Childress owes its shape to a railroad agent. When the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway reached the county in February 1887, two townsites four miles apart, Childress City and Henry, both wanted to be county seat. Childress City won the first election in April, but the court that oversaw the new county threw out the result. R. E. Montgomery, the railroad's townsite agent, favored Henry, where he owned half the lots, and said the rough ground at Childress City would keep the railroad from building a depot there. He offered the Childress City lot owners lots in Henry and offered to rename Henry for them. They agreed, and by September 1887 the businesses and houses had moved to the new Childress.
In 1901 the citizens voted bonds and gave land to win the railroad's division shops and roundhouses, and the town grew to more than 5,000 people by 1910. A young Walter P. Chrysler was general foreman of the Childress shops in 1905 and 1906, years before he built automobiles. The town had voted itself dry in 1904 after a fatal shooting.
The museum occupies the post office built in 1935 on the site of the first Methodist church, a Spanish Colonial building with round-arched windows, a parapet over the entrance and a seven-bay front. When the post office moved in 1981, the building was bought for the museum, and it now tells the story of the town and county.
The closest stops worth working into your route
Roadside plaques and monuments within a short detour