Longview Junction
Longview, Gregg County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This community originated in the 1870s with the junction of the Texas & Pacific and International & Great Northern Railroad tracks. Churches, residences, hotels, restaurants, businesses, boardinghouses, and school developed in the area to accommodate workers and travelers. A mule powered street railway system operated from 1883 to 1912 to facilitate transportation between downtown Longview and the junction. Annexed to the city of Longview in 1904, Longview Junction remained an identifiable community until automobiles provided greater mobility.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Longview Junction sprang up in the 1870s where the Texas & Pacific and International & Great Northern railroad lines met, drawing churches, hotels, boardinghouses, and businesses to serve workers and travelers. A mule-powered street railway ran from 1883 to 1912, linking the junction to downtown Longview. Annexed by the city in 1904, the community kept its own identity until automobiles gave people the mobility to move beyond it.
Why it matters
Longview Junction shows how railroad crossings birthed working communities across Texas, and how the automobile later dissolved them into the cities they served.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Longview Train Depot
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Longview owes its existence to the railroad: in 1870 O. H. Methvin deeded 150 acres to the Southern Pacific, and by 1871 the town had become the line's western terminus, soon a junction where the International & Great Northern crossed. The Texas and Pacific replaced an 1874 station with the Colonial Revival depot completed in 1940, whose passengers reached the platform through a tunnel and whose walls bore stylized quoins, keystones, and grey stone trim. Once boasting three depots, Longview retains only this one — the last survivor of the railway network that created the town.
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