Dedication service held at Mount Olive Museum

The Mount Olive Museum and Cultural Center is now open to the public.

On Sunday, Nov. 16, a dedication service was held, and a ribbon was cut, opening the doors of this new center dedicated to the preservation of local African-American history and culture.

The museum is located at 1404 Armstrong-Derry Road in Fayette County, east of Waelder, next to the Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church.

The site of the Museum and Cultural Center is in the Armstrong Colony, a community established in 1876 by Jacob Armstrong and other freed slaves from the area. The new center will provide a wealth of information and insight into the lives of early settlers, as well as being an invaluable resource for family historians.The Armstrong, Pettit, Sims, Derry, Hunt and Bilton settlers still have descendants living in the area today.

The museum building was once used to house teachers at the Albrecht School in Waelder in the 1880s, many of whom were early residents of Armstrong Colony. It was later moved to Mount Olive (Armstrong Colony), where it served as a fellowship hall for the Missionary Baptist Church.

Armstrong Colony is one of only a small handful of slave colonies remaining in Texas and has been in continuous existence for 127 years, due largely to the efforts of the leaders and membership of the church established there when the colony was founded in 1876. When the church found it necessary to build a new fellowship hall, the need for the historic old structure seemed to have come to an end.

Albert Nunn, a deacon at the church, saw the end of the old fellowship hall as an opportunity to begin a new chapter in the history of Armstrong Colony. He envisioned restoring the old building and putting it to use again as a museum and cultural center.

Deacon Nunn, formerly an assistant principal at Roosevelt High School in the Northeast Independent School District of San Antonio, and his wife Ethel, formerly an elementary math consultant in the same district, had retired to Armstrong Colony, the home of Ethel Nunn's mother, Ethel Clayborne. Ethel Clayborne had once lived in the building and played piano for the church.

Restoration of the structure would require a lot of hard work and money. Nunn set about the task of collecting contributions and organizing the project as well as gathering together donations of actual artifacts that would be displayed in the new museum.

Dozens of local businesses in both Gonzales and Fayette Counties contributed funds, including grants from the Lower Colorado River Authority and the Fayette Electric Cooperative. Scores of private individuals also donated money and labor to the effort. In just 18 months the work was completed, and everyone now is encouraged to visit and enjoy this unique historical treasure.

The dedication service Nov. 16 was led by the Rev. H.G. Washington and Deacon Warren Perkins with music performed by the Rev, Cornelius Lewis, Sister Annette Anderson and Brother Leslie Foster.

Contributors who spoke at the dedication included Gail Lenke former president of LCRA, Edwin Zapalac and Leonard Zbranek from the Fayette Electric Cooperative. The ribbon cutting was performed by Deacon Robert Brown Sr., who at 96 is the oldest living resident of Armstrong Colony.