Brownsville Community FL40

In 1908, shortly after the extension of the trolley line west from Pensacola, Lucius Screven Brown (1874-1963) developed housing on seven blocks bounded by what is now Pace Boulevard, Strong Street, “W” Street and Gadsden Street. Brown’s builder, Haakon Paulsen, began calling the community Brownsville as it evolved into one of Pensacola’s first “suburbs.” Brown (1874-1963) had a long career in real estate, banking and insurance. He served the city on the City Council and as assistant postmaster. A bond issue held in Escambia County in 1912 resulted in the paving of Cervantes Street and Mobile Highway, and the extension of public water lines. This in turn intensified the residential building boom in Brownsville. The biggest concentration of houses from this period is to be found on Gadsden Street. Some commercial buildings in this nationally recognized area date back to the early 20th century because this was the road from Pensacola to Mobile. However, most of the commercial construction occurred just after World War II when automobile usage increased.

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The North Channel Shooting Club MI2
The North Channel Shooting Club was organized in 1869. Detroit sportsmen arrived at the club by ferryboat, interurban railroad and private yachts. After the 1920s automobiles increasingly allowed Detroiters to spend leisure time farther from the city. This trend, as well as the Depression and Prohibition, caused club membership to decline. The Chrysler Yacht Club purchased the property in 1967 and restored the decaying 1869 clubhouse. In 1981 the name of was changed to the North Channel Yacht Club.

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1899 Automobile Trip TX9416

On October 5, 1899, Edward H.R. Green drove his newly-acquired "St. Louis" automobile from Terrell to Dallas. Accompanied by the car's manufacturer, George B. Dorris, Green passed through Forney on his historic journey. The five-and-one-half-hour, thirty-mile trip was marked by an accident in Forney, necessitating repairs to the automobile by a local blacksmith. Upon their arrival in Dallas, Green and Dorris were met by a cheering crowd. Hailed as a first in Texas, the automobile trip caused a sensation in area newspapers and among local citizens.

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1940 Train - Truck Collision TX128

On March 14, 1940, at this crossing of Tower Road and the Missouri Pacific rail line occurred an automobile accident resulting in the most fatalities on a Texas highway in the 20th century. An oncoming train collided with a truck carrying more than 40 agricultural workers, killing 34 of the workers, who ranged in age from ten to 48. The neighboring citrus packing plant served as headquarters for rescue operations. The tragedy affected many lives in the Alamo community and across the Rio Grande Valley, resulting in renewed attention to safety issues surrounding railroad crossings and the transportation of agricultural workers.

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Aldine TX6265

The railroad arrived in this area, first called Prairie Switch, in 1873. The Aldine Post Office was established in 1896; twenty-five to thirty families, most of Swedish descent, settled on Aldine's fertile land. Here they grew such products as Satsuma oranges, pears and Magnolia figs. In 1900 developer E.C. Robertson and his partner, F.W. Colby of Kansas, began to market parcels of land to out-of-state speculators, many of whom bought tracts sight unseen. A Presbyterian Church was organized from a Union Sabbath School in 1902, and the town began to grow. It soon boasted a hotel and general store, a two-room schoolhouse erected on this site in 1910, and a cemetery deeded for community use in 1911.

Aldine resident J.C. Carpenter operated a small fig cannery until 1914 or 1915 when the Carpenter Fig Company opened a cannery nearby. Reportedly one of the largest fig preserving plants in the U.S., it employed twenty-five to thirty people during the canning season. The fig industry died out from 1918 to 1920 because of freezes, blight and lack of sugar during World War I.

Dairy farms replaced fruit farms and the Magnolia Oil Company established a large crude oil pumping station in Aldine in 1923. The Aldine Railroad Depot shut down in 1931 or 1932, and the post office closed in January 1935. The community turned to automobiles for transportation. Farmers began marketing their wares in Houston. The town of Aldine gradually declined. In 1932 four area common school districts joined to form the Aldine Independent School District. Now a part of the metropolis of Houston, the townsite of Aldine remains only in the annals of Texas history.

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Amarillo Tri-State Fair TX63

A number of organized fairs and horse races occurred in this area beginning in the 1890s. The Panhandle State Fair was organized in 1913, but due to World War I large fairs were suspended from 1917 to 1921, when Amarillo was chosen as a permanent home for a regional fair. In 1923 the Amarillo Tri-State Exposition was chartered with participants from Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas. In 1924 the property on this site was purchased. The fair was closed again in 1941 for the second World War; its 1947 reopening drew record crowds. Fair activities have included parades, automobile and horse races, livestock and agricultural exhibitions, technological demonstrations, music, sports, and an old settlers' day. The fair hosts about 200,000 people annually.

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Baker - Rylee Building and Town Square Service Station TX284

This cut limestone structure was built in 1895 to house the hardware operation of D.O. Baker and J.D. Rylee. The following year, Baker's brother Jess joined the partnership, and in 1898 the store became the Baker Hardware Company. When the Transcontinental Oil Company purchased the building in 1929, two walls were removed to provide automobile access for the sale of gasoline. A landmark on the square, the building reflects Granbury's early commercial growth.

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Brick Streets in Granger TX8029

Area landowners A.S. Fischer and W.C. Belcher platted the townsite of Granger in 1884, in anticipation of its potential to develop along the rail line that had been laid two years previously. The town plan called for a 100-foot-wide main street, named Davilla, along which businesses and dwellings soon appeared.

By 1910 Granger's economy was booming. It was an important cotton marketing and shipping point for the region, with a combined cotton compress and cottonseed oil mill, an ice factory, a waterworks, churches, banks and schools. The vast expanse of Davilla Street proved to be a problem, however, especially after rainstorms when the street became a colossal mud puddle. With the increasing popularity of the automobile, the issue of Davilla Street was even more pronounced, and the decision was made to pave it with bricks.

The job of paving Davilla Street took place in the summer of 1912. The weekly Granger News proclaimed, "Granger is said to boast the distinction of being the only city in the state of less than 5000 inhabitants that has paved streets, or that is paving them." The Business League of Granger held annual "good roads and pavement celebrations" to continue its promotion of Granger as a progressive community.

Ironically, the proliferation of the automobile diminished the importance of the railroad, upon which Granger had based its prosperity, and the community began to lose its population to larger cities and towns. The remaining brick streets continue as a reminder of Granger's early prosperity and its role as a center of commerce.

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Brownsville - Matamoros Bridge TX1175

The St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railroad arrived in Brownsville in 1904. The Rio Grande separated the U.S. railway from the Mexican National Railway line. Congressman John Nance Garner (1868-1967), later vice president of the United States, introduced a bill into Congress in 1908 providing for the construction of a bridge spanning the river and connecting the two railways.

The Brownsville-Matamoros Bridge Company, owned equally by the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway and the Mexican National Railway, was incorporated in 1909 to handle bridge operations. In 1909 St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway magnate Benjamin F. Yoakum (1859-1929) met with representatives of the Mexican National Railway. An agreement was reached, and Yoakum hired the Foundation Company of New York to build the concrete foundations and the Wisconsin Bridge Company of Milwaukee to erect the steel spans. Work on the structure began in April 1909. The entire structure, a swing bridge of riveted construction, was completed in summer 1910. It was swung open in July of that year for inspection and was photographed by Robert Runyon. By that time, river traffic in the area had ceased, and the swing function was unnecessary. The approximate cost of the bridge, which totaled 227 feet in length, was $225,000.

The bridge was renovated for heavier automobile traffic in 1953 and 1992. Although the Brownsville-Matamoros Bridge Company erected an adjacent bridge in 1997 for automobile traffic, the original bridge continues to be used for rail and truck traffic.

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Bryan & College Interurban Railway TX7259

Bryan Mayor J.T. Maloney and the city's Retail Merchants Association incorporated the Bryan & College Interurban Railway Company in 1909. The company was created to establish an interurban railway service between Bryan, a town of about 4,000 people, and the Texas Agricultural & Mechanical College (Texas A&M), with a student and faculty population of about 750.

Daily service consisting of ten 30-minute trips began in 1910 with passenger trolleys and gasoline-powered rail cars. Along the route landowners built residential subdivisions and small farms, and to provide an attraction the city created Dellwood Park.

Freight service began in 1918 to help bolster an operation beset with labor problems and the loss of passengers to automobile ridership. In 1922 the Bryan & College Interurban Railway went into receivership and in 1923 its assets were sold at auction to the S.S. Hunter Estate. The last recorded trip of the Interurban took place on April 13, 1923.

During its 15 years of operation the Interurban Railway greatly influenced the course of Bryan's and College Station's urban development. Today the two cities merge indistinguishably at a point on the former Bryan & College Interurban Railway route.

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