Haskell House Re-Opening Celebration a Big Success

SOULMAN SAM AND HIS BAND

GREGORY AND WILDER TRAN

KATHY DOYLE AND FORMER STATE REP ELLIOTT NAISHTAT

CYNTHIA JEFFRIES AND SARAH MARSHALL WITH PARD AND PAULA HERN

FORMER TEXAS STATE REPRESENTATIVE ELLIOTT NAISHTAT AND MARY REED

MEGHANN ROSALES, HUGO SCHIEFER, AND THOMAS SCHIEFER

KIM O’BRIEN AND PAULA HERNE

THOMAS SCHIEFER, CHRIS THOMAS AND MALCOLM GREENSTEIN

KIM MCKNIGHT WITH PARD

Clarksville neighbors, historic preservation advocates, friends of the Clarksville Community Development Corporation (CCDC), and staff from the City’s Parks and Recreation Department (PARD) turned out last Sunday, 11/13, to celebrate the reopening of the historic Hezikiah Haskell House. They enjoyed the fantastic Soulman Sam and his rhythm and blues band, a petting zoo, games, and light refreshments.

For many of the attendees, last Sunday’s event was the first time they had been inside the Haskell House and seen the old photos that line its walls — photos that tell the story of Clarksville from its early years until the Seventies, when gentrification first began to threaten the neighborhood. Ultimately it transformed Clarksville from a tight-knit, mostly poor, majority Black neighborhood into one that is largely White and affluent.

Earlier this year, the CCDC gave the Haskell House an extensive exterior facelift. The work was funded by a Heritage Tourism Grant the City’s Economic Development Department and by PARD. The Haskell House now operates as as a museum about Clarksville and is a tangible reminder of Clarkville’s history and traditional culture. It is open to the public from 1-4 on the 2nd and 4th Sundays of every month except for December. Admission is free.