Texas town opens door to historic porches
CORSICANA, Texas — It’s an oldfashioned way to spend a Saturday: Visit with folks on a porch, stroll around downtown, enjoy a cold drink and a snack.
That’s the idea behind a new event called the Corsicana Porchfest & Crafternoon, scheduled for June 9 in Corsicana, Texas, about 45 minutes from Dallas.
The event encourages locals and visitors alike to spend a “day out in Corsicana” with an open invitation to get to know homeowners in the town’s Carriage District. The neighbourhood was settled by oil barons, politicians and early business leaders after oil was discovered there in 1894 by a contractor drilling for water. Twenty-one millionaires were listed as residents in the early 1950s.
Many of the Carriage District’s stately 19th-century Victorian and Queen Anne mansions with wraparound porches and side entrances for horse carriages are listed on the National Register of Historic Sites. And many have been meticulously restored by longtime local families and by newcomers. A dozen homes on Third Avenue will help host the June 9 event, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
A different drink will be served at each home. Adirondack chairs will be placed beneath century-old trees so visitors can sit awhile. Snacks will include locally made cookies and fruitcake from a bakery founded by a German baker in 1896 that now sells three million pounds of fruitcake a year. Food trucks will be on hand, too.
Entertainment will include live jazz, local talent and improv. Porches and lawns will also host craft and cooking demonstrations.
A few blocks away, visitors will find Corsicana’s red-brick downtown streets. Shop owners will be pouring free orange juice-and-Champagne as part of another event called Mimosas at the Market the morning of June 9, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
Corsicana’s downtown, where storefronts date to the late 19th century, is undergoing a revival, with 18 new businesses open last year.
The Porchfest is free, but to expedite entry and receive a wristband for drinks, print a ticket at visitcorsicana.com/ porchfest.
The event is funded by Corsicana’s oldest businesses, including Oil City Iron Works, founded in 1866.