Belton, Texas: The Live Music Capital of Bell County

Belton, Texas is a small town about 30 minutes south of Waco. Head down I-35 S, when you get to Temple, hang a right and you're there!

Established in 1850, Belton is the county seat of Bell County. It was originally named "Nolanville" for the Nolan Springs that were nearby. When Bell county was formed, the town was renamed.  

The county was named for Peter Hansbrough Bell, who was Governor of Texas at the time.

Belton is also the home of the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. Formed in 1845, the original name of the school was Baylor Female College. It was named for R. E. B. Baylor, who also helped form Baylor University. Baylor Female College was coeducational but the sexes were separated. In 1929, the college was in financial straits due to the Great Depression. Mary Hardin was a school teacher from Burkburnett. When she and her husband discovered oil on their property, they became very wealthy. They donated money to the College. In appreciation, the college changed the name to Mary Hardin-Baylor College.

The campus is beautiful! As I mentioned, R. E. B. Baylor was helpful in founding the institution. Baylor was a Judge and a Preacher. He would ride the circuit, hearing cases in various places. Then he would stay in that place until Sunday and preach. He was originally buried in Independence, Texas where the original site of Baylor University was located. In 1885, Baylor University was moved to Waco and merged with Waco University. The people of Independence weren't happy about that. In 1917, Baylor's remains were reinterred at Mary Hardin-Baylor College.

One thing I thought was interesting is that every graduating class made a gift to the school to beautify the grounds. This concrete bench was gifted by the graduating class of 1902. It's the oldest surviving gift on campus. Other gifts include a gazebo, trees, fountains, etc. This was my favorite. All the names from that graduating class are etched into the bench.

At the entrance of the UMHB Campus is this house. It's called the Curtis Mansion. It was built in 1902 by cotton broker William Ray Miller. In 1914, it was sold to Lon and Cora Curtis who lived there for the next 60 years. In 2015, it became property of the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. The house has five bedrooms, three bathrooms and is 5,303 square feet.

In 1907, Belton was the recipient for a grant from Andrew Carnegie for a Library. In 1899, the Wednesday Women's Club, a literary club consisting of 25 members, persuaded Carnegie to donate the $10,000 for the library. The way the deals worked was that Carnegie would fund the construction of the building but the citizens would have to supply the books, run the library and maintain it.  The Wednesday Women's Club donated the books and it was an active library until 1975.

There were 32 such libraries in Texas. Only 13 of the buildings are still standing. Belton is using their building as part of the Bell County Museum.

Speaking of, this is the Bell County Museum. In the early 2000s, this building, called the Guffy Building, was linked to the library through a walkway. I was impressed by the museum. It's free, requesting only donations. To the left of the entrance is a room that has various exhibits. 

When we were there, they had a Bob Hope exhibit that was on loan from the World War II Museum. It was very cool. There was a short documentary on Bob Hope's work with the troops during World War II.

Also on that side of the museum is the Marshall Log Cabin. The one room cabin was built in 1854 by John Marshall when he lived in Little River, Texas.  He later built a farmhouse around this cabin that required the removal on one wall. In 2001, the cabin was donated to and reassembled in the Bell County Museum.

To the right of the entrance of the museum, is the history of Bell County. Located on the first floor of the Carnegie Library are artifacts and placards that relate the history of the county. This particular artifact is the 1917 clock from the Temple National Bank.

Across the street from the museum is the historic U.S. Post Office building. It was built in 1917 and Alvah Ferguson was post master. Alvah was the brother of James Ferguson, who happened to be Governor of Texas at the time. By 1973, the building was in sad shape. A heavy storm saw 1/2 an inch of rain leak into the post office. In 1983, a new post office was built. I'm assuming that repairs were made to this building which now houses the Central Texas Workforce Development Board Administrative Office.

The Coca-Cola Mural in downtown Belton, Texas. The mural predates any of the known slogans used over the years. In October 2002, students from the UMHB art department restored the mural. 

Continuing down Main Street, we come to the beautiful Bell County Courthouse. Built in 1885, this is the third county courthouse to stand in this spot. The first was a log cabin built in 1852. In 1855, that cabin was sold (how weird to actually sell a building and have it carted away) and a new courthouse was built in 1859. The commissioners designed a very fancy and , for the time, costly courthouse at $13,625. None of those commissioners were re-elected. The current courthouse was remodeled in 1950 and the tower and dome were removed. In 1999, the whole courthouse was restored using the original plans.

Behind the Courthouse a little further up Main Street is the Grand Opera House. It was built in 1895. Each floor was built by a different person. When the project ran out of money before it was finished, Martha McWhirter of the Sanctified Sisters came to the rescue.

The Sanctified Sisters were the Women's Commonwealth which was a group of women that formed a commune on land that was inherited by women when their husbands died or when the husbands abandoned them. They all had chores and they ran some businesses in Belton. By 1900, they relocated from Belton to Washington DC.

This is the Cochran, Blair and Potts department store in Downtown Belton. The store opened in 1884 and has been there ever since. They sold dry goods, hardware, drugs and coffins. A veritable one-stop shop! 

Belton was a cool little town. There are about 23,000 people that live there. Right on the city limits there's an HEB, which is one of the bigger employers of the city. While they may not have your standard restaurant chains, they butt right up next to Temple so the citizens can still take advantage of those places while living in small town USA.

Check it out!