HISTORY

In 2012, a residency for artists and writers was founded when Kyle Hobratschk purchased and began preserving the decommissioned 1890s Odd Fellows Lodge in downtown Corsicana, Texas to furnish large studio spaces and a wood shop under the name 100 West, which indicates the building’s address and the notion of traveling to the expansive West to produce work on a greater scale. Fellow artists Travis LaMothe, Adrienne Lichliter, Kiernan Lofland, Anna Membrino, Randell Morgan, Nancy Rebal and essayist David Searcy helped activate the building’s renaissance with their ranging studio practices. In 2015, they selected the first applicants for residency. In the following years, Hobratschk, Rebal and Searcy relocated their Dallas-based studios to Corsicana across Beaton Street from 100W, and their homes to the nearby historic neighborhood.

In 2018, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit was established as the “100 West Corsicana Artist and Writer Residency,” and in 2020 re-named “Corsicana Artist and Writer Residency” to encompass a broader mission supporting residents across multiple sites, and to reveal through dynamic programming how Corsicana and Texas shape art and literature.

In 2019 and 2020, Nancy Rebal and Jean Searcy acquired several additional sites for restoration and residency use: the circa 1900 P. Samuels Building for studio space, the 1920s Commerce Street retail space to become the Residency Bookshop & Center, and a 1920s craftsman-style house on West 4th Avenue to accommodate future residents and new literature.

Our special thanks to: Karen Verma, Doug MacWithey, Allen and Celeste Hobratschk, and the founding nonprofit board of directors: President and co-founder Travis LaMothe, Vice President Joe B. Brooks, Treasurer Jay Sullivan, Secretary Helen Albritton, and Dan Wise.