Brick Streets in Granger
Granger, Williamson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
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. (2001)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Platted in 1884 along a new rail line, Granger boomed into a cotton-shipping center with a compress, oil mill, ice factory, and banks by 1910. Its grand 100-foot-wide Davilla Street turned to a sea of mud in every rainstorm, so in the summer of 1912 the town paved it with brick — proudly claiming to be the only Texas city under 5,000 people with paved streets. The automobiles that made paving urgent, however, ultimately eroded the railroad economy that had built the town.
Why it matters
Granger's brick streets capture the Progressive-era ideal of civic improvement and the bittersweet irony of the automobile, which paved the roads even as it undid the rail-based prosperity beneath them.
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Related people
- · A. S. Fischer
- · W. C. Belcher
Themes & tags
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