Attractions

Whether you're interested in family history, lifestyles of years gone by, fine art, or untamed nature, a visit to Greenville has just what you're looking for!

• Audie Murphy/American Cotton Museum
• Audie Murphy Exhibit
• Monty Stratton
• Historic Downtown Greenville
• Farmers Market
• Heritage Garden
• Genealogy Room
• Puddin Hill Store
• Peace Garden
• Mathews Prairie Nature Preserve
• Historical Markers

Learn about planting, growing, ginning, baling, spinning, and weaving cotton. Learn about famous personalities from Hunt County, such as Monty Stratton, White Sox major league pitcher.

Tour the Ende-Gaillard exhibit and experience the past, brought back to life through historic re-enactment.

The museum proudly displays a newly dedicated ten foot bronze statue of Hunt County native Audie L. Murphy, World War II's most decorated soldier. The Greenville Sesquicentennial Committee commissioned local sculptor Gordon Thomas to create the statue. The Audie Murphy Exhibit includes photos, biographies, uniforms, and military medals to tell the story of the sharecropper's son who left home to become a national hero.

Special features include a fossil & arrowhead collection, two working cotton gin models, Ende-Gaillard parlor vignette, Greenville National Bank exhibit, special temporary exhibits, photograph, and reference files.

The Audie Murphy/American Cotton Museum: Interstate 30, between Exits 95 and 94 B on the north service road. For more information, call 903-450-4502.
Hours: Tuesday-Saturday: 10-5. Admission.

Second Lieutenant Audie L. Murphy was awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award, on June 2, 1945. He was just 20 years old. His Medal of Honor citation credits Murphy with holding off two enemy rifle companies, single-handedly, for several hours near a village in eastern France. His 33 medals included three from France and one from Belgium.

At war’s end, Murphy went from the fields of battle to the giant screen, making more than 40 movies, including his own biography, To Hell and Back. The man who was a young hero also died young. He was killed in a plane crash at the age of 46.

Monty Stratton

The Audie Murphy/American Cotton Museum's exhibit featuring Greenville resident Monty Stratton, who became a national celebrity with the debut of MGM’s The Stratton Story in 1949, includes memorabilia from his pitching career as well as movie souvenirs.

Stratton, a pitcher for the Chicago White Sox, began his pitching career with an amateur league team in Van Alstyne, Texas, moving up to the White Sox in 1936. His major league pitching career ended in 1938 when, at the age of 26, Stratton lost his right leg in a hunting accident. He returned to the Sox as a pitching coach. In 1946, Stratton returned to the mound with an artificial leg, winning 18 games for the East Texas League Sherman-Denison Twins.

Jimmy Stewart starred as the 6’5” Stratton in Hollywood’s version of his life story. June Allyson played his wife, Ethel. Stratton served as technical advisor for the film, coaching Stewart on his pitching technique. The movie opened in Greenville with a gala parade with the Strattons and film star Allyson in the lead.

Stratton retired to Greenville, living here until his death in 1982.

Researchers from across the country seek out the keys to their ancestry at the W. Walworth Harrison Public Library. A superior genealogy collection and local history references are geared to finding that elusive branch on the family tree. Expert help from reference librarians and frequent workshops research

W. Walworth Harrison Public Library:  in Ja-Lu Park, 4807 Stonewall Street.
For more information Call 903-457-2992.

Visit the Puddin Hill Store

The Puddin Hill Store is a unique place. Shelves are stocked with Mary of Puddin Hill Pecan Fruit Cake, the confection derived from an old family recipe by Mary and Sam Lauderdale more than 45 years ago. The Puddin Hill Store is known for beautiful gift packages filled with gourmet treats both savory and sweet: from party trays to party favors, gift baskets to candy baskets, little remembrances to big impressions.

Tours of Puddin Hill

During the Fall months, things really get busy at Mary of Puddin Hill, and that's the best time to see first-hand just how those delicious cakes and candies are made. In October, November and December, Puddin Hill offers daily tours of the bakery, candy kitchen and mail order departments. You'll see everything from the ovens that bake the award-winning fruit cakes to creamy candy fillings passing under a waterfall of pure chocolate. Information and a tour schedule are available in the Puddin Hill Store.

Puddin Hill welcomes school groups, churches, organizations, and bus tours. Group reservations may be made by calling 903-455-6931 for information and arrangements. Group tour and luncheon reservations are accepted year round.

Mary of Puddin Hill and the Puddin Hill Store: Interstate 30, at Exit 95 (Division Street exit).
For more information, call 903-455-6931.

The Peace Garden in Forest Park Cemetery features the acclaimed larger than life bas relief sculpture "Peace in the World", featuring angels representing the world's varied ethnic groups. Five freestanding sculptured birds comprise "Peace in the Soul". The sculptures, created by Santa Fe artist Kirk Tatom, surround a garden space for peaceful contemplation.

Forest Park Cemetery: on Hwy 69 S. just south of the Fletcher Warren Civic Center

Mathews Prairie is a 100-acre native prairie meadow that has never been plowed. Part of the once vast (12 million acre) Texas Blackland Prairie, it's a little piece of wild America. Through an agreement with the Texas Nature Conservancy, it will remain that way.

The grasses and wildflowers that greeted early settlers still wave in the summer breezes. Native birds still feed on the seed-bearing grasses whose roots are anchored as much as 100 feet deep in the fertile blackland soil.

Birders and wildflower enthusiasts will enjoy a visit to the meadow. In fact, the sea of big bluestem and Indian grass waving in the wind is a treat for everyone.

To visit Mathews Prairie go 4.5 miles west from the intersection of US 69 and US 380 at SH 224 (west Lee St.). Turn north on FM 903, go 2.1 miles then turn west on CR 1116. Continue for 1.8 miles. A sign at the NE corner of CR 1119 and CR 1116 identifies the preserve. Parking is along the county roads.

Historical Markers

More than 30 official Texas Historical Markers trace the history of Greenville buildings, VIPs, and events. Spend a day tracing the fascinating stories behind historic sites in the city. The Hunt County Historical Commission website includes subjects, locations, and complete marker inscriptions.