Oil Field Row

Oil Field Row. . , In the 1920s, the Hogg family built this row of cottages and the barn. Generations of cattle hands, workers, and property managers called these cottages home., The Hogg family built these cottages in the midst of the oil boom to provide much-needed housing for a constantly-shifting group of workers and property managers. Hal and Mary Fields, who worked for the Hogg family, lived in the cottage to the far back. After this site became a museum, these buildings were converted to offices, visitors' centers, and staff residences., Are these Slave Homes? , Sometimes people think these cottages are the old slave quarters. In fact, the foundations of the slave quarters are in a field on the other side of Varner Creek. They were much smaller than these cottages and made of brick., The View From Old Field Row , The people who stayed in these cottages in the 1920s and 1930s had an excellent view of the booming West Columbia oil fields - but they were not all oil workers. The Hogg family leased their mineral rights to oil companies and stories suggest that oil field managers and the occasional group of roughnecks bunked here. The Hoggs also leased land for ranching under the direction of Hal Fields, the Hogg's head cattleman and land manager., Did The Hoggs Stay Here? , The Hoggs visited here periodically. Will Hogg preferred to stay in one of the "bunkhouses" as he called them, because it was less formal than the big house. After she donated the plantation house as a museum, Ima Hogg asked that the cottage closest to the creek be reserved for her own use when visiting. Some locals still call it "Miss Ima's Cottage."