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Commissioner previews 'Flower Mound: Then and Now' outreach and trunk program
Summary
Commissioner Tara Clarich gave a condensed preview of a 'Then and Now' presentation and an educational 'trunk' the commission plans to make available to schools and community groups, highlighting landmarks, cemetery history and the Gibson Grant Log House tours.
Commissioner Tara Clarich presented a condensed version of a planned "Flower Mound: Then and Now" outreach program and a portable "trunk" of artifacts designed for schools, scouts and assisted-living groups. She said the presentation can be tailored from about 20 minutes to a two-hour program depending on the audience and that she plans to post materials and a script online for volunteers.
Clarich traced local landmarks and stories — Flower Mound Presbyterian Church (formed in the 1850s, with its steeple added in 1975), the Donald School’s 19th-century origins, early settlers’ land grants and the Gibson Grant Log House (described as the town’s oldest structure, dated to the 1860s). She noted the town’s growth over recent decades and pointed to visual materials (a time-lapse around the Presbyterian Church, archival photos) that show rapid development between the early 1990s and the mid-1990s.
Clarich also described civic artifacts and preservation projects that the trunk highlights: fire-department history and an inaugural Mack fire engine that entered service in 1975 (she said it was purchased for $2,000), library renovations with a new facility opening in 2020, and interpretive cemetery markers with QR-code-based self-guided tours at Shiloh and Macomb cemeteries. "This could be 2 hours long. This could be 20 minutes long depending on the audience," Clarich said, framing the trunk as a flexible educational tool.
Why this matters: The program is intended to increase local-history engagement by making curricular materials and artifacts more accessible for schools and community groups; Clarich said volunteers or other commissioners could present the trunk with an available script.
Supporting details: Clarich said tours of the Gibson Grant Log House run Fridays (1–5 p.m.) and Saturdays (10 a.m.–2 p.m.), and volunteers already deliver oral-history-guided tours; she said she will share presentation materials with staff for posting online.
What comes next: Clarich said she will coordinate with staff (Blake and town liaison) to post the presentation and script and recruit volunteers to deliver the trunk program in the community.
