A RoundTop.com article written by Lorie Woodward describes and details the inaugural Round Top Antiques Show event:

“Except for the smoke that rose from the barbecue pits at the rear of the Rifle Hall, the air was crisp and clear,” Woodward writes. “It crackled with anticipation as 22 (or 24 or 26, depending on whom you ask) of the state’s top antiques dealers brought the best of their collections to Round Top the first weekend in October 1968. No contracts were signed. Merchandise was offered by those invited dealers who passed Turney’s stringent standards for authenticity and provenance.

“Knowing their money would acquire investment-quality pieces, antiques collectors, many from the ranks of Houston’s social register lined up and waited for Turney to open the doors and grant them access to the treasure trove of one-of-a-kind originals. Typically, the women power shopped, and the men gathered under the historic oaks swapping stories and drinking cold beer. It was not uncommon to have change from food and beer purchases counted back in German.”

Antiques collectors came from far and wide to shop, bargain, and socialize. With the help of Hogg, Bybee and Ledbetter, who encouraged their friends to attend, the fair was a massive success. So successful that Turney decided to make it an annual event – adding tents outside of the Rifle Hall until the huge crowds and eager antiques dealers outgrew the space. The fair expanded to the Carmine Dance Hall and the fields in Warrenton that line Highway 237.

Hazel acquired many other properties in the Round Top area. As recounted in a Paper City interview of Fashion Designer Hunter Bell in September, 2016, she stated,

“My husband’s great grandmother was Hazel G. Ledbetter (1902–1992), an avid collector and close friend of Miss Ima Hogg , both pillars of Round Top and Winedale preservation. Hazel was attracted to Round Top’s rural setting as a fertile field for real estate sales to urbanites seeking retreats. In 1961, she bought the old Wagner House (circa 1934–1848) and soon convinced Miss Ima to buy it from her and restore it, which sparked Ima Hogg’s creation of Winedale Historical Complex. Hazel also donated the Koenig house, circa 1855, to Winedale in 1965; it’s now known as Hazel’s Lone Oak Cottage. Winedale Historical was founded by Hogg and is a collection of 19th-century structures and their period furnishings situated on 225 acres in northern Fayette Country. Hazel was awarded the Ima Hogg Award for her restoration work in Round Top posthumously in 1993.”

Why Round Top? -excerpted from Denim and Diamonds

“During the 1960s and 1970s, the Washington County area (near Round Top) became known as the ‘Brenham/Connecticut area.’ New money had been made in Houston. Second homes, weekend retreats, horse farms and vast ranches testified to the fortunes of oil barons, insurance moguls and some international financiers. In decorating their country places, the wives of the well-to-do often turned to the safe, established styles of England and New England. Then, when the houses were fully embellished with formal and colonial antiques, fine china and silver, they begged to be admired. But something was missing. Affluent Texans were so busy emulating the eastern establishment that they overlooked their own heritage.

Enter the preservationists—specifically three dynamic women from Houston: Miss Ima Hogg, a founder of the Houston Symphony, Hazel Ledbetter and Faith Bybee. They and their followers, life-long friends who were also interested in collecting fine antiques and in finding their place inthe Texas countryside, created a stir, an awakening to the great values at hand.

Active interest in Round Top by the three influential women from Houston was highly contagious. Competition was on for city folks to acquire property, original buildings, early Texas furniture and whatever wasn’t nailed down.

Round Top citizens weren’t always sure what to make of the commotion. However, they certainly were alerted to the fact that the furniture they had been living with nonchalantly, pieces handcrafted by their grandfathers and handed down by their parents, were worth much more than mere family sentiment. They were reminded now—with some of the wares doing rough duty in barns and stables—that their predecessors had come from the old country with many valuable skills.”

How Round Top? -excerpted from Denim and Diamonds

“As an antiques dealer, Emma Lee already knew one of the three Ladies from Houston. One day a beautiful leather-bound Bible, published in Pennsylvania in the 18th century, caught Miss Ima’s eye. She bought it from Emma Lee and placed it in the Winedale Historical Center. Later, there were other finds for Miss Ima from Emma Lee’s Pennsylvania and Maryland trips. Then, in the spring of 1968, came a telephone invitation from Hazel Ledbetter to come to her farm at Round Top for dinner.

‘Hazel was an excellent orchestrator and rarely did anything without a purpose,’ said Emma Lee. ‘She was a fountain of knowledge on how to do it and when to do it.’ Hazel’s direction was soon revealed. She asked Emma Lee to establish a good antiques show in Round Top so that, as she put it, ‘the public would quit peeking in our windows to see what we are doing up here.’

Emma Lee savored the logic of Hazel’s suggestion. But bringing her show to new territory so distant from regular patrons would need extra incentive, she decided, and countered Hazel’s proposal with one of her own.

‘I’ll do it,’ she told her hostess, ‘if you will open your house to the public for the weekend. And how about asking the Harvin Moores to show their restored houses?’

Architect Moore and his wife Elizabeth were among the first Houstonians to take on restoration in Texas. Emma Lee knew that antiquers from the city would be lured irresistibly by the offer to walk through those doors. Furthermore, the rush to the country had brought about 2,000 Houston families to nearby ranches, farms and weekend retreats. Many of their restored homes still wanted authentic furnishings, and owners would not be averse to seeing how Hazel and the Moores had handled their own decorating needs.

Hazel pondered briefly, weighing the invasion of privacy against her own desire for a prestigious antiques show in Round Top. The antiques won.”