Preface to the Second Paperback Printing

Abstract

I am pleased that Texas Log Buildings has been brought to a new edition. As the reader will detect in the pages of this book, I am deeply devoted to the material reminders of the traditional Texas. I wrote the book out of a sense of impending loss of legacy: If we Texans were not going to preserve any substantial number of these old wooden buildings, then at least a record of them ought to be committed to print. Books live on through reprints and new editions, confounding the impermanence of the medium of paper. My fears in the 1970s that the wooden folk architecture of Texas was endangered have proven well-founded. Texas Log Buildings achieved recognition and had honors bestowed upon it—most notably the Coral Horton TuUis award from the Texas State Historical Association as the best book of 1978, the Award of Merit from the American Association for State and Local History, and the 1979 Award for Research from the Texas Heritage Council—but the loss of log buildings in the state has, nevertheless, continued almost unabated. In counties such as Denton, where I found scores of surviving log buildings two decades ago, the numbers have dwindled alarmingly. Indeed, this book could hardly be written today, so depleted has the data base become. At the same time, the book helped spur the rescue of some log buildings that otherwise would have perished. Both public and private efforts can be noted. We still lack a Texas equivalent of Old World Wisconsin or Upper Canada Village—both large, centralized open-air museums—but small local collections have proliferated, and the list of log buildings on museum display in Texas (pages 185-187) could be considerably lengthened today. The Gonzales Pioneer Village, the Jourdan-Bachman Farm at Austin, and Millard's Crossing in Nacogdoches deserve special mention. Certain private Texans have rescued log houses to use as their residences or places of business, making folk buildings a part of the functional, living cultural landscape. That is the best avenue to meaningful historic preservation. These enlightened Texans include Karen and Mike Collins of Austin, Carroll Tharp of Montgomery County, George Russell of Huntsville, Oliver and Betty McBryde of rural Yoakum, and others. Bless them all— even those, such as O. G. McClain of Houston, whose efforts failed. We have still not convinced the majority of Texans that historic preservation is essential to the survival of Texas as a distinctive, appealing place and region. Blind faith in progress, unreasoned contempt for old-fashioned things, and worship of anything new are still the norm in the Lone Star state. Perhaps this reissue of Texas Log Buildings will chip away a little more at that established view. As for the findings presented in Texas