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UPCOMING EVENTS AND PRESERVATION EFFORTS:

Save the date! Please join the LHS at 2pm on Sunday, September 17th, at the Slaton Harvey House for a free program on "How the Santa Fe Railroad Arrived in the South Plains" given by Tony Privett .

 


PAST EVENTS:

The LHS held its annual meeting on May 7, 2023, at the Texas Tech Museum. TTU University Archivist and LHS President Lynn Whitfield will give a presentation titled "Texas Tech: A Centennial Celebration" and attendees were encourage to tour the TTU Centennial exhibit.

On March 30, 2023, the LHS hosted a tour of the Millard Sheets art works installed in the Lubbock County offices. Millard Owen Sheets was an American artist, teacher, and architectural designer whose large scale mosaic murals adorn commercial buildings around the U.S. Over time, his installed mosaics have become endangered or even destroyed when the buildings they reside in are renovated or demolished. (See online articles "Millard Sheets Mosaics" and  "The Iconic Murals of Millard Sheets are Disappearing from LA")

 

Destination Downtown Lubbock

Join the LHS for its annual meeting on February 11, 2018 from 2-4 p.m. in the Formby Room, TTU Southwest Collection. The general public is most welcome and light refreshments will be served.

Destination Downtown, the program theme, features Beth Whitley Duke, Executive Director of Center City Amarillo, a Texas Main Street City. Her presentation is titled ?The Main Street Way: Celebrating the Past. Building the Future.?

Duke will share the Main Street Program road map that is helping make Amarillo?s historic downtown a destination neighborhood through historic preservation, community events, and public/private partnerships, meeting or exceeding state and national standards for recognition as a Main Street City. For more information, please call 806-392-4949.


Lubbock, the Largest City on the South Plains

In 1890 local citizens founded Lubbock. The town grew slowly at first, but after 1909, when the Santa Fe Railroad arrived, the city expanded, reaching a population of over 4, 000 people in 1920. Continued growth followed, and in 1952, when workers found a 16th century Spanish dagger in the alley behind the Coca-Cola Bottling plant at 16th Street and Texas Avenue, the population stood at 70,000 inhabitants.

Lubbock, with a population of 210,000 in 2009, sits in the heart of a huge agricultural region, the Llano Estacado, a high, flat plateau with rich soils and until recently abundant water supplies. Indeed, the availability of water in part encouraged various Indian peoples to camp in the area around the future site of Lubbock and they in turn helped to determine the routes of Spanish expeditions, including that of Francisco Vazquez de Coronado  in 1541, across the region. Eventually, such important water courses as Yellow House and Blackwater draws led to permanent settlement at Lubbock.


The Federal Building is one of downtown Lubbock's architectural treasures, the beautiful period woodwork of its top-floor courthouse now in danger of destruction from a leaking roof.

Through the years, such settlement brought farmers, businessmen, and townspeople to Lubbock. The people, especially, but in addition agricultural, educational, and medical expansion represent keys to the city's economic growth and to its development as a regional transportation and marketing hub. And, in 2009, a short century after its incorporation, Lubbock remained not only the largest city on the South Plains but also one that could trace its roots through a deep past.

~by Paul Carlson for "Medieval Southwest: Manifestations of the Old World in the New. Texas Tech University, 2009"


The LHS continues to make great progress on restoring the Underwood Pullman Car.
View the brochure of the history of the Underwood Pullman Car

Donate to the restoration of the Underwood Pullman Car



Welcome to the Lubbock Heritage Society's official website

The Lubbock Heritage Society began as a result of a two-year effort by the Junior League of Lubbock, Inc., to bring together those people in our community interested in preserving the city's colorful heritage. On a snowy January evening in 1979, over 90 persons attended an initial planning meeting, and two months later, the group incorporated itself as the Lubbock Heritage Society with 75 charter members. The Society also sponsored exhibits during the city's art festivals, sent representatives to appear before various city commissions on behalf of historic preservation issues, and initiated landmark designation requests for historic structures within the city.

The purpose of the Society is to discover, memorialize, encourage, promote, maintain, and support the preservation of the history, cultural heritage, and architecture of Lubbock, Texas, and the surrounding area.

The Lubbock Heritage Society is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with full financial accountability. We are happy to accept your donations, which are tax-deductible according to IRS guidelines. Thank you for your help!

 

Since the founding of the Lubbock Heritage Society, members have given generously of their time and talents to help preserve Lubbock's most endangered historic assets. Join us now!

Your gift to the Lubbock Heritage Society aids historic preservation in our community!


For more on the LHS's activities please check out our Facebook page.


Historic Preservation Resources

Interested in historic preservation? The LHS has a list of local, state and national resources available, including books for sale written by our own members. Click here.

Our latest book pictured below is now available for purchase. KYFO interviewed one of the book's authors, Pam Brink, about the preservation of Lubbock's history. The interview can be heard here.

Press release with more information on the book and its authors.

"It is better to preserve than repair; it is better to repair than restore; it is better to restore than reconstruct." ~ National Trust for Historic Preservation

A new book about the South Plains Army Airfield by Donald R. Abbe was released on 4/28/14. To purchase the book directly from Arcadia Publishing go here. The book is also available on Amazon.

Lubbock Heritage Society, P. O. Box 5443, Lubbock, Texas 79408 (806) 392.4949, LubbockHeritageSociety@gmail.com