london museum & tea room

This museum is located in a small town between Tyler and Longview Texas. The East Texas oil field was discovered in the 1930's and brought thousands of people to the area to be part of the industry and find work for their families during the depression. Many of these communities grew overnight included New London. They were very wealthy because of the oil and had beautiful schools. On March 18, 1937, a spark in a welding class ignited gas that was seeping into the school and it blew up. 300 students, teachers and some parents died. It's the largest school disaster in U.S. history. The museum is across the street from the new school. A large cenotaph remembers those who died. The museum houses the children's clothing, books,desks and other items recovered from the explosion. News items from reporters like Walter Cronkite, telegrams from around the world...it's so chilling. Attached to the museum is a wonderful original soda fountain. A few miles nearby is the cemetery with hundreds of markers that have the children's faces on them with the same date...March 18,1937. Other museums in the area include the Gaston museum and Kilgore Oil which also are about this important part of history when oil was discovered in East Texas.