The Best Things to Do in Waxahachie, Texas

San Antonio architect James Riely Gordon took the commission in 1894, the cornerstone was laid on 4 July 1895, and the building was finished in 1897. Gordon specified stone that fights with itself on purpose, grey granite against rose pink granite against Pecos red sandstone and Burnet County limestone, which is why the thing photographs differently in morning and evening light.

The draw is the carving. Faces run around the capitals of the entrance porches, some serene and some grotesque, and the story locals tell is that stonemason Harry Herley carved the boarding house keeper's daughter Mabel Frame beautiful, then carved her as a demon once she turned him down. Architectural historians doubt it, since Herley most likely cut the faces in Dallas and shipped them down by rail without ever meeting her. Go look at the four porches and decide for yourself.

This is the largest single visitor draw in Ellis County and it only exists for about eight weekends a year. The site runs on Saturdays, Sundays and Memorial Day Monday from early April into late May, with full armour jousting, birds of prey demonstrations, human powered rides and more than 200 craft shops selling work made on site.

It is worth knowing that this is a permanent build rather than a tent city. The village sits on its own grounds off FM 66 and stays there year round, which is why the shops and the jousting arena feel like buildings rather than a fairground.

Waxahachie started holding Chautauqua assemblies in 1899, outgrew its first hall, and put up this octagonal open air auditorium in 1902. Families camped in the park for days of lectures, concerts and readings, and the assemblies ran until 1930. The building went to ruin afterwards and was nearly demolished before townspeople restored it in the 1970s. It went on the National Register in 1974.

You can walk up to it any day. The park it sits in was laid out in 1889 along Waxahachie Creek, and it carries three playgrounds, two large gazebos, a lot of shade and one end of the city trail system.

The museum occupies a three storey 1889 building that started life as a Masonic lodge, directly across from the courthouse. Admission is free, the collection covers Ellis County from settlement through the cotton years, and staff run guided tours as well as the self guided option.

Its second job is the more useful one for a visitor. This is where you pick up the free printed driving tour map of the historic districts, and it is the organisation behind the Gingerbread Trail tour of homes in June.

Waxahachie gets called the Gingerbread City because of these houses. The West End Historic District covers 77 acres, went on the National Register in 1986, and takes in Getzendaner Park along with block after block of Gothic Revival, Victorian and Queen Anne houses wearing the sawn wooden trim that gives the town its nickname.

These are private homes, so the tour is a drive or a walk past them rather than a visit. Historic Waxahachie publishes a self guided route, and printed maps are free at the museum. Guided walks happen during the Gingerbread Trail weekend and for booked groups.

Bruce and Julie Webb have run this out of a 1902 downtown building for decades, dealing in self taught and outsider art, painted sideshow banners, fraternal lodge regalia and handmade oddities that no museum in the state would have bothered with when they started collecting. Texas Highways has written the place up. It is a working gallery, so most of what is on the walls is for sale.

Do not treat it as a quick stop. The rooms go back further than the shopfront suggests and the Webbs will talk about any object you point at.

The paved trail runs between Getzendaner Memorial Park at the northwest end and Lions Park at 2303 Howard Road at the southeast, following Waxahachie Creek through woods and back yards for most of the way. Both ends have parking and facilities, so you can start at either.

Published distances do not agree. The city and county describe roughly six miles between the two parks, trail apps log the full out and back closer to seven and a half, and other listings say four. Treat any single figure as approximate and judge by the map at the trailhead.

Nicholas P. Sims left his book collection and ten thousand dollars to start a public library in 1899, and the building opened on 26 April 1905 on land given by the town's first mayor. C. D. Hill designed it. Four Ionic columns at the entrance, a marble staircase inside, and a dome with a stained glass skylight over it. It went on the National Register in 1978 and was renovated in 2003.

It is a working library rather than a museum, which is the point. You can walk in during opening hours, stand under the dome and leave, and nobody will charge you or hurry you along.

Lake Waxahachie sits a few miles southeast of downtown and holds largemouth bass, white bass, crappie and channel catfish, with the alkaline water generally credited for the catfish and crappie fishing being better than the bass fishing. Most of the shoreline is private, so public access matters.

Boat Dock Park is the straightforward option. Two acres with a ramp, a swimming beach, picnic tables and a playground, and it works as a kayak and paddleboard launch as well as a trailer ramp.

A family run taproom a couple of blocks off the square, and the first brewery of its kind in the county. It is the natural end to a day of courthouse and historic houses, close enough to walk to from downtown parking.

It also functions as a venue. The Gingerbread Trail's evening soiree has been held here, and the October street festival puts live music into downtown rooms including this one.