Last month, I had the privilege of gathering with 5 other Texas authors (well, one was from Oklahoma, but we let her into the club because she passed the awesome author test) for a weekend retreat in historic Granbury, TX. We are all currently write historicals or have in the past, so the location was perfect! You know how you travel hundreds of miles to see fascinating sites but can’t seem to motivate yourself to travel 2 hours to see what’s close by? Well, I suffer from that particular ailment. Thankfully, I got a heavy dose of cure when planning this retreat. Granbury’s tagline is “Where Texas History Lives” yet I’d never visited. So glad that is no longer the case.
We rented a wonderful historic home to stay in and felt like we were living in the lap of luxury.
Our house was named Abbey Manor, and it was lovely! I stayed in the Victoria Room. Isn’t the parlor grand?
On Saturday afternoon, the sun shone bright and warm, so I opted to take a walk from the house to the historic downtown square just under a mile away. The gorgeous courthouse stood proudly at the center. The courthouse was built in 1890-91 and it sports a statue of Brigadier General Hiram B. Granbury, Commander of the 7th Texas Infantry and Granbury’s namesake.
Also along the square was a hotel run by the town founders, Jacob and Jesse Nutt.
“In the late 1850’s members of the Nutt Family arrived in what is now the Granbury area. They first set up several farmsteads, and in 1871 on this site, blind brothers Jacob and Jesse Nutt started a mercantile business. In the earliest days, they used a tent to house their wares, but quickly erected a log and stone building which served as the store headquarters for many years. They were assisted by their younger, sighted brother, David Lee Nutt. In 1879, David and his wife, Sudie, built a new house just two blocks down the street. Soon they were using part of the house as a hotel to accommodate business associates. This continued for many years, and the Nutt’s even added a wing on to the house to give more rooms. The town-folk began to refer to their home as the NUTT HOUSE HOTEL!” (For full article on the Nutt Hotel, click here.)
How would you like to tell people you were taking a vacation to stay in the Nutt House for a while? Ha!
One of the highlights of the trip, though, was going to a production at the Granbury Opera House. The opera house was built in 1886 and is a wonderful little theater, typical of the opera houses common in smaller towns in the 19th century.
At the opera house. we even finagled our way on stage after the performance and had our picture taken. You might recognize Anne Mateer, Connilyn Cossette, Regina Jennings, me, Elizabeth Ludwig, and Nancy Kimball.
Yes, we did manage to squeeze in some writing amid all the sightseeing. We had some wonderful chats about the publishing industry and just friendly catching up between friends as well. Our send off was a delicious Sunday brunch at one of the downtown restaurants. Yes, those ginormous blueberry pancakes are mine, and yes, I managed to eat almost all of them. Yumm!
- Do you enjoy historical sites?
- Do you have interesting places close to home that you’ve never visited?
- If you could enjoy a getaway weekend with friends, where would you go?
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Looved this. We always plan our vacation to include local history and museums. ❤️😊❤️
So smart, Marti! My family isn’t nearly as interested in the historical sites as I am, so taking a trip like this where I was free to soak in as much history as I liked was a real treat. 🙂
I love history and old buildings and places with interesting stories.
I am from Europe and I am not short of it 🙂
Last summer I was here : http://www.zamek-hluboka.eu/en
It was the beautiful place!
Before Christmas I read Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset ( I love this book !!! It is set in 14th-century Norway. ) and now, I want to visit some medieval monasteries and cathedrals.
I always something read and then I want to visit places which look similar 🙂
What a gorgeous castle, Blanka! I would love to tour those grounds. I’ve been to Europe a couple times, and I am always in awe of the history there. It goes so much deeper than anything we have in the US. Love it!
Looks like a great trip with a great group! I bet some awesome novels will be the result! 🙂
Thanks, Deb. It was a lovely weekend.
Looks like a great retreat, Karen. I LOVE the Nutt House! Will it show up in one of your books?
Ha! I hadn’t considered that, Lynn, but it’s definitely a possibility. 🙂
What a fun getaway! I’ve visited Granbury a few times, but it’s been several years. This inspires me to plan a return trip! 🙂
I was inspired to look into Granbury based off of a suggestion you made a couple years ago about possible Inkette retreat sites, Becky. So glad you mentioned it, because I loved this trip. 🙂
Our church conducted retreats at Round Top (TX) Retreat Center for years. Several times two friends and I arranged for our own little retreat there on the property in a separate building from whatever group had reserved larger facilities at the retreat center for the weekend. We prepared our own meals, kept our own schedule, enjoyed catching up with one another, and simply relaxed. It was delightful! We now do the same thing at the Austin home of one of the friends. We’re all retired now and don’t see each other much except for these planned, long weekend retreats.
What a great idea, Suzanne. Nothing fancy required. Just a quiet place to escape the hassle of regular life for a bit and bask in friendship. Sounds rejuvenating!
What fun facts you had to share, Karen. The Nutt House, huh? But to answer your questions: (1 & 2) I love historical places. Especially poking through historical homes. The town I grew up in had one, and the docents were kind enough to show us children through it–even without our parents–and let us play in the yard. It’s the beautiful Augustine Grignon (green-oh) Home built in the mid 1800’s along the Fox River in Kaukauna, WI. (3) Every spring a group of writer friends and I gather for a five-day retreat at Green Lake in the Christian Writing Center (a half-timbered English mansion) with a view of the lake in front and a view of the woods in back.
What an inspiring place to visit! Sounds lovely, Beth. 🙂 And I can imagine being greatly inspired by that writing retreat center.
I love visiting historic sites. What I would really like, though, is for you to write a novel set in a hotel. I love hotel settings like Agatha Christie’s novel At Bertram’s Hotel.Your heroine could run the check-in desk and be in the middle of all the comings and goings. The hero could be the manager or a guest.
How fun! One of my college girlfriends initiated a girls’ trip for our old college group this summer. We’ve booked a Nashville house on Airbnb and have picked out some books that we’re all going to read so we can chat about them. I’m so excited about seeing my friends again after 20 years!