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On Hwy 290 between
Johnson
City and Stonewall,
just east of Gillespie
County line.
The Hye General
Store and Post Office was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark
in 1966.
LBJ swore in Postmaster General Lawrence O'Brien here. It's safe
to assume Mr. O'Brien traveled considerably further for the ceremony
than did Mr. Johnson. Hye was named for Hiram G. Brown, the settler
who established the Post Office in 1886.
The population of Hye has never exceeded 200.
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Hye
Society
by Michael
Barr
Hye, Texas is a tiny rural community
on U. S. Highway 290 between Fredericksburg
and Johnson City, about four
miles from the LBJ
Ranch. The highway is wedged between the store and the old gas
station across the street.
The store building is an aging wooden structure of Bavarian design
that sits just a little too close to the highway. Eighty years ago
the store carried everything from calico to horse collars, but today
it seems more like a museum than anything else.
President Johnson
selected this folksy setting for the O'Brien ceremony because at
heart Johnson was a sentimental man. More than any president since
Washington and Jefferson of Virginia, LBJ had a rock-solid sense
of place. He loved his home in the Texas
Hill Country and couldn't understand why everyone didn't feel
the same way.
The president's attachment to Hye
went back as far as he could remember. He mailed his first letter
at the post office, to his Grandmother Johnson, at age four....
more
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More Hye, Texas
Landmarks:
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Texas
Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history
and vintage/historic photos, please contact
us. |
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