San Leon
Bacliff, Galveston County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Strategically located on a peninsula surrounded by Galveston, Trinity and Dickinson bays, San Leon has a rich and varied history. Amos Edwards and his family were the first to settle on the peninsula after the Mexican government opened the Texas tidelands to Anglo colonization in 1828. In 1837, William Gaines and Amos Edwards' son, Monroe, platted a townsite they named San Leon and invited investors to build and develop the town. Little is known of this Republic of Texas-era San Leon, which by the 1880s had reverted to open range. As part of their strategy to retain Galveston's status as Texas' major port and develop it as a major rail shipping point, Galveston businessmen joined with Minnesota investors to develop the town of North Galveston on the peninsula in 1892. They founded the North Galveston, Houston & Kansas City Railroad and laid out streets in a pattern much like the city of Galveston's. Excursion trains brought residents from the Midwest to settle in the burgeoning industrial town until the devastating 1900 storm wiped out North Galveston and ended dreams of Galveston's longevity as a major seaport. In 1910 Houston lawyer Joe Eagle purchased the townsite and returned the San Leon name to the community, advertising it as a bayside resort. Although the 1915 storm did additional damage to the town, Eagle worked to rebuild until the San Leon Hotel burned in 1921. In the decades between the two world wars, the San Leon area was known primarily for its fig and citrus orchards, and at the dawn of the 21st century its economy was based on the commercial seafood and sports fishing industry. (2001)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
On a peninsula ringed by bays, San Leon has been settled, abandoned, and reinvented many times. First claimed after Mexico opened the Texas tidelands in 1828 and platted as a townsite in 1837, the land reverted to open range before Galveston and Minnesota investors built the railroad town of North Galveston in 1892. The 1900 storm wiped out those ambitions; later the community was revived as a bayside resort and, between the world wars, was known for its fig and citrus orchards before turning to fishing.
Why it matters
San Leon's repeated cycles of boom, disaster, and reinvention capture the precarious promise of Gulf Coast development in the age of railroads and great storms.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Amos Edwards
- · William Gaines
- · Joe Eagle
Related events
- · 1900 Galveston hurricane
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Townsite of Dickinson
Dickinson, TX
Dickinson is the oldest mainland settlement in Galveston County, named for John Dickinson, one of Stephen F. Austin's Old 300 colonists. Laid out on a bayou land grant surveyed in 1830 by Austin himself, the community grew through early homesteads whose cabins still stand and, later, a booming produce trade that earned it fame as a Strawberry Capital of the World. Rail lines, a Methodist church, a post office, and a public school followed as the town matured.
Lynch's Ferry
Baytown, TX
Nathaniel Lynch, one of Stephen F. Austin's first colonists, established a ferry here before 1824 on land granted that August, and in 1830 the ayuntamiento of San Felipe gave him the exclusive right to operate it. Sitting where Buffalo Bayou meets the San Jacinto River, the crossing became a vital artery for the colonists of early Anglo Texas and lay near the ground where independence would be won in 1836. Still running today as the Lynchburg Ferry, it is among the oldest continuously operating crossings in the state.
Site of Clifton-by-the-Sea
Bacliff, TX
Established in 1910 by landowners G. C. Perkins and W. Y. Fuqua, Clifton-by-the-Sea was a bayside resort that rose as prosperity returned to Galveston County after the catastrophic 1900 storm. Reached by the rail line along Galveston Bay's western shore, it offered a hotel, summer homes, and a pier-mounted bathhouse and pavilion that hosted dances with Houston and Galveston orchestras. Hurricanes repeatedly wrecked the resort until a 1943 storm ended it for good; after World War II the area became home to petrochemical workers and, in 1948, took the name Bacliff.
San Leon Cemetery
San Leon, TX
The oldest graves here were dug by the 1890s, part of the town of North Galveston, itself carved in 1891 from the Republic of Texas townsite of San Leon first laid out in 1837. The great hurricane of 1900 destroyed the town, and in 1910 the land passed to Congressman Joe Eagle, who restored the old San Leon name and in 1920 deeded the burial ground to the community. Storms and erosion have swept away many graves and markers over the years, leaving the cemetery to carry what remains of the area's memory.