Taylor Post Office
Taylor, Williamson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The first post office established in this community opened in 1876 under the name Taylorsville. In 1882, when the city was incorporated, it was renamed Taylor. The post office was housed in a number of locations until this structure was built in 1929-30. A finely crafted example of the Classical Revival style that characterized federal projects of the 1920s, the building features six round-arched windows on the ground floor; a balustrade and parapet with garland panel on the second floor; an elaborate entry portico; stone columns; and a Classical entablature. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1992
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Taylor grew up around a post office that opened in 1876 as "Taylorsville" and took the town's shorter name when the city incorporated in 1882. After decades in rented quarters, the postal service gave the community this dignified Classical Revival building in 1929-30, its round-arched windows, columned portico, and garlanded parapet typical of the federal architecture that dotted American towns in the 1920s.
Why it matters
Federal post offices like this one anchored Main Street commerce and civic identity across small-town America, embodying the reach of the national government into everyday local life.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Preslar-Hewitt Building
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Taylor grew as a cotton and railroad center, and in 1914 Hugo Hunke built this two-story commercial block to anchor an important downtown corner, with shop space below and offices above. Early tenants included tailors and a grocery, but the building is best remembered as the home of Preslar-Hewitt Pharmacy from 1929 to 1954. Its pilasters, capitals, transoms, decorative tilework, and dentiled entablature typify the era's proud main-street architecture.
City of Taylor
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When the International & Great Northern Railroad crossed Williamson County in 1876, it spawned a town called Taylorsville, named for railroad executive Moses Taylor, with lots sold that June and a post office opened in August. Sitting on a cattle trail, the town quickly became a major shipping point for cattle, then grew further after a second rail line arrived in 1882 and the community incorporated. Renamed simply Taylor in 1892, it added cotton to cattle and rails as pillars of a prosperous local economy.
Doak Home
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Built in the 1860s in an early ranch-style form, this Williamson County house has belonged to the Doak family since 1878. Its longtime owner, A. V. Doak, was Taylor's first physician and a civic force who helped organize the town's mule-drawn streetcar line. The home passed down through three generations of Doak doctors.
Doak Pavilion Site
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