Virginia Field Park

The plaque's Sky Parlor belonged to an occupied town. The 1977 National Register nomination records federal troops posted within today's city limits in 1867, residents set on making their stay unpleasant, and the soldiers' name for the place, the Yankee Hell Hole. The Handbook adds a brief occupation early in 1870. The soldiers served in a county where, the Handbook says, freed people were often targets of White vigilantes. The park's 1895 pavilion, an octagon under a two-tiered roof, followed a New York architect's design; it and the two gazebos stand within the Calvert Historic District.

What the plaque says

Virginia Field Park Land given to Calvert 1868 for use as a park by the Houston & Texas Central Railroad. Co. C, 4th Texas Inf. Regt., Hood's Texas Brigade, under Major Wm. Townsend, mustered nearby, 1865. Was site during Reconstruction, 1868-1873, of "Sky Parlor" (room built on pole, as a tree house) to serve as prison for Southern sympathizers. In 1895 and 1912, Hood's Texas Brigade Association entertained here. The Victorian pavilion and two gazebos were built 1895 for concerts, gatherings, and dancing. The park was named in 1937 for landscaper, Mrs. Virginia Field. (1968)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Calvert — 0.5 mi
  A railroad cotton town of 1868 on State Highway 6 that claimed the largest cotton gin in the world and elected Black men to county and state office during Reconstruction.
• Milam County Courthouse and Jail — 20 mi
  Cameron's 1892 Renaissance Revival courthouse and the 1895 St. Louis-built jail beside it, now the county museum, are listed together on the National Register.

More markers nearby

• The Parish Carriage House — steps away
• First Baptist Church of Calvert — steps away
• Sneed Memorial Methodist Church — 0.3 mi
• Casimir Drugstore — 0.4 mi