Old Calvert Foundry and Manufacturing Company
Calvert, Robertson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Founded about 1870 as one of Calvert's first industries. The building is of county-made brick; iron facade came from St. Louis. Iron ore from local deposits and from Cherokee County (100 mi. NE) was hauled here by horse-drawn wagons to be made into farm tools and other sturdy articles. Prominent Texans have owned this foundry. J. Adoue, member of a French family noted in state business, was an incorporator. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1969
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Founded around 1870 as one of Calvert's earliest industries, this foundry was built of locally made brick and fitted with an iron facade shipped from St. Louis. Ore hauled by horse-drawn wagon from nearby deposits and from Cherokee County, a hundred miles away, was forged here into farm tools and other durable goods, and the works drew investment from prominent Texas businessmen, including a member of the noted Adoue family.
Why it matters
Small local foundries like this one were the workshops of the New South, turning regional ore and enterprise into the plows and hardware that let agricultural Texas modernize after the Civil War.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- ยท J. Adoue
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Jacques Adoue Building
Calvert, TX
Jacques Adoue was the youngest of three French brothers who came to Texas in the 1860s and rose to become business leaders in Calvert, Dallas, and Galveston. This handsome store, built for the Collat, Adoue & Risser dry-goods firm, set an ambitious commercial tone for the town, and when Adoue died in 1906 of injuries from a Calvert cotton-compress fire, friends felt an era had passed with him.
Cobb's Market
Calvert, TX
A meat market opened on this Calvert corner in 1868 and was rebuilt a decade later as a handsome Victorian storefront of handmade brick. Remarkably, its 19th-century working fixtures survived in use โ a cast-iron wood-burning stove, marble-topped counters, and the old meat saw rack. The building was named a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1967.
Town of Calvert
Calvert, TX
Calvert began as "Sterling" in Sterling C. Robertson's 1820s colony and became a rowdy, booming cotton-export and trade center โ its inscription conjures ox-carts, saloons, and casino tables piled with gold. It served as a Civil War mustering and supply point, then moved two miles to meet the Houston & Texas Central Railroad in 1868, taking a new name from Judge Robert Calvert, a landowner descended from Lord Baltimore. The railroad cemented its place as a regional cotton hub.
Citizens Bank & Trust Co. Building
Calvert, TX
James S. Hanna raised this Calvert building in 1868 for a general store, and it passed through owners who each wove commerce and banking together โ including a Battle of San Jacinto veteran, the Rev. Robert Crawford, and J. S. McLendon, who ran a store and a private bank under its roof. In 1887 it became the birthplace of the First National Bank of Calvert, later renamed Union State Bank and finally Citizens Bank & Trust. Its exterior still carries the 1887 styling of a Gilded Age banking house.