Hallettsville
Hallettsville Tribune Herald
Hallettsville's Statue of Liberty

What’s pointy and green and looks like it belongs in a New York harbor someplace?

  • Hallettsville’s Statue of Liberty was one of just two Lady Liberty miniatures found in the Lone Star State as of 2018, though a couple more have gone up in East Texas since. Still, she has almost as many visitors here in Hallettsville as those who swing by to see our historic courthouse over the course of a year, believe it or not.
    Hallettsville’s Statue of Liberty was one of just two Lady Liberty miniatures found in the Lone Star State as of 2018, though a couple more have gone up in East Texas since. Still, she has almost as many visitors here in Hallettsville as those who swing by to see our historic courthouse over the course of a year, believe it or not.

If you happen to take U.S. Highway 90-A through Lavaca County, you’ll likely drive right past this less-than-usual sight on Hallettsville’s western edge as you’re headed out of town.

See her over there, just to your left, right next to the USDA and Farm Service Agency offices?

So, what’s Lady Liberty doing way over there? We got curious, too, so we went and asked.

She was actually installed by the building and lot's owner, as well as the third building tenant, as it were, a place that was once called Liberty Tax Service.

Well, one thing led to another, and, poof! They wound up with their very own Statue of Liberty out front, all just about the time that they learned another minor little detail: They were getting ready to change names.

Thankfully, it stuck close to the same theme, at very least. Today, they go by Freedom Tax Service, which isn’t quite the same, but it still works remarkably well with the statue.

So, if you answered the Statue of Liberty to the question we posed in our headline, then you were spot on.

In fact, if you type the words “Texas Statue of Liberty” into a Google search, it’ll give you directions right to it.

Hallettsville’s Statue of Liberty is one of just two Lady Liberty miniatures found in the Lone Star State, according to the linked story in the first Google option that appears. (Since that piece first published in 2018, at least two more Lady Liberties were also erected in East Texas, Wikipedia reported; but those reports have not yet been confirmed by our newspaper).

There’s one on the Capitol Lawn in Austin, and this one, which has now been featured in several travel magazines and become a popular Lavaca County destination, all by itself.

And be sure to check out our news links below if you'd like to read more about how that rather large Lady—the real one that actually is set in that New York harbor—found her way to our shores some 13 decades ago now.