I believe that some consultation with the Map group is in order but after looking through the newspaper articles that we transcribed a few weeks ago, I have figured out some important sites around the Houston area where we could potentially have stops for a podcast.
Houston Market Square– This area is now a part of Main Street Square off of the light rail and probably gets quite a bit of foot traffic. The statue was originally found in front of the Old City Hall on the corner of Travis and Preston. We could potentially have a podcast here providing some background about the Battle of Sabine Pass and how this was the site of the original statue of Dick Dowling. We could discuss the thought process that went into the making of the statue by the various groups that worked on the monument. We could also encourage people to see the statue at its current location, in Hermann Park.
St. Vincents Cemetery– At the site of his grave, we could have podcast that details the life and heroic story of Dick Dowling. We could talk about how he immigrated from Ireland to New Orleans and how he was a popular figure in the city of Houston. Of course, we would speak about his participation in the Civil War, especially with regards to his exploits at the Battle of Sabine Pass. We could also mention how the site of Dowling’s grave was practically unmarked until 1935.
Sam Houston Park– The statue of Dick Dowling was moved from in front of the Old City Hall to Sam Houston Park. I’m not sure what we could say about the monument here, maybe about how the statue has moved several times since 1905.
Hermann Park– There is the potential for two podcasts for this site. The first is a detailed history of the Battle of Sabine Pass and Dowling himself. Seeing the statue in its full glory is the perfect setting to detail the story of Dick Dowling to the casual walker in Hermann Park. The second podcast would be about the movement of the statue and how it fell into obscurity until its second dedication in 1997.
Sabine Pass– I am not sure if there is any sort of memorial at the site of Sabine Pass but if there is, this would be another place to have a podcast. You could almost repeat some of the podcasts mentioned above, such as the one providing details about the battle. This would be less about Dowling and more about the battle itself. However, I’ve driven past the area where Sabine Pass is and I don’t recall signs marking that there was a historic battlefield nearby.
Having listed some potential locations, my only question is how will we make this accessible to the casual walker? Should we make the podcasts easily available by like some sort of phone number or will they have to download the podcast before or after visiting the sites? Because it would best suit our mission if they could have almost immediate access to this information. Just my two cents.
As far as listing the site of Sabine Pass as a potential location for a podcast, I found that the Civil War Preservation Trust listed Sabine Pass as one of the Top Ten Most Endangered Battlefields in 2009. It’s not on the list for 2010 or as one of the 15 at risk battlefield. I don’t know if the Civil War Preservation Trust just cycles through a number of sites and says they are endangered or if Sabine Pass has received more funding. Here’s their website on the Battle of Sabine Pass:
http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/sabinepass.html
I like these ideas, but I think adding Sabine Pass might be a little much, just because it’s so far away? We were thinking maybe instead of a walking tour since Houston is so spread out and such a car city it could be a kind of driving tour?
Also, do we want to maybe add things like Dowling street and maybe something on Emancipation Park in here? Then again, I’m not entirely sure what we’d have to say about just Dowling street, and you’re right, we need to be careful not to do exactly what the map group is doing…
Good job! I think each of those locations gives an opportunity to provide a unique perspective on Dowling. I’m going to have to agree with Jocelyn about Sabine Pass. Not knowing the exact layout of Sabine, it might be difficult to provide a walking tour of it. In terms of Dowling Street and emancipation park, I think there is rich enough history (as well as a bit of controversy)about them to include them on our walking tour. As a side note, we could maybe add something about Dowling middle school, adding perhaps a current perspective on dowling.
P.S. — Stolen from Craig’s post for the Map Group, just some items from the archive they’re using as some of the spots on their map:
St. Vincent’s Cemetery – DD0010a-c , with picture DD0044
Original proposed Monument site – DD0019
1939 move to Sam Houston Park – DD0016
1958 move to Hermann park – DD0018
Looks like they’re going to be doing two different maps, including one of Houston sites. He also mentioned trying to find some other sites that were not mentioned in the battle, so we might want to talk to them about which sites they end up choosing, since that could keep us from needing to make a map to accompany our podcast, like in the walking/driving tour Alex pointed out in his post.