with antiques vendors Gwen and Ken Freeman from Carmine, who have been selling a wide variety of antiques in the same spot for 15-16 years, they said.

I almost bought a set of their old dominos.

Right outside of Warrenton sits St. Martin’s Catholic Church, recognized as the world’s smallest active Catholic church.

We stopped by the quiet chapel that stood in stark contrast to all the activity in the nearby antique fields. Inside were beautiful paintings, and a tabernacle.

Built in 1915 from salvaged materials of an earlier 1888 church, it only holds about 20 people on its old wooden benches. But it still holds a monthly mass, normally the first Tuesday of every month at 8 a.m.

From Warrenton we headed to Round Top, and parked, exploring downtown there on foot. There was a “sidewalk sale” at one of the boutiques there that included several pairs of cowboys boots, one pair selling for $1,695.

The antique wooden table the boots were on were also for sale – for $15,000!

We stopped inside The Little Cheese Shop in Henkel Square, where, housed inside an old 1830s building, Melissa Steele told us about some of the exotic cheeses they have for sale, along with unique pastas and candies.

Finally we walked over to Round Top Brewing where we each grabbed a pint of their unique beers, found a couple of rocking chairs and toasted a fun trip across Fayette County.

Our final mileage was 85.1 miles, but what an amazing cross-section of Fayette County we saw in that span.