A Guide to Historic African American Communities in Burleson County
Assessment of Landscape, Issues, Solutions
The land was once used for agriculture towards the back of the property, while the front was used for the community center. The heart of the community center is the church and school.
The homes are clustered closest to the highway. The church is collapsed in its front area, the gym is corroding, and the masonic lodge in the back needs maintenance. There is a small creek, wells, and a BBQ pit on the property. Both native and invasive plant species were found here.
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​The landscape itself has depressions in it and is relatively flat. There is a secondary road that leads off the highway to Dabney Hill. The culture of the neighborhood is friendly and welcoming. Issues found with the property other than maintenance and reconstruction are littering/dumping. A solution to littering could be volunteers or having someone ‘adopt’ the street and do weekly clean-ups.
The Dabney Hill Missionary Baptist Church is the center of the Dabney Hill community. Its future is uncertain after a storm in March 2018 caused the roof to collapse, nearly destroying it.
The Dabney Hill community faces many challenges that keep it from having a usually attractive look. One of the primary problems is littering, which can be seen throughout the site in many ways. Some of the demonstrated signs of littering include dumping tires, materials like wood, metal, and the disposal of empty bottles.
The open plot of land behind the sign is where Jones High School once stood. Open from 1950-1968. It was during segregation that this school was for only colored people. Grades K-12 and had about 500-600 people. When integration happened all of the students were relocated to nearby Snook High. Parts of the Jones school building were later moved and reused
With the urban expansion in the surrounding area of Dabney Hill, some newly built neighborhood communities less than a mile away are in danger of encroachment.
Some of the features that characterize the area include mobile homes, the RV park, open fields, loose dogs, old nature, and old structures. There is an issue with the animals being loose, since there is a large quantity of loose dogs. Incorporating public spaces in the community would help the atmosphere and culture of the area, however, the problems listed above would have to be resolved.