Woodville living (Houston, Dallas, Austin: spring break, city hall, house)

[DOnMSN]

We are considering a position in Woodville, TX in a Family Practice setting......any wisdom about racial climate, cultural diversity, school system, community service opportunities. We are medical professionals with experience in family medicine, emergency medicine, public health, and education, from both urban and rural perspectives....wanting to slow down and enjoy life but not be isolated from the urban environment.....

[destin04]

I still consider Woodville a rather rural community. You are about 2 hrs from Houston and and 3.5 hours from Dallas. It's a beautiful area. I don't know much about racial issues, or school system. You could research that through the Texas TEA site. Where are you coming from?

[texasdiver]

Woodville?

You will be isolated from the urban environment that's for sure. Drove through it 2 weeks ago during spring break on the way to Florida. It looked pretty poor. Demographically it looked to be a mix of black and white. This is what it looks like

http://www.city-data.com/picfilesv/picv17870.php

Houston is too far away for anything but weekend trips. And Austin and Dallas are farther.

As for schools, Woodville ISD is 2A which means the HS has no more than about 350 students from grades 9-12. So it is definitely a small town.

You will definitely be slowing the pace of your life if you move to Woodville.

[I LOVE NORTH CAROLINA]

It's a very SMALL town, two hours or more from a larger town. Be sure to visit before you move! There is very little to do there and Walmart is it for shopping.

[desertsun41]

It is a dumpy old town. Very old but with much history. You can still go to the drug store and sit down at a real live ice cream soda fountain. I can not remember the name of it but it is right across from city hall. One of the best places to eat in Texas and featured in many Texas magazines is the Picket House. Heritage Village - Woodville Texas Old style eating a it's finest. And cheap too. Next to it is an old museum depicting Woodville as it was a hundred years ago with a church, dentist, general store, book store and much more. All the buildings are stocke with the items of the day back in the 1800s. This is a do not miss place.

I wonder why you ask about racial problems. Woodville is famous and made national news for the modern day lynching of a black man. It was just a few years ago where a bunch of white thugs dragged the man behind their car by chains till he died. Other then that I never heard of anything racial at all thought.

Woodville has it's own tiny microscopic hospital and quite a few clinics tending to the old population that reside there and ajoining towns. You do have a large Indian casino a few miles away on 190. You have the usual Walmart, maybe a half dozen small town restaurants and cafes, a couple franchise fast food places, but that is about it. I think to find anything to do you will have to travel back west 20 minutes to Livingston.

They do have some nice events held in the area which are listed on the web site I put above on the picket house. Woodville has a tiny airport which many rich people fly into just to go to the Picket House and then fly out after they are done eatng, yes it is that good. And finally, it is indeed a very poor town.

Good luck !

[I LOVE NORTH CAROLINA]

Originally Posted by desertsun41

It is a dumpy old town. Very old but with much history. You can still go to the drug store and sit down at a real live ice cream soda fountain. I can not remember the name of it but it is right across from city hall. One of the best places to eat in Texas and featured in many Texas magazines is the Picket House. Heritage Village - Woodville Texas Old style eating a it's finest. And cheap too. Next to it is an old museum depicting Woodville as it was a hundred years ago with a church, dentist, general store, book store and much more. All the buildings are stocke with the items of the day back in the 1800s. This is a do not miss place.

I wonder why you ask about racial problems. Woodville is famous and made national news for the modern day lynching of a black man. It was just a few years ago where a bunch of white thugs dragged the man behind their car by chains till he died. Other then that I never heard of anything racial at all thought.

Woodville has it's own tiny microscopic hospital and quite a few clinics tending to the old population that reside there and ajoining towns. You do have a large Indian casino a few miles away on 190. You have the usual Walmart, maybe a half dozen small town restaurants and cafes, a couple franchise fast food places, but that is about it. I think to find anything to do you will have to travel back west 20 minutes to Livingston.

They do have some nice events held in the area which are listed on the web site I put above on the picket house. Woodville has a tiny airport which many rich people fly into just to go to the Picket House and then fly out after they are done eatng, yes it is that good. And finally, it is indeed a very poor town.

Good luck !

The dragging took place in Jasper, about 30 miles from Woodville.

[desertsun41]

Originally Posted by I LOVE NORTH CAROLINA

The dragging took place in Jasper, about 30 miles from Woodville.

Yes you are right indeed.

[jimboburnsy]

Originally Posted by DOnMSN

We are considering a position in Woodville, TX in a Family Practice setting......any wisdom about racial climate, cultural diversity, school system, community service opportunities. We are medical professionals with experience in family medicine, emergency medicine, public health, and education, from both urban and rural perspectives....wanting to slow down and enjoy life but not be isolated from the urban environment.....

Woodville is the Tyler County seat. The major industries are oil and gas (deep Woodbine, Austin Chalk, Wilcox, Yegua, etc.) and logging. Some very recognizeable timber baron names still hold enormous tracts of land in that area. The county is fairly poor, I don't know much about the schools but I'm sure they are not exactly well funded and, being deep East Texas there will be some lax attitudes about preparatory academics.

As a family practitioner in Tyler County, the preponderence of your cases will be Medicaid, Medicare, CHIPs type work. I'm not sure if that would make any difference to you or not, but it is what it is. The county desperately needs competent physicians, so you will be in demand.

What you may not appreciate until you get there is that no matter where you go in Tyler County, you are in the woods. You can't see farther than a few hundred yards in any direction because you are in the middle of a dense conifer forest. I get clausterphobic in East Texas for this reason. Woodville is definitely isolated from the urban environment. Livingston is about a 30 minute drive to the West, but there isn't much urban about that town either (no offense to ds41 intended). Continue south on 59 for about 90 minutes from Livingston and you will run into Houston, which is a bit more urban.

A little ways south of Woodville there is a community subdivision called Wildwood. Its an interesting place that (I think) is bounded on NE by the Hickory Creek Savannah Unit of the Big Thicket National Preserve. If you are truly interested in moving to Woodville you may want to examine that place. Land should be fairly inexpensive in the general Woodville area and you will not have to deal with much interference from building codes or HOA's if you wish to build, but you will probably experience some price gouging if anyone sees M.D. after your name.

For a better idea of the town, Google has it mapped in Street View. Check it out: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

[texdav]

Woodville like jasper not far from there is mostly a area that has grown up around the lakes of Sam Rayburn and toledo bend. There are many second homes on those lakes and the woods are really beautiful as well as the lakes. The closest urban area is Beaumont(over 100,000) about a hours drive.Jasper really is the faster growing town between the two.There is also a growing number of retired people moving to the lakes area.I use to have a second home on teledo bend lake and really loved;tall pines and nice lakeside living with great fishing;sking and other water sports.Land in the lakes area is not really cheap compared tot eh sourrund areas but is cheap compared to most lake areas that are anyhwere near as nice in the country. Its more that the lakes are so huge than anything.Definely not a urabn environment if that is what you are looking for but not many areas like this are really.