The Texas Monthly Terquasquicentennial Blog

831 Laurel, Texarkana / 1878

Ever been to a dinner party where some know-it-all insists that the composer and pianist Scott Joplin was born in Texarkana? Ever wanted to know how to respond? “The consensus is that he was born in 1868,” says Jamie A. Simmons, the curator at the Texarkana Museums System. “But Texarkana didn’t exist until 1873, so we properly say he was born in northeast Texas.” What we do know is that Joplin’s musical genius was recognized while he was a student at the Orr School, on Laurel Street, where his family lived (the building is now a day care facility). But fair warning: Laurel is two blocks east of the state line, which means—gasp!—you’ll technically be visiting Arkansas. —BDS

1627 College Avenue, Fort Worth | September 15, 1917

Like most aspiring authors in their twenties, Katherine Anne Porter was having trouble getting a job. After theDallas Morning News rebuffed her, the Indian Creek native turned to her Fort Worth friends J. Garfield and Kitty Barry Crawford, founders of the Fort Worth Critic newspaper, who not only gave her a job as a society columnist but allowed her to move in with them. It was in the Crawfords’ home that KAP wrote her first column. The future Pulitzer Prize winner was introduced to readers as a person who “likes things which many people consider frivolous and of no consequence—society and the many small factors which go toward making life pleasant and interesting are among her hobbies.” —KV