West Columbia, Texas

Archaeology, Cemetery, Culture, History, Historic House

Miss Ima Hogg, last private owner of the site, conceived turning the site into a museum in the early 1930s. In 1958, she donated the plantation house and grounds to Texas Parks and Wildlife Department; 11 years later, she donated the artifacts collections as well. The site was christened Varner-Hogg Plantation after the first and last owners of the land. Miss Hogg remained involved with the site until her death in 1975. In 2003, the park undertook a more thorough interpretation of the site's actual antebellum history through a film presentation funded by the Houston endowment. This presentation further illuminates the plantation's history under its longest tenant, C. R. Patton, and provides insight into the multicultural past of the site.