Heritage Museum of Montgomery County, Texas

Spending several days with a scrapbook created by Ila Lafaye! Ila Lafaye Rice documented her life in Conroe in the year 1929. Here are three snapshots. The panoramic picture is on display at the museum. In the lower left corner is the first Chamber of Commerce building, and in the lower right corner C.C. Wooldridge Proprietor.

Back in the files in the museum, we recently found a scrapbook created in 1929 by Ila Lafaye Rice. In the next few days, we will get a glimpse of her life in Conroe.

Today, we turn to page one. Ila writes: My first impression of Conroe, a street in Conroe. Today, this street is known as Main Street,

Come back tomorrow as we flip through the pages of Ila's scrapbook!

The Owen Theatre was once the home of Weisinger Pontiac, a dealership owned and operated by Louie and Mary E. Weisinger. The dealership was later sold to become a White Auto, which was like a Western Auto. The building is owned by the city and for many years was used for storage before becoming The Owen Theatre.

For forty years, Mark Clapham lived in Conroe. He was an internationally known artist. The museum features a permanent exhibit of Clapham's art. The exhibit features oil, pen and ink, watercolor, print art, and several sculptures.

Mark grew up in Texas and played football for the University of Houston, graduating with a degree in Fine Arts. For the next 30+ years, Mark’s talents as a painter, sculptor, and muralist would bring him many honors, some of which include: the University of Houston’s John B. Van Ness Distinguished Alumni Award, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo and the alternate Texas State Artist in 1991.

In 1973, Mark was commissioned to create the Hall of Honors Awards for the University of Houston. Clapham cast more than 80 bronze sculptures for the university. In 1990, his work was selected by the National Academy of Arts for a national museum tour. His 70-foot mural “The Montgomery County Walkway Through Time” is featured on the crosswalk over Highway 105 in downtown Conroe.

A new piece of history at the museum!

This uniform belonged to Conroe native James F. Elam Jr., son of Mr. and Mrs. James Frank Elam Sr.

At the age of 11, James competed in the Astros Boys Baseball Contest (Pitch, Hit & Run) in 1966 and again in 1968. After winning the local competition, sponsored by KNRO-FM, he earned the chance to compete at the Astrodome during its first years.

The contest brought together boys from all around to test their skills in pitching, hitting, and running.

James remembers, "They put us up in the Shamrock Hilton," where he got to swim in the famous pool and jump off a high dive unlike anything he had ever seen before.

For this small-town kid who loved baseball, competing in the Astrodome was an experience he'll never forget.

Uniform (never washed) donated by James F. Elam Jr. 2026

Today is Purple Heart Friday and the Heritage Museum had the honor of providing space for a Purple Heart Ceremony for:

Specialist Preston Haley

A U.S. Army veteran, was injured during a 2003 combat ambush in Iraq involving RPG and IED attacks, sustaining permanent hearing damage and later developing PTSD. He was medically evacuated to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center and awarded the Purple Heart for wounds received in action. Despite this, missing and unverified records prevented proper recognition of his award. Senator Cornyn's office worked extensively with the Department of the Army and NPRC to obtain and confirm the necessary documentation, resulting in corrections to his military record (DD-215) and enabling the VA to properly recognize his Purple Heart.

Along with the Purple Heart he will also be presented the Combat Action Badge (CAB), a United States military award given to soldiers of the U.S. Army of any rank and who are not members of an infantry, special forces, or medical MOS, for being "present and actively engaging or being engaged by the enemy, and performing satisfactorily in accordance with prescribed rules of engagement" at any point in time after 18 September 2001.

First National Bank Building in Conroe — 1920s Origins:
The First National Bank of Conroe’s original building, constructed in the early 1920s, is recognized as the first national bank structure in Conroe’s history.

Location and Design:
The building is located at 200 W. Davis Street in downtown Conroe, anchoring a corner of what was then Courthouse Square. It was a narrow, one-story brick structure with distinctive round arched windows set in shallow relieving arches along the Main Street side, and Tuscan column-framed portals topped with open pediments. This gave it a modest but elegant Neoclassical character

Construction and Renovation:
While the building’s origins trace to circa 1905, it was refaced and remodeled in the mid-1930s by architect Joseph Finger, adding architectural detail and ensuring its continued use. The 1920s period marked its active role as the First National Bank’s home, making it the first such institution in the city. -SAH ARCHIPEDIA.

Conroe Normal and Industrial College (1903–1981) was a private co-educational vocational school and normal school for African American students, founded in 1903 in Conroe, Texas, United States. The school also went by the names Conroe Baptist Theological Institute and Conroe College.

Conroe Normal and Industrial College was established in April 1903 by founding president Jimmie Johnson. Johnson fundraised for the formation of the school through extensive travel within Texas and lecturing; he solicited funds from black churches, black associations, and black conventions.

It was on 10th Street. Its five-story main building burned in 1915 and a new two-story building was constructed for it.. took over as the second president. William A. Johnson served as the third president.

It was on 10th Street. Its five-story main building burned in 1915, and a new two-story building was constructed.

"The college opened at least 14 years before Conroe opened its first public school for black children – the Mittie J. Campbell School. The school would later become Booker T. Washington High School until desegregation." - Larry Foerster

To offset tuition and keep the college operational, every student was assigned practical daily labor. Duties were strictly divided:

The Young Men: Worked the 105-acre farm, tending to livestock, clearing brush, and growing the seasonal vegetables that supplied the campus dining hall.

The Young Women: Managed the domestic operations, including cooking, sewing, office work, and maintaining the campus grounds.

Rigorous Dress and Standards:
Even while balancing intense physical labor, formal presentation in the classroom was non-negotiable. Young men were required to wear a coat and tie to classes. Young women wore a strict uniform consisting of long black skirts and white middy blouses. Before the advent of electricity on campus, students were distributed strict rations of kerosene to fuel the lamps in their dorm rooms for evening study. - CountyGenWeb.com

The Conroe Telephone Exchange is a historic site commemorating the early development of telecommunications in Conroe, Texas. It marks the location where the city’s first local telephone exchange was established in 1899 by Mr. Gilbert and Albert Madeley, operating from Gilbert’s Drug Store.

Soon after, George Madeley purchased the exchange and renamed it the Conroe Communication Company, running it from the Madeley Building on the site. (The Madeley Building is now home to the Conroe Art League)

In 1929, the company was sold to the owners of the Lufkin Telephone Exchange. At that time, the exchange had a six-position switchboard staffed by two toll operators, one rural operator, and three local operators.

By the late 1940s, the office was too small for the outdated equipment. In 1954, a dial system was installed in a new exchange building. In 1985, the system was reorganized into Lufkin-Conroe Telephone Exchange, Inc.

Digital Postcard Series
By Heritage Museum of Montgomery County, Texas

The Akokisa were most directly tied to Montgomery County's geography. The Akokisa lived in and around Houston, and the lower Trinity and San Jacinto Rivers. Thier presence along these rivers in 1690 is well established. The Akokisa people lived in settled villages and built heehive-shaped structures thatched with grass or palmetto leaves. They also carved cypress logs into dugout canoes to travel along the waterways.

The name "Bidai" is a Caddo word meaning "brushwood". Their oral history says the Bidai were the original people in their region. The Bidai were recorded in a village just 12 miles from the town of Montgomery, Texas, by General Mier y Teran, who explored the area in the 1820s for the Mexican government. The Bidai were described as "a relic of an ancient tribe."... Mier y Teran's companion, Jean Louis Berlandier, described the Bidai as "undoubtedly the oldest of the native peoples of Texas.