ANNUAL HOMECOMING HELD SATURDAY

By G. W. Franzen

Residents and friends of the Collegeport Community gathered at Mopac House for the annual Collegeport Day celebration.  Over 200 guests were registered as they filed past tables overflowing with delicious barbecue and covered-dish delicacies and desserts.  Banquet tables were set in the shade of the stately pecans while pleasant breezes graced the occasion.  Much good food and fellowship was enjoyed by all.  This celebration marked the beginning of the community’s 98^th year. 

Collegeport was founded on May 25, 1908 by the Burton D. Hurd Land Company.    According to H. A. Clapp, a local resident and correspondent,   “May 25, 1909, the townsite was opened.  Fifteen hundred people attended, two big bands, speeches delivered, big barbecue, dance at Hotel Collegeport at night, a very big day, everyone happy and anticipating the building of a good sized town furnishing modern facilities.  Since that day, each year the birth of the community has been celebrated with a community dinner.”

Thus began this annual tradition.  Saturday’s event was held at Mopac House--as it has been since 1935 when Mopac House opened.  Before that time, Collegeport Day celebrations had been held at the Hotel Collegeport, on the pavilion and at the First Church—Federated, where most community functions were held prior to 1935.  H. A. Clapp was instrumental in securing the gift of the Collegeport Depot from the Missouri-Pacific Lines in 1933 for use as a community center.  The depot was dismantled, moved to its present location and rebuilt adjacent to the Collegeport Public Library as Mopac House.   With the assistance of Commissioner G. A. Harrison, CCC labor and the persistence of Mr. Clapp, Mopac House opened on May 4, 1935. 

The Mopac House has served this community as a gathering place for over seventy years.  The Public Library, operated by the Woman’s Club, also served as the school library and provided a reading room for residents.  The Mopac House kitchen was equipped to prepare meals, and the dining hall served as the lunchroom for the public school.  Mopac House was the meeting place of the First Baptist Church for about a year while the group built its present sanctuary.  Following Hurricane Carla, Mopac House was utilized as a Red Cross kitchen, where volunteers prepared and served meals for several weeks during the clean-up which followed the disaster.   Two families whose homes were ravaged by the storm lived here until their homes were repaired or rebuilt.  It is currently used as a meeting place for community organizations and as a polling place for elections.

 In 2004, the Mopac House Foundation dedicated a Pioneer Memorial on the Mopac House grounds, adjacent to the Texas Historical Commission marker which commemorates the town of Collegeport. 

Plans are being made to celebrate the community’s centennial in 2008.

Copyright 2006 - Present by Carol Sue Gibbs
All rights reserved

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