Washington-on-the-Brazos

Washington lost its future over a bonus it would not pay. In 1858 the Houston and Texas Central asked the town for $11,000 to run its line through, and townspeople, counting on the river, refused. The rails went to Hempstead, to Navasota in 1859, and a county railroad reached Brenham in 1860. Residents followed the trade. By 1891 a Presbyterian church was the last building of the old town still standing. Brenham schoolchildren raised a monument at Independence Hall's site in 1899, and in the 1930s the town ran two schools, one for African American children.

What the plaque says

Washington-on-the-Brazos This village -- site of the signing of the Texas Declaration of Independence and first capital of the Republic of Texas -- began in 1822 as a ferry crossing. Here the historic La Bahia Road (now Ferry Street) spanned the Brazos River. In 1834 a townsite was laid out and named, probably for Washington, Georgia, home of a leading settler. In 1835, as political differences with Mexico led toward war, the General Council (the insurgent Texas government) met in the town. Enterprising citizens then promoted the place as a site for the Convention of 1836 and, as a "bonus," provided a free meeting hall. Thus, Texas' Declaration of Independence came to be signed in an unfinished building owned by a gunsmith. The Provisional Government of the Republic was also organized in Washington, but was removed, March 17, as news of the advancing Mexican Army caused a general panic throughout the region. The townspeople fled too on March 20, 1836, in the "Runaway Scrape." After the Texan victory at San Jacinto, the town thrived for a period. It was again capital of Texas, 1842-1845; and became center of Washington State Park, 1916. It now contains historic buildings and "Barrington," home of Anson Jones, the last President of Texas. (1969)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site — steps away
  The townsite on the Brazos where delegates met in a cold, unfinished hall in March 1836 to declare Texas independent, with Independence Hall rebuilt and Anson Jones's Barrington farm worked as in 1850.
• Star of the Republic Museum — steps away
  A star-shaped museum of the Republic of Texas years, 1836 to 1846, built at Washington-on-the-Brazos after a Brenham campaign and opened on March 1, 1970.
• Navasota — 5.9 mi
  A railroad and cotton town where the La Bahia Road crossed the Navasota River, scarred by an 1865 explosion and yellow fever, and the home ground of the songster Mance Lipscomb.
• Independence and Old Baylor Park — 12 mi
  A crossroads north of Brenham that was the richest town in Texas when it won Baylor University in 1845, refused the railroad, and lost the college to Waco and Belton in 1886.

More markers nearby

• Washington County — steps away
• George Campbell Childress Statue — steps away
• Andrew Robinson Sr. — steps away
• Asa Brigham — 0.8 mi