My quest to visit a Texas town for each letter of the alphabet continued in March 2026. I had a conference in Round Rock that started at the end of my Spring Break, so I left a couple of days early to hit up a few towns.
Brownwood is a town of just under 20,000 people at the north end of the Texas Hill County. I really wanted to visit because of Intermission, an independent bookstore housed in a movie theater originally built in the 1920s. Visiting an independent bookstore is always fun, but this one was especially cool. They did an amazing job of maintaining the history of the theater. You can see the imprints of soldiers who laid their heads against the walls as they watched movies. These WWII soldiers were based at nearby Camp Bowie, where they trained. Camp Bowie was actually the largest military training camp in Texas, so you can just imagine the number of soldiers who came through Brownwood in the 1940s.
Brownwood was also a railroad hub for the Southwest so be sure to visit the Lehnis Railroad Museum and Visitor Center. You’ll be able to see so many different artifacts from this era. The museum did a really great job of creating displays that give you a good understanding of the role the railroad had across the southwest region of the United States. I especially enjoyed the exhibits that focused on the Harvey Hotels along the route. If you don’t know about the Harvey Girls, check out the movie starring Judy Garland. In keeping with the train theme, I decided to have lunch at Runaway Train Cafe. It’s a small cafe in an older train dining car. The food was typical diner fare, but it was a fun experience.
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