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MALAKOFF,
TEXAS Henderson
County, East Texas
On Hwy 31
8 Miles West of Athens
27 miles East of Corsicana
80 miles SE of Dallas
Population: 2323 ( 2007est.) 2,257 (2000) |
| History
in a Pecan Shell
Malakoff joins Odessa,
Moscow and Sebastopol
on the list of towns in Texas named after places in the former Soviet Union. Like
many Texas towns, Malakoff started out under a different name. Actually two.
Caney Creek (whose name is still found just north of town) and Mitcham
Chapel. In 1854, the town applied for a post office under the name Mitcham
or Purdon, but both of these names were already in use by other communities. According
to the Handbook of Texas, it was postal authorities in Washington that
suggested Malakoff.
The British capture of the towered Russian fort at Malakoff in the Crimean War
had been in the news about the time the application was submitted, and the suggested
name was submitted - and accepted. Malakoff
presently enjoys its peak population of around 2,300 people. |
"Malakoff
Man", Coal, Clay & BrickIn
the 1930s, three crudely carved stone heads were unearthed in the region. Collectively
they became known as "Malakoff Man." Extensive excavations around the site did
not yield additional artifacts and their origin remains a mystery to this day.
But the soil around Malacoff had been revealing other things for years. Lignite
coal had been discovered in 1912 and mining soon became the dominant industry
in Henderson County. Texas Power and Light built a generating station close to
the source and as many as 600 miners worked the veins of coal. The mines closed
in 1945 but there has been a Miner's Reunion held every five years since.
Clay provided the material for the county's other main industry: brick production.
Ironically, most of downtown Malakoff was built prior to the brick plant's construction
but two huge kilns remain today and production continues under the name of Acme.
Bricks found around the state marked MALAKOFF are usually light-colored.
In 1904 Mr. Thomas Anthony Bartlett of Malakoff devised a way of coloring brick,
touching off a new age of architectural elegance. He took his discovery to the
1904 St. Louis World's Fair and won a Blue Ribbon for his white brick.
Athens
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| | Mural
on Cornbread Square by Brad Smith
TE Photo |
Murals
by Charlie Bullock and Brad
Smith
Malakoff has several exceptional murals. Artist Charlie
Bullock maintains a gallery in nearby Athens
and teaches art classes in a private school there.
Brad Smith's mural
(pictured at the beginning of this page) above faces Malakoff's Cornbread
Square. Individuals in the mural are painted from actual townspeople. Smith also
painted the mural of the former Carnegie Library shown on our Corsicana
page.
See Charlie Bullock:
“Art’s a luxury” by Byron Browne
Corsicana
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