P. O. Box 1765
Roma, TX 78584
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Jose A. Salinas
phone: 210-849-3142
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Roma Historical Museum Association in Roma, TX is one of more than 15,400 museums in the MuseumsUSA directory. Find an exciting museum to visit where you live or vacation today.
Actually, the museum is very small. It was hand-built for the secular priests from Mier (Mexico) as a chapel circa 1840. From that time until about 1854, it was used for that purpose. Five hundred persons received sacraments and were confirmed. In 1853, the Oblate Fathers arrived, and a church was built for them. (Recorded Texas Historical Landmark 1973). The museum has a state Historical Survey Committee plate with an official Historical Medallion. Through an agreement with the church, the Roma Historical Museum Association was formed in the early 1970s.
The original building consisted of the chapel and a separate back room where the priest lived. The museum plans to restore the back room to its original period, 1840s-1850s. The chapel is now the museum. A small connecting middle room was added later.
Ecclesiastical artifacts, including several of German origin thought to have been brought
from Germany by one of the priests (in the 19th century?). The museum also has artifacts from the second half of the 19th century including both Mexican and American domestic items and, possibly, items from the Mexican War. Collection items include a recently restored wooden mantel which was handcarved around the mid-1880s and a Straub Machinery Co. gin. Museum collections reflect the community's past history as a steamboat port, a ranching center, and an early site for Catholic Oblate priests.
Limited research papers by local historians
Tour of the old buildings in town; possibly available for tour/loan; a written document
with a videotape is in the planning stages and is geared for tourism. These items will contain a
brief history of the surrounding community from Spanish settlement days of Escondon, through
farm community and traditional ways, through the steamboat era height of prosperity of the town
to the present.
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