Interpretive Master Plan - Final Bonham, Fannin County, Texas
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Figure 1 (top). Photograph of Sam Rayburn with Four Siblings, October 9, 1957. (University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History) Figure 2 (right). Photograph of Sam Rayburn, Wichita Falls Times and Record News Photographer Jim Cochran, 1951-1961. (University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History) S A M R AYBURN H OUSE M USEUM Interpretive Master Plan - Final Bonham, Fannin County, Texas August 16, 2013 Prepared for: Texas Historical Commission Historic Sites Division 211 East 7 th Street, Suite 915 Austin, Texas 78701 Prepared by: history behind the scenes 24 S. Bank Street #413 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19106 P ART I : I NTRODUCTION Sam Rayburn House Museum Interpretive Master Plan – Final Executive Summary Introduction The goal of the Sam Rayburn House Museum Interpretive Master Plan (IMP) is to determine what interpretive services and techniques will best communicate the most important stories, values, meanings and ideas of the site to the visiting public while preserving and utilizing the extant historic structures and site features. Part I: Statement of Significance The Sam Rayburn House Museum is a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. As the home of Samuel Taliaferro (Sam) Rayburn, a Texas Congressman and the longest serving Speaker of the United States House of Representatives who guided President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal programs through that body, it has historic significance in two areas: United States History and Texas History. In 1914, during the first of his twenty-four congressional terms, Sam Rayburn purchased 121 acres of land in Bonham, Fannin County, Texas with his brother Tom. There they launched a farming operation and built a family house, still extant on the site. Sam Rayburn’s home became the headquarters for his political life when he was in Texas. He received local constituents and heads of state in its sitting room and held political and other public events on its grounds. Rayburn’s family of adult siblings, who lived in the house, became his local political apparatus. Together, he, his family and his home created and supported the image and good works of “Mr. Sam.” Sam Rayburn left his home, farm and possessions to the Sam Rayburn Foundation, who eventually turned the property over to the State of Texas. It opened to the public as the Sam Rayburn House Museum on April 1, 1975. Part II: Interpretive Master Plan One purpose of the interpretive master planning process for the Sam Rayburn House Museum is to create, interpretive themes, goals and objectives which support the current mission. Collectively they form the infrastructure which defines the reasons the site exists and has historical significance. Within Part II, Chapter 1 covers the site mission and the development of interpretive themes, goals, and objectives. Chapter 2 explores interpretive resources such as research, collections use, exhibit design concepts, interpretive venues and physical resources. It history behind the scenes Part I – Introduction (I)1 Sam Rayburn House Museum Interpretive Master Plan – Final makes recommendations in the areas of collections and interpretive venues. Chapter 3 focuses on the site interpretive program through a review of current and past public programs, an examination of interpretive tools, a proposal for expanded public program offerings and related recommendations. Chapter 4 looks at audience evaluation. It provides an overview, a market profile of the current audience, appraises school groups as part of that audience and makes suggestions for expanding the audience. Part III: Conclusion Part III is divided into three sections. Projected Expenses discusses budget and expense issues, including a project budget for interpretive elements, project expense estimates for exhibits and physical resources. Annotated Bibliography contains a comprehensive bibliography for the project. It includes interpretive and physical resource references. Contributors is a listing of all those who participated in the project. Recommendations The Sam Rayburn House Museum Interpretive Master Plan makes a series of recommendations throughout the report for the development of the site, including: o Develop a more detailed furnishing plan for Rayburn House to assist in seasonal exhibit changes at Rayburn House. o Expand use of social media to market the site and to enhance interpretive programs. o Redesign some current and develop new interpretive programs and exhibits in accordance with the interpretive themes, goals and objectives developed for this report. o Cultivate ongoing and seek out new Community Partnerships. Develop wayfinding and exhibit panels on the grounds to improve site navigation. o Change the site name to Sam Rayburn House State Historic Site to create a stronger identity and avoid confusion with Sam Rayburn Museum. o Plan for future Maintenance Facility to alleviate pressure put on historic structures, such as the smoke house, pump house and barn, that now house maintenance activities and/or are used as storage space for essential supplies. o Plan for future Visitor Center to allow site to, among other considerations, develop a higher level of public programs, provide upgraded amenities for visitors, increase visitation and visibility with its region, allow display for large collections pieces, such as agricultural machinery, and provide updated collections storage facility. history behind the scenes Part I – Introduction (I)2 Sam Rayburn House Museum Interpretive Master Plan – Final Introduction Scope The Sam Rayburn House Museum (SRHM), located in Bonham, Fannin County, Texas, is owned and operated by the Texas Historical Commission (THC). Like all of its kindred institutions, it has two separate and distinct components that make up its history: its historical past and its present status . To align these two sides so that they may rejuvenate SRHM public program offerings and gain visibility in local and regional communities for the site, the THC contracted with History Behind the Scenes, a consulting firm, to develop an Interpretive Master Plan (IMP). The goal of the plan is to determine what interpretive services and techniques will best communicate the most important stories, values, meanings and ideas of the site to the visiting public and to identify methods for instituting them at SRHM. The plan focused on desired learning, as well as behavioral and emotional outcomes. It created themes and goals that will serve as a tool to justify and prioritize decisions about programs and exhibits so that resources can be used to maximum effect. As part of the IMP process, staff and consultants conducted an audience/ market evaluation, assessed museum collections use, appraised public program offerings , reviewed physical resources and examined exhibit development concepts. They met with community stakeholders, considered a variety of interpretive media and conducted research at a number of locations and from materials provided by the Texas Historical Commission Historical Past Samuel Taliaferro Rayburn, the eighth of eleven children was born near Kingston, Roane County, Tennessee on January 6, 1882 to William Marion and Martha Waller Rayburn. His father, a farmer, was a former Confederate Cavalryman who had served under General Robert E. Lee during the Civil War. The family moved to Fannin County, Texas in 1887 and settled on a farm near Windom. Sam Rayburn attended the rural schools and was graduated from the East Texas Normal College (now Texas A&M/ Commerce) in Commerce, Texas in 1903. His political career began in 1906, when he won a seat in the Texas House of Representatives at the age of twenty-four. Simultaneously, he studied law at the University of Texas at Austin, was admitted to the bar in 1908 and set up a law practice in Bonham, Fannin County, Texas. In 1911, Rayburn was elected Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives. He was twenty-nine years old. The following year Sam Rayburn was elected to the United States House of Representatives from the 4 th Texas Congressional District. He was sworn in on April 7, 1913. In 1914, during his first term in Congress, Sam Rayburn and his brother Tom purchased a 121 acre farm in Bonham for $6000. Their plan was to start a farming operation, to be managed by history behind the scenes Part I – Introduction (I)3 Sam Rayburn House Museum Interpretive Master Plan – Final Tom, and to build a home for their aging parents, themselves and their sister Lucinda. The house, which is the focal point of the Sam Rayburn House Museum, was completed in 1916, the year of William Rayburn’s death. Rayburn House, and the farm it sat on, became the focal point of Sam Rayburn’s political life in Texas as well as his home for forty-five years (the rest of his life). He became “Mr. Sam” and received everyone from local constituents to heads of state in the sitting room. Sam held political and campaign events on its grounds. His brother Tom ran farming and ranching operations for the family from the site. All of this would not have been possible without the behind the scenes support of his family of adult children and the changing cast of residents at Rayburn House. Sam Rayburn, his parents, his brother Tom and sister Lucinda were the first residents of Rayburn House. After his father’s death, Rayburn, his mother, brother and sister continued to live in the house. In 1927, Minnie Eldridge, a Rayburn cousin from Tennessee, joined the household as a companion for Lucinda Rayburn after her mother’s death. Minnie had a career of her own as Fannin County Home Demonstration Agent while Lucinda became her brother’s official hostess. When Minnie returned to Tennessee to marry in 1937, Medibel Rayburn Bartley and her husband Edward joined the household at the request of her brother Sam. In 1940, Tom Rayburn married and moved to a house near SRHM, but continued to manage the farm operation.