La Grange, Texas

Everything La Grange is known for

14 songs mention this city 3 artists from here

Music in La Grange

Songs About La Grange

truckstop in la grange
dale watson
90%
La Grange
Jamey Johnson
83%
"Bout that shack outside La Grange"
La Grange
ZZ Top
82%
"About that shack outside La Grange"
Truck Stop in La Grange
Dale Watson
81%
"Truck Stop in La Grange"
La Grange
Black Oak Arkansas
80%
"'Bout that shack outside La Grange"
truckstop in la grange
bastard sons of johnny cash
78%
La Grange
Hank Williams, Jr.
77%
"About that shack outside of La Grange"
My Hometown
Charlie Robison
55%
"But La Grange was too damn hot"
Hinnom, TX
Bon Iver
55%
"I got outta La Grange"
Corsicana Lemonade
White Denim
54%
"walk out to La Grange"
Northeast Texas Women
Willis Alan Ramsey
51%
"Down in old La Grange"
Fruits of my Labor
Lucinda Williams
50%
Sister of Pain
Vince Neil
50%
River Fever
Joe Ely
50%

Artists From La Grange

S
Season Ammons
americana
G
Gabbie Nolan
country
J
Josh Tiemann
country

Rivers & Roads in Song near La Grange

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near La Grange.

Texas Colorado River 6 songs Texas State Highway 71 2 songs Interstate 10 36 songs US Route 90 9 songs Guadalupe River 17 songs Brazos River 42 songs

Musical Heritage

Texas Czech Heritage and Culture Museum RoadyGoat

In La Grange, the Texas Czech Heritage and Cultural Center keeps a whole world alive — the artifacts, the memorabilia, and the Texas Czech Village, a cluster of buildings that mean something to the families who settled this stretch of Fayette County. Locals voted it the county's best museum in 2023. But the day to catch it is May Fest — the slavnost kicks off at half past ten in the morning with a tribute to the Czech immigrants who came to Texas, then a fried chicken lunch, and then the whole afternoon turns over to live music from Donnie Wavra and Friends Orchestra. There's a kolache table, a classic car show, dancing, a country store. Come hungry. Stay for the accordion.

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The Chicken Ranch and La Grange's ZZ Top fame RoadyGoat

You already know how the ZZ Top song goes — that low, dirty shuffle, and word about a place in La Grange with, as the lyric puts it, a lot of nice girls. That place was real. The Chicken Ranch, a brothel just outside town, is La Grange's most famous export — the song's about it, and so is the musical and movie "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas." But there's a whole other La Grange the song skips right past. Czech and German families settled here in the mid-1800s, and their descendants still fill these streets. The Fayette County Courthouse presides over a square lined with restaurants and boutiques. An hour from Austin, two from Houston or San Antonio. Come for the song. The town's got a longer story than three chords let on.

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Weikel's Bakery RoadyGoat

ZZ Top put La Grange on the map with three chords and a growl. But get here early, before that little Fayette County town wakes all the way up, and the thing worth stopping for is at Weikel's Bakery. The dough is Czech, honed by Jo Ann Schobel, whose grandparents came over and settled here a hundred-odd years back. The recipe came down from her mother, Nolie, and it stays a secret — don't bother asking. They turn out kolaches by the fistful, apricot and poppy seed in variety six-packs, and the meat-stuffed kind, which if you want to sound like you belong, you call klobasniky. Hundreds of Honey Bee Rolls come out of that oven from scratch every single day. Get the six-pack. Thank me down the road.

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The Town Behind the Song RoadyGoat

1973

If the name La Grange rings a bell even for people who have never set foot in Texas, you can thank a two-minute boogie classic. The little Texas blues-rock trio behind the song borrowed the town's name for a growling, foot-stomping single called simply La Grange, from their 1973 album Tres Hombres. The song winked at a long-standing local landmark out on the edge of town that everybody knew about and nobody talked about openly, a country house quietly tolerated for generations through an understanding with local authorities. The arrangement ran until a Houston television reporter named Marvin Zindler put it on the evening news in 1973 and the publicity forced it to close that same year. The story did not fade. It went on to inspire a hit Broadway musical and then a Hollywood film, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, starring Dolly Parton and Burt Reynolds. Not bad for a quiet courthouse town: a rock anthem, a Broadway show, and a movie, all pointing back here.

History of La Grange

La Grange, TX RoadyGoat

La Grange, Texas, has a rich history that dates back to the Spanish period. It was an early crossing point of the Colorado River along La Bahía of the El Camino Real. The first Anglo-American settlement on the city's present location was by Stephen F. Austin's band of colonists in 1822. John Henry Moore built a blockhouse in 1828 for protection from the Comanche, which is now known as Moore's Fort. The town was platted in 1837 during the Republic of Texas period as the county seat for Fayette County. Both the town and county were named in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette, who fought with the Americans in the American Revolution. The town was also a major site of German and Czech settlement after the revolutions of 1848. In 1842, the Dawson Massacre occurred near San Antonio, and the remains of those killed were later reinterred in La Grange in a large common tomb. The Kreische Brewery, which became the third-largest brewing operation in Texas by 1879, was established in La Grange in 1860 by German immigrant Heinrich Ludwig Kreische.

La Grange, TX RoadyGoat

In 1842, the Dawson Massacre occurred near San Antonio, in which numerous Texas militia were killed by Mexican forces. The remains of those killed, along with those from the black bean death lottery of the Mier Expedition, were later exhumed and reinterred in La Grange in a large common tomb. A ceremony was held on September 18, 1848, at the location now known as Monument Hill, attended by more than 1,000 people, including former president of the Republic of Texas, Sam Houston.

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The Barrow Gang Men in the Fayette County Jail RoadyGoat

On the ninth of November, 1932, two men walked into the Carmine State Bank up the road north of here at about a quarter past eleven in the morning. They made the cashier Herbert Doerr, the bank president William Stuermer, a director named William Plueckhahn and two customers put their hands in the air while they scraped about fourteen hundred dollars off the counter, then backed out, got into a Chevrolet coupe and left. Sheriff Will Loessin and Deputy Jim Flournoy went straight for Carmine. Witnesses had the pair buying gas on the Ellinger road and then coming right through La Grange over the Jefferson Street bridge. The getaway car turned up abandoned in Smithville. The two were Raymond Hamilton, who ran with Clyde Barrow, and Gene O'Dare, and they made it all the way to Bay City, Michigan before they were arrested in December. A Fayette County grand jury indicted them both. O'Dare drew life for the Carmine job in February, with seven deputies around him as they walked him back to his cell. Hamilton was brought back here in May to stand trial, and the county doubled the guard on the jail, because he had a habit of getting out of jails and everybody was afraid Bonnie and Clyde would come for him. He got ninety nine years.

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The Black Bean Incident — Monument Hill, La Grange

1842

In 1842-1843, 17 Texian prisoners of war drew black beans from a clay pot and were executed by firing squad in Mexico — punishment ordered by Santa Anna for an escape attempt after the Battle of Mier. Their remains, along with those of the Dawson Massacre, were reinterred at Monument Hill in La Grange in 1848.

Historical Account →

Chicken Ranch

1844

The "Chicken Ranch" in La Grange, Fayette County, made famous by the Broadway musical and movie The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas , was perhaps the oldest continuously running brothel in the nation. Institutionalized prostitution in La Grange can be traced back to 1844, when a widow, "Mrs. Swine," brought three young women from New Orleans and settled in a small hotel near the saloon. Mrs. Swine became the first madam and began a tradition of interaction with the community and local lawmen that lasted almost 130 years. She and the girls and women who worked for her carried on a lucrative business, using the hotel lobby for entertaining and a room upstairs for services, until the Civil War , when she and a faithful prostitute named Tillie were run out of town as Yankees and traitors. After the war prostitution continued to operate in conjunction with the saloons in La Grange, but no official records were kept. By the end of the nineteenth century, prostitution had moved out of the hotels and into a red-light district on the banks of the Colorado River. There Miss Jessie Williams (born Faye Stewart) bought a small house soon after her arrival from Waco in 1905. She continued the custom set by her predecessor of good relations with the law and ran the only respectable house on the banks of the Colorado River; she admitted politicians and lawmen but excluded drunkards. Through her connections she learned of an impending crusade against the red-light district, sold the house she owned in Waco, and bought two dwellings and eleven acres outside of the city limits of La Grange and two blocks from the road to Houston. This became the location of the Chicken Ranch. In 1917 two sisters arrived at the house and were taken in and promoted to "middle-management" positions by Miss Jessie. They were in charge of public relations and sent packages and letters to local boys fighting in World War I . One of the sisters eventually married an older, wealthy customer and moved to San Antonio, where she became, as one author says, "a beloved benefactor and patron of the arts." The other sister stayed in her middle-management position until her death. As the war ended and America entered the twenties, automobiles made the establishment accessible to many more customers. New prostitutes came and necessitated more rooms and new furniture. The rooms were simply built onto the main house in a haphazard fashion as needed, a style that continued until the closing of the place. Miss Jessie stayed on good terms with the sheriff, Will Lossein, who visited every evening to pick up gossip and get information on criminals who had visited the whorehouse and bragged of their exploits. Many crimes in La Grange were solved in this way. While the sheriff kept a tight grip on criminals, Miss Jessie ruled the house with a firm hand. Nothing exotic was allowed, and none of the bedroom doors had locks on them. Miss Jessie would walk the halls, and if she heard a customer giving one of her girls a hard time she would chase him out of the room and house with an iron rod and perhaps never admit him again. As the Great Depression hit and the economy fell, Miss Jessie was forced to lower her prices. Though initially she still had plenty of clients, as times grew harder, customers were not so plentiful and the girls grew hungry. Miss Jessie therefore began the "poultry standard" of charging "one chicken for one screw." Soon chickens were everywhere, and the establishment became known as the Chicken Ranch. The girls were never hungry. Miss Jessie supplemented the income by selling surplus chickens and eggs. The economy began to turn around as the Civilian Conservation Corps began construction of Camp Swift near La Grange, and the shortage of men and money declined. The establishment used the same public-relations tactics in World War II as in the First World War, and the ranch began an economic recovery from the depression. As the war ended, Miss Jessie was confined to a whee

Tsha Handbook →

Best Little Whorehouse in Texas

1974

In 1974 Texas writer Larry L. King wrote an article about the notorious " Chicken Ranch ," an illegal but tolerated brothel in La Grange, Fayette County, Texas. The establishment operated from 1905 until 1973, when consumer-affairs reporter Marvin Zindler from KTRK-TV in Houston, ran an exposé on the ranch, which resulted in authorities closing it down. King and Texas-born singer and songwriter Carol Hall met by chance at the Cellar Door in Georgetown, Washington, D.C., where King was based at the time. The idea for a musical was born at this meeting, and in 1976 another Texan, Peter Masterson, an experienced Broadway actor, was brought in, and the idea was further developed. King and Masterson wrote the book, and Hall wrote the songs. The musical was performed as a workshop project at the Actors Studio in New York in October 1977. The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas was subsequently produced at the Entermedia Theatre, New York, in April 1978. This production was directed by Peter Masterson and fellow Texan Tommy Tune, with choreography by Tune, and featured Carlin Glynn as "Miss Mona" and Henderson Forsythe as "Sheriff Ed Earl Dodd." In June 1978 the musical moved to the 46th Street Theatre on Broadway. Over 3,000 hopefuls auditioned for the production, which ran for 1, 584 performances before closing in March 1982. Larry L. King made his first and last Broadway appearance when he took the stage, playing Sheriff Dodd for a two-week stint during the Broadway run. The show was described as "reasonably good, if raunchy..." and "offered the added attraction of a country-and-western style score" according to the Oxford Companion to American Theatre , while The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas was a success "thanks to earthy Texan dialogue, skillfully etched characters" and "songs that combined Nashville with Broadway," stated Andrew Lamb in his book 150 Years of Popular Musical Theatre . The show won a number of awards: Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical-Henderson Forsythe (1979); Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical-Carlin Glynn (1979); Theatre World Award-Carlin Glynn (1978-79); Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical-Peter Masterson and Tommy Tune (1978); Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics-Carol Hall (1978); and Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music-Carol Hall (1978). The "Aggie Song" was performed on the Tony Awards broadcast but was heavily censored because of the saucy nature of the lyrics and choreography. In 1979 The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas opened in Houston at the Tower and was the first Broadway musical to have an open-ended season in Texas. In 1982 Glynn and Hall were cast in "a return engagement." After nine previews, this production opened on May 31 at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre and ran for sixty-three performances. The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public , a short-lived sequel, was staged on Broadway in 1994. Ann-Margret starred in a national touring production in 2001. In 1982 a movie version of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas , filmed in Austin, was released by Universal, with a cast that included Dolly Parton, Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, Charles Durning, Jim Nabors, Lois Nettleton, Noah Beery, Jr., and Barry Corbin. The movie was directed by Colin Higgins. Dolly Parton was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy), and the movie was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy). Charles Durning was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

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Monument Hill - Black Bean Episode

1842

Tomb at La Grange holding the remains of Texan soldiers killed by Mexican forces during the 1842 Dawson Massacre and the Mier Expedition's Black Bean Lottery of 1843.

La Grange - Czech Heritage and the Chicken Ranch

1831

Fayette County seat with deep Czech heritage and the dubious distinction of hosting the Chicken Ranch, the infamous brothel that inspired 'The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.'

Black Bean Episode

1843

The Black Bean Episode, an aftermath of the Mier Expedition , resulted from an attempted escape of the captured Texans as they were being marched from Mier to Mexico City. After an escape at Salado, Tamaulipas, on February 11, 1843, some 176 of the men were recaptured within about a week. A decree that all who participated in the break were to be executed was modified to an order to kill every tenth man. Col. Domingo Huerta was to be in charge of the decimation. The victims were chosen by lottery, each man drawing a bean from an earthen jar containing 176 beans, seventeen black beans being the tokens signifying death. Commissioned officers were ordered to draw first; then the enlisted men were called as their names appeared on the muster rolls. William A. A. (Bigfoot) Wallace , standing close to the scene of the drawing, decided that the black beans were the larger and fingered the tokens successfully to draw a white bean. Observers of the drawing later described the dignity, the firmness, the light temper, and general courage of the men who drew the beans of death. Some left messages for their families with their companions; a few had time to write letters home. The doomed men were unshackled from their companions, placed in a separate courtyard, and shot at dusk on March 25, 1843. The seventeen victims of the lottery were James Decatur Cocke , William Mosby Eastland , Patrick Mahan , James M. Ogden , James N. Torrey , Martin Carroll Wing , John L. Cash, Robert Holmes Dunham, Edward E. Este, Robert Harris, Thomas L. Jones, Christopher Roberts, William N. Rowan, James L. Shepherd, J. N. M. Thompson, James Turnbull, and Henry Walling. Shepherd survived the firing squad by pretending to be dead. The guards left him for dead in the courtyard, and he escaped in the night but was recaptured and shot. In 1848 the bodies were returned from Mexico to be buried at Monument Hill , near La Grange, Fayette County.

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Things to Do in La Grange

historical 24.8 mi away
The Fire That Nearly Took the Lost Pines

On September 4 2011 strong winds from a nearby tropical storm snapped trees onto power lines east of Bastrop. Three separate fires merged into the most…
quirky 0.4 mi away
The Chicken Ranch

A brothel outside La Grange operated continuously from the 1840s until Houston television reporter Marvin Zindler exposed it in 1973 -- one of the…
food 15.5 mi away
Royers Round Top Cafe

Bud Royer's pie-mecca on the Round Top square — buttermilk, pecan, and a daily rotation of about ten flavors. Statewide-famous and the anchor of the…
music 16.2 mi away
Festival Institute

Festival Hill: a 210-acre classical-music campus on Jaster Road hosting summer concerts, recitals, and a renowned festival in its grand concert hall.
food 11.2 mi away
Hruska's Bakery & Store

Family-run Czech bakery on Highway 71 in Ellinger since 1912. Kolaches, klobasniky, and a roadside-store side hustle for travelers between Houston and Austin.
food 15.4 mi away
Round Top Brewing

Nanobrewery and kitchen on the square pouring house-made craft beer.
food 15.4 mi away
Il Cuculo

Italian restaurant and cocktail bar inside Hotel Lulu, just off the square on Mill Street.
historical 15.4 mi away
Henkel Square Market

A restored village of 1800s German-Texan buildings on the square, now home to boutique shops, makers, and a market hall.
day trip
Day Trip to La Grange 🍺 (FULL EPISODE) S4 E3

Featured on The Daytripper — a full-episode local travel guide.

Everything Near La Grange

499 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the nearest 200 are listed here — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

Explore La Grange on the Map
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