Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Co.est. 1899 · San Antonio, Texas

Grace Armantrout Museum

Community museum in George West, Texas (county seat of Live Oak County), founded 1995. Named for and established by the estate of Grace Armantrout (1902–1990), a longtime Live Oak County resident who bequeathed her entire collection and property to the community in trust.

Address: 1961 Hwy 281, George West, TX 78022
Phone: (361) 449-3325
Email: gwmuseum@ymail.com
Hours: Wed–Fri 1–5 p.m. · Sat noon–4 p.m. (as of July 2024)
Admission: Free; donations accepted
Board President: Leslie Walker (as of July 2024); Mac Johanson (Austin) held the presidency at an earlier date — term not yet confirmed

Grace Armantrout

Lived 1902–1990 in Live Oak County. Spent her life collecting artifacts and heirlooms. Her estate became the museum’s founding collection; she designated it a community trust before her death. The museum opened 1995, five years after she died.

Collection

Eclectic South Texas heritage assemblage:

The museum functions as the primary repository for the history of George West and Live Oak County.

2024 expansion

A July 2024 The Progress article (Janet Cunningham) reports a major addition: a demolished storage building replaced with a new 40×40-foot (1,600 sq ft) structure, funded at $170,000:

SourceAmount
George West hotel occupancy taxes$40,000
Live Oak County Commissioners Court$20,000
Cactus Park Trust Fund (est. by Grace Armantrout)balance
Planned capital campaign—

Contractor: Double Barrel Construction (Derrick Ferrell). Concrete flooring, metal roofing, Hardie board siding matching the original building. Completion expected ~October 2024.

The new wing is explicitly framed as Live Oak County’s first dedicated county history museum. It will hold agricultural implements, historical documents, county records, and a secure archive for Margaret Goynes Olson’s papers from Texas Roots (the McMullen and McGloin settlement history). A community meeting room seats 25–30.

Source: The Progress — July 12, 2024

Three Rivers Glass collection

The museum has actively acquired Three Rivers Glass pieces. A January 2018 Progress article reports six TRG bottles donated since the April 2017 glass show, plus a “Yola’s Dream” brilliantine bottle (1920s–1930s hair-oil product) with “3 Rivers” and “15” marks on the bottom and ~¼ original contents — a variant not listed in Michael David Smith’s Texas Glass inventory. The museum also holds figural Avon cologne bottles from the same exhibit period.

The museum is an active collecting institution for TRG glass and welcomes Live Oak County history donations.

Source: The Progress — c. January 2018

H&H connection — 2017 Three Rivers Glass Co. show

The Grace Armantrout Museum organized the Three Rivers Glass Co. Glass and Bottle Show 2017, held at the Gurwitz Community Center, 104 N. Harborth Ave., Three Rivers — April 28 (3–7 p.m.) and April 29 (9 a.m.–3 p.m.), $5 admission. Three Rivers is also in Live Oak County, ~20 miles from George West.

The show marked the 80th anniversary of the Three Rivers Glass Co.’s closing (1937). The Progress (Three Rivers) ran a front-page piece, “Glass Show This Weekend,” with a contributed photo of two H&H Blend Crystalvac jars — amber and clear one-pound examples — alongside copy on Hoffmann-Hayman’s 1932 vacuum-pack contract with Three Rivers Glass Co. and the 1937 Ball Bros. sale.

Sources: HH-REF-2017-0001 (field notes) · HH-REF-2017-0004 (The Progress clipping) · HH-COLL-0000-0030 (Instagram archive of clipping)

Phone discrepancy: The 2017 show flyer lists 361-449-3322; Texas Time Travel (2026-05-31 capture) lists 361-449-3325. The latter is taken as current.

Project outreach status

Kevin Mackey (2026-06-09) recommends skipping the Grace Armantrout Museum for direct outreach — the more productive path is through Mac Johanson (Austin), the former board president, who holds a larger Three Rivers Glass and H&H collection and is the person Kevin thinks should start a dedicated Three Rivers Glass museum. See Mac Johanson.

Open questions

See also