While passing through Midlothian, Texas, we decided to turn off the highway and see if there was anything worth seeing in this Ellis county town of more than 18,000 people. I have to confess, we didn’t find a lot that intrigued us. Maybe we didn’t look in all the right places. But we did see a little free library near a historic cabin.

I didn’t capitalize “little free library” because this isn’t an official one with a charter from the Little Free Library nonprofit organization. This sturdy box on a pole was designed and placed in the prominent location by a Girl Scout troop, as you can see from the photos. It’s located at 234 N. 8th Street in Heritage Park – which is also the home of Larkin Newton Cabin.

The 1848 cabin was built on land provided by a Peters Colony land grant and was moved to its location in today’s Midlothian from 3 miles to the southwest. It displays complicated corner notching, including half dovetails.

The little library could use a little careful attention, but it seems to be holding up reasonably well – even if there was nothing very inspiring inside. Two families with children were in the park when we visit on June 12, 2018 – and no one seemed to notice the little library. (Interestingly, Little Free Library #57550 is also apparently located in Midlothian, but we’ll have to visit it another time.)

It was only a quick trip through Midlothian, but at least we found something worth noticing. On the hot summer day we were in Midlothian, most people we saw weren’t noticing much.

(This post was written for a blog project that has been discontinued — but it lives on here in my Front Yard.)

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