What is a Museum Ghost Town?
Its an abandoned town that has been lovingly restored to what it was in its heydey. Welcome to the museum town of The Grove. Its been closed down for many years as it waited for a new owner to hopefully one day open it back up to the public. As of now, its a museum piece as much as it was once a museum.
The Grove was established sometime around 1859. Its name came from a grove of Live Oak trees near the center of the town. By the 1870′s the town boasted a post office, 2 general stores, a saloon, blacksmith shop and a sheriff’s office.
When a major highway came through, The Grove was bypassed and by the late 1940′s. Several farmers were also forced to leave the surrounding farms due to the building of an Army training center at Fort Hood. This caused the population to further decline to the point where the post office was shut down. in 1946, The Grove owners, W. J. and Martha Dube (DOO-bee) sold the town to a man named John Graham who owned it until 1972, when Moody Anderson an antiques dealer, came to town one day and asked if it was for sale. Graham didn’t like the idea, but it was Graham’s daughter who talked him into selling it. For the next 38 years, Anderson packed the little town with antiques.
Moody Anderson had so many antiques that he ended up leasing them to several film production companies and even to the movie Lonesome Dove.
As of 2010, the 82 year old Anderson placed the town up for sale at an auction. The town was sold to the granddaughter of W. J. and Martha Dube, Fran Moyer, of San Jose, California for $200,000.00 in 2010. Her plan so far is to not do anything with it other than preserve it. There is talk that the town will be open to concerts. The town has been closed for many years since it became a museum town back in the 1970′s and is designated as a historical town by the Smithsonian Institute. The town was highlighted by Forbes magazine in a 2008 cover story.
Here is a gallery of the above images:
If you go, please be respectful of the town and the residents who live near it. Its a really quiet and beautiful place in the hill country of Texas.