in Texas, there are few entrusted to own and manage historical properties themselves— but even fewer with chairs who have selflessly plowed their time and energies into operating such properties for the benefit of the community, for nearly two decades.
Harry Bob Martin of Spur, a member of the Dickens County Historical Commission (DCHC) since 1999 and chair since 2003 will be awarded Texas’s highest honor for CHC chairs Feb. 2 at the Real Places Conference in Austin. The John Ben Shepperd County Historical Commission Leadership Award has been presented annually since 1992. In that time only two other chairs from the Plains or Panhandle have received it, HISTORICAL HONORS Longtime Dickens County Historical Commission chair Harry Bob Martin (above, left), shown here with his wife, Mary, at the Palace Theater's anniversary showing of “Mackintosh and T.J., is the 2022 recipient of the THC’s John Ben Shepperd Award. Whether folks come to Spur’s Palace Theater to for event, whether they turn off the highway and snap a photo of the picturesque H.A.C. Brummett Law Office or the giant spur, whether they follow FM roads across the canyons to find an abandoned schoolhouse location on the tourism map, whether they consult content from afar on the Dickens County GenWeb site—residents and visitors are all benefitting from Dickens CHC work in which Harry Bob and Mary Martin have had a hand. | THE TEXAS SPUR
BARBARA BRANNON | THE TEXAS SPUR
Maria Lockwood for Crosby County (2000) and Sandy Fortenberry for Lubbock County (2020).
Named for former Texas attorney general and THC member John Ben Shepperd, who is considered the driving force behind the creation of the Texas historical marker program, this leadership award for recognizes “outstanding individual leadership necessary to carry out an aggressive and well-balanced preservation program” according to the THC website.
Born in 1941 in Roswell, N.M., Harry Bob Martin attended public schools at Dickens, Texas, through 7th grade, then moved with his family to Hamlin, where he attended public schools and graduated from Hamlin High School in 1959. He married Mary in September 1961, and they moved to College Station. He graduated from A&M College of Texas, 1963 and has been active in Aggie Muster annually for 63 years. The Martins have three children. In 1997, the couple moved to the Martin family ranch outside Spur, where they still reside.
Spur’s Palace Theater a multidecade achievement. Bringing to the table his decades of management experience in some of West Texas’s most iconic state parks as well as a lifetime of ranching and a dedication to the study of Texas history, Harry Bob Martin epitomizes the goal of this award. Along with his wife, Mary, a Spur native and the longtime secretary of the DCHC, Martin had the vision for numerous ways in which CHCs could capitalize on the benefits of preservation activity.
Martin and the DCHC had the vision for turning a forlorn, whiteelephant building in the heart of a town of 1,000 into a beacon of hope and a center of activity. In 2004, the year after Harry Bob stepped up to the chair’s post, the Dickens CHC purchased Spur’s 1929 Palace Theater for a nominal amount after earlier public and private attempts at revival had failed.
Over the next 20 years the Martins led the CHC in returning the Palace to operation for movies and live shows, raising nearly $200,000 in cash incrementally, involving hundreds of community volunteers and donors, reinstalling a working lighted sign, restoring the façade to preservation standards, and putting a declining town on the map again as a destination for visitors, and prospective residents and businesses.
Other Dickens CHC leadership.
Nor is the Palace Theater by any means the only significant work the Dickens CHC has accomplished under Harry Bob’s leadership. Here are the highlights from his award nomination:
• Led the CHC’s marker committee in establishing three new THC markers
• Conducted survey and documentation of cemeteries of Dickens County
• Researched and installed local historical markers at 42 rural school locations
• Developed county road map brochure to guide tourists and researchers • Managed Old City Jail in Spur, from preservation to private sale
• Restored and maintained H.A.C. Brummett Law Office in county seat of Dickens; ongoing work toward preservation of its historical documents
• As chair of Spur Centennial Committee in 2009, commissioned sculpture of the world’s largest spur, installed in a prominent park set aside for installation of Centennial Park picnic sites and public areas around the Giant Spur
• Served as volunteer at theater events, property cleanups, and other projects
• Served as liaison between CHC and Dickens County to report on projects and request financial support
• Guided strategy, led monthly meetings, raised funds, attended in-person and web-based THC trainings and conferences, produced grant applications and reports, produced annual reports
• Collaborated with The Texas Spur newspaper in “Burlington Building Blocks,” a project to systematically document the histories of Spur’s commercial businesses to support Texas Treasure Business Award applications. The first TTBA in Dickens County, for The Texas Spur (1909), was awarded in 2022.
• Led Dickens CHC in attaining THC annual recognition, 15 years
Community involvement. Harry Bob’s other community involvement over the years deepened the connections to Dickens CHC projects and made use of the resources the CHC had developed.
• In 1998, he was appointed to the founding board of directors of the Texas Plains Trail Region, the THC’s heritage tourism program, which was to become a guiding force in bringing travelers and economic development to 52 counties of the Plains and Panhandle. He has also served on the board of the Spur-Dickens County Museum locally.
• As sexton of Dickens County’s 1886 Red Mud Cemetery, he watches over its security and maintenance and participates annually in its traditional June 6 cleanup day.
• He has served as a county liaison for the South Plains Association of Governments, in its agricultural dispute resolutions and its 9-1-1 program, and has also lent his expertise to the USDA/FSA County Committee and the Dickens County Farm Bureau.
Harry Bob and Mary Martin have been active members in their church, and eager participants in community events from farmers’ market and trade days to National Night Out to library fundraisers to support of the local swimming pool preservation project. He’s a proud Texas A&M alum who seldom misses an Aggie gathering.
Commendation from county judge. “I have witnessed the dedication of Harry Bob Martin to the Dickens County Historical Commission for the past eight years,” said Dickens County Judge Kevin Brendle of his time in office. “I can state without hesitation that I know few men with such perseverance, drive and fortitude, especially during retirement years. Harry Bob Martin personifies the attributes necessary to honor the history of Dickens County. He has set the pace and will forever be remembered for his work to revive the Palace Theater in Spur, Texas.”
Real Places 2023. Winners of the 2022 Texas Historical Commission (THC) Preservation Awards will be honored at the THC Awards Banquet as part of Real Places 2023 Conference at the Doubletree by Hilton Austin on Thursday, February 2, 2023, commencing at 6 p.m. Members of the Martin family, along with several representatives from Dickens County, will be present.
Hosted by the Friends of the Texas Historical Commission, the Real Places Conference provides an opportunity for preservationists and officials to network and learn with County Historical Commissions, Main Street managers and participants, historic preservation officers and design review boards, architects and engineers, historians, archeologists, curators, interpreters, managers of museums and historic sites, as well as THC staff, Texas Heritage Trail Regions, and many partner organizations.
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