Media Contact:
Amy Mehaffey
Communications & Main Street Director
mehaffeya@ci.nacogdoches.tx.us
936.559.2572
The Nacogdoches County Historical Foundation is throwing Nacogdoches’ third annual Beefsteak Dinner on Friday, September 21st at Mast Hall. Our Beefsteak event will start at 7 pm; tickets are $50 each (tables of 8 are $400) and are available from any Nacogdoches County Historical Foundation Board member or online at Eventbrite.
Attendees will get hearty portions of meat and bee in addition to a commemorative apron to wear during the event and take home with them. This year, the Beefsteak will feature pulled pork, steak, steak fingers, chicken, ribs, sausage, brisket, beer and bacon-stout brownies. The Nacogdoches Beefsteak dinner directly benefits the restoration of the historic Zion Hill Baptist Church.
Zion Hill Baptist Church was built in 1914 by famed architect Diedrich Rulfs. The building was home to one of the oldest African American Baptist congregations in Texas. The congregation was founded in 1878 by Reverend Lawson Reed and has occupied four different buildings during its life. The Zion Hill congregation moved from this building in 1987 and except for a brief occupancy by a non-profit organization, the building has been vacant. Zion Hill is still undergoing an extensive interior restoration and is not open to the public at this time.
Beefsteak dinners originated in the early 1900’s in New Jersey and New York and were a time honored tradition around election time. A friend of a politician would throw their friend a Beefsteak dinner – a dinner full of meat, beer and bread – and raise money for the campaign. These dinners were rowdy and unsophisticated; there are no plates, no napkins and no forks or knives. Men were encouraged to wear their “second best suit because of the inevitably of grease spots” and the events took place on the weekend so the attendees would have time to recover before the work week.
