Quantcast
Channel: The Historical Marker Database - New Entries
Viewing all 103096 articles
Browse latest View live

Transportation: Model T's, Trains & Trolleys

0
0
Texas, Gregg County, Longview
Although J. Garland Pegues had established the City Garage (later Pegues-Hurst Ford), all roads leading in and out of Longview remained dirt wagon tracks. Railroads continued to be the city's lifeline. In 1910, there were 18 daily passenger trains. Beginning in 1911, Longview's rail center image was boosted with formation of a fourth line, the Port Bolivar & Iron Ore railroad. The Santa Fe took over the line in 1914. Decades later, the PB&IO right-of-way within Longview was developed as Cargill Long Park.

In 1912, electric trolleys replaced the city's mule-drawn streetcars. Local industry included Graham Manufacturing Company's box factory, producing containers for shipping fruits and vegetables. R.G. Brown's saw and lumber mills, as well as a large planing mill operated by Castleberry & Flewellen, provided local employment.

(Industry & Commerce • Railroads & Streetcars • Roads & Vehicles) Includes location, directions, 6 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

The End of the Beginning

0
0
Texas, Gregg County, Longview
By 1920, Longview boasted 9 1/2 miles of paved streets, concrete sidewalks, electric street lights, municipal garbage collection and a paid fire department with the state's first two pumping trucks. In 1920, the Longview Rotary Club was organized as the city's first service club. By 1920-21, a 16-foot-wide strip of asphalt known as State Highway 15 (future U.S. Highway 80) became the first paved road across Gregg County. In 1926, the East Texas Chamber of Commerce was formed and located its headquarters in Longview, with member cities including Dallas, Houston and Shreveport, LA. In 1929, the five-story Gregg Hotel (later doubled in size by new owner Conrad Hilton) was constructed.

However, Longview experienced economic instability. Cotton profits declined due to soil exhaustion and pests such as the boll weevil, and the lumber industry suffered as local timber was depleted. In January 1929, the Texas & Pacific moved its division offices and shops to Mineola, taking away 700 families. Then came the Great Depression.

(Agriculture • Industry & Commerce • Railroads & Streetcars • Roads & Vehicles) Includes location, directions, 6 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

First Discovery Wells and Then the Boom!

0
0
Texas, Gregg County, Longview
Black gold! Suddenly, the Great Depression was forgotten with the late 1930 discovery of the East Texas Oil Field, biggest in the world. Trapped in a layer of porous sandstone called the Woodbine formation 3,600 feet below the surface, the field was approximately 40 miles long and five miles wide. Nearly half of the huge field was in Gregg County.

The Longview Chamber of Commerce offered a prize of $10,000 for the first oil well in Gregg County within 12 miles of the city. Realtor B.A. Skipper — who long had believed there was oil here — and other investors had already begun drilling on a farm owned by Kelly Plow Works' manager, F.K. Lathrop. On Jan. 28, 1931, the well blew in, capable of producing 18,000 barrels per day. The possibility of a single field loomed. The oil boom was on.

(Exploration • Natural Resources) Includes location, directions, 6 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

The Oil Boom Brings Renewal

0
0
Texas, Gregg County, Longview
Thanks to discovery of the East Texas Oil Field, Longview's population nearly tripled during the next decade, to 13,758 by 1940. While the rest of the nation suffered during the Great Depression. Longview's citizens, businesses and industry, schools and churches thrived. A new courthouse, city hall, post office, public library and community center were built, along with a high school, county hospital (later named Good Shepherd Medical Center) and railroad station.

The five-story Gregg Hotel, opened in 1930 and doubled in size by Conrad Hilton five years later, stood on the present site of Heritage Plaza. Prominent residential developments of the era included Forest Hills, Nugget Hill, Surrey Place and the Mobberly Addition. State Highway 15 was widened and became U.S. Highway 80, nicknamed "Main Street of Texas" across the oil field.

(Industry & Commerce • Natural Resources • Roads & Vehicles) Includes location, directions, 6 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

World War II & Its Aftermath

0
0
Texas, Gregg County, Longview

During World War II, served as gathering point for the "Big Inch" pipeline. Two feet in diameter — the largest pipe yet constructed—the "Big Inch" line carried crude oil to Pennsylvania. From there, branches led to East Coast refineries. Completed in 1943, the "Big Inch" protected the bulk of the nation's wartime fuel supply from German submarines which threatened tanker ships. It is said that the Allies rode to victory on East Texas crude.
With the coming of the war, Longview was selected as site of a major U.S. Army hospital. Harmon General Hospital consisted of 232 frame buildings on a 156-acre tract off Mobberly Avenue. The facility was dedicated Dec. 15, 1942, serving thousands of GIs before deactivation on Jan. 20, 1946.

(Natural Resources • Science & Medicine • War, World II) Includes location, directions, 6 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

A City That Grows

0
0
Texas, Gregg County, Longview
Longview News-Journal Publisher Carl Estes successfully led a civic effort to bring R.G. LeTourneau's excavator manufacturing company here. An ardent lay evangelist, LeTourneau also established a technical institute on the site of the former Harmon General Hospital. The school evolved into what now is LeTourneau University.
With rapid growth came the need for a modern airport. Land was purchased with county funds from a 1940 bond issue. The Gregg County Airport was opened in summer 1947. Lake Cherokee was developed in the late 1940s by private interests led by banker Verne A. Clements. Forest clearing and excavation for the lake was done by R.G. LeTourneau's company to test his heavy equipment products.

(Air & Space • Education • Industry & Commerce) Includes location, directions, 6 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Industry Accelerates Economic Growth

0
0
Texas, Gregg County, Longview
The area's industrial development was greatly enhanced in 1950 when the Texas Eastman petrochemical plant located near Longview. What originally was intended as a small butyraldehyde plant became the city's biggest employer and the second largest petrochemical plant in Texas. Eastman officials selected the Longview site because of an abundance of hydrocarbon raw materials, fresh water availability, railroad lines and a labor force with a high work ethic.
During this time, numerous smaller industrial operations were brought to Longview, supplanting declining oil field and refinery employment. The nonprofit Longview Industrial Districts' business parks attracted several of the new firms.

(Industry & Commerce • Natural Resources) Includes location, directions, 6 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

The Fabulous Fifties

0
0
Texas, Gregg County, Longview
The end of World War II ushered in a long period of national prosperity, and Longview thrived thanks to the East Texas Oil Field and associated natural gas. Construction in Longview during the 1950s rivaled or exceeded that of the 1930s. Major products included a 10-story bank building, new sanctuaries for First Baptist and First Methodist Churches, the Petroleum Building, Jaycee Exhibit building at the Gregg County Fairgrounds, a new high school auditorium and several new school campuses. Major residential subdivisions of the 1950s included Forest Park and Brookwood.
R.G. LeTourneau, an ardent lay evangelist, made a historic contribution to Longview's postwar industrialization by bringing his excavator manufacturing company and plans for creating LeTourneau Technical Institute to Longview in 1946
By decades end, the city's population had increased from 24,502 to 40,050—a 63 percent growth rate.

(Churches, Etc. • Education • Industry & Commerce • Natural Resources) Includes location, directions, 6 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Longview Expands Its Influence

0
0
Texas, Gregg County, Longview
The last decade of Longview's first hundred years was a time of historic and fundamental change. In 1962, the "slant hole" scandal brought unfavorable national attention to the East Texas Oil Field. (This illegal process actually pioneered technological advances that have led to increased oil and gas recovery throughout the world). In 1963, the city reached west of its own developed area and annexed the unincorporated community of Greggton, including much of the Pine Tree Independent School District. Construction of Loop 281 (begun in 1964) and Interstate Highway 20 (completed through Gregg County in 1968) helped decentralize the city's development.
Longview's major industrial addition of the decade was the Schlitz (later Stroh) brewery. The city continued its healthy population growth, boasting 46,744 residents at decade's end.

(Industry & Commerce • Political Subdivisions • Roads & Vehicles) Includes location, directions, 6 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Completing a Century of Development

0
0
Texas, Gregg County, Longview
The decade of the 1970s saw complete integration of the Longview Independent School District. For the first time, African-Americans were elected to the Gregg County Commissioners Court, City Council and School Board. In May 1970, Longview celebrated its centennial with a ten-day festival involving a large segment of the population. As the decade unfolded, plans were under way for a new Longview High School campus, civic center, historical museum, oil museum and shopping mall.
After one hundred years, Longview had outgrown its comfortable image as a small town. Boasting such amenities as a symphony orchestra, ballet theater and art museum, the far-sighted community had come a long way from its humble beginning of "100 Acres of Heritage."

(African Americans • Arts, Letters, Music • Education) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Loveland

0
0
Colorado, Weld County, near Loveland
During its brief but colorful life, Mariano Medina's toll bridge and trading post overflowed with high living and tall tales from the proprietor's fur-trapping days. Built on the Big Thompson River in 1858, astride what would become the Overland Trail, Medina's river crossing was one of the first settlements in this region but hardly the last. When the pioneer trail moved three miles east in 1864, so did the settlers, converging around Andrew Douty's flour mill in a town called Old St. Louis. Yet another migration occurred in 1877, when the Colorado Central Railroad pushed through this area. Railroad owner W.A.H. Loveland routed the tracks over the property of his friend David Barnes, who founded his own town there and named it for his benefactor. And so, at last, did present-day Loveland come into being.

Initially a small agricultural town, Loveland grew into a city after the Great Western Sugar Company built a plant here in 1901. The factory employed hundreds of workers, gave local farmers a profitable market for sugar beets, and recruited waves of immigrants - first Germans from Russia, then Japanese and Hispanos - to work in the beet fields. Great Western dominated the town's economy until 1960, when Hewlett-Packard built a plant here; the high-tech giant soon emerged as the community's largest employer and gave rise to a booming technology sector. Artists have found a welcoming home in Loveland, whose public art program ranks among Colorado's most ambitious. But the city's national claim to fame comes every Valentine's Day, when millions of cards from across the country are routed through here to receive Loveland's distinctive "America's Sweetheart" postmark.

Picture Captions:
Seated Male
- Mariano Medina was one of the few Mexicans who became a successful fur trapper in Colorado. He enjoyed a forty-year career as a mountain man before establishing his trading post and toll bridge here. (Colorado Historical Society)
Small right side photo - By 1900 Loveland was a major fruit-growing area - apple, cherry, and plum orchards like this one surrounded the town until the 1950s. (Loveland Museum/Gallery)
Left side photo - Farmers unloading sugar beets at Loveland's Great Western Sugar Factory, early 1900s. In its first year of operation, this factory produced 139,200 hundred-pound bags of granulated sugar.(Denver Public Library, Western History Collection)
Bottom photo - By the time this photo of Fourth and Cleveland Street was taken c. 1900, Loveland had developed into a substantial town. Today, this neighborhood remains the heart of the downtown business district and is home to government offices, art galleries, and restaurants as well as a number of historic houses and buildings. (Colorado Historical Society)

Reverse side
"Loveland Country" Regional Map

(Agriculture • Industry & Commerce • Railroads & Streetcars • Settlements & Settlers) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Lone Tree School

0
0
Colorado, Larimer County, Loveland

  Built in 1883 on land donated by B.R. Bonnell to serve families southwest of Loveland. Named for the single Hackberry tree growing nearby.
  The school was closed in 1920 and was used as a community center until about 1940, then for grain storage until abandoned.
  The building was donated to the Loveland community by the W.F. Morey family for preservation. The Loveland Bicentennial Committee of 1976 undertook restoration & completed the project in 1985 with the assistance of area organizations and volunteers.
Operated by the Loveland Museum & Gallery 5th and Lincoln

(Agriculture • Education • Notable Buildings) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Little Bodie

0
0
California, Mono County, near Bridgeport
East of this site was located the Little Bodie mines. Organized in the 1930s it was composed of 5 mines or claims which produced high grade ore containing galena, pyrites, sulphide and gold valued at $12 to $15 per ton.
During its heyday the mines employed 5 workers and could produce 30 tons of ore per day. The facilities included a shop, pump, bunkhouse, mill and settling tank. Water for the milling process was pumped from springs located 100 feet south of the mines. The mineshaft were reportedly 175 feet below the surface and between 100 and 250 feet in length.
By the 1940s the mines began to falter and soon after all commercial operations ceased. Most of the equipment, machinery and buildings were dismantled and sold. Although its existence was brief, Little Bodie continued the tradition of being a gold producer started by its namesake "Big Bad Bodie" in the 1860s.

(Industry & Commerce) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Life in Bodie

0
0
California, Mono County, Bodie
Men, women and children came from all of the U.S. states, and from the world, to live and work here during the Bodie heyday. At the height of the boom in 1881, Bodie claimed 65 saloons, 18 lodging houses and hotels, three breweries, wholesale liquor dealers, more than a dozen markets, restaurants, two banks, barbershops, newspapers, a school, a post office and a telegraph office.
You might have enjoyed an ice cream on a warm day, or oysters packed in ice and shipped from San Francisco. During the boom years the camp struggled along without a church, though regular services were held in the Miner's Union Hall and then, after 1878, in the Odd Fellows Hall.
On the north end of town a rougher element of society frequently saloons and Faro tables. They drank Bodie Lightning, better known as whiskey, and visited the "Red Light District" and the opium dens. Gunshots rang through the streets. Gambling, drunkenness and violence plagued law abiding citizens.
Community minded residents gathered toward the south end of town for more respectable activities. On the Fourth of July families attended the annual street parade accompanied by the band and watched children participate in games while men competed in hard rock "drilling" contests. Wrestling competitions were frequent among the men.
Couples enjoyed fancy dress balls at the Miner's Union Hall, which doubled as a social center. Children's recitals, concerts, along with other events kept the "proper" women of the town occupied planning festivities. Booker Flat, south of town, featured a horse racing track and nearby was the baseball field where the "Bodie Mutts" played ball.

(Entertainment • Industry & Commerce • Settlements & Settlers) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

The Red Cloud Mine

0
0
California, Mono County, Bodie
In 1973, the Red Cloud's shaft house and adjoining structures were torn down. The head frame of the hoist works and some of the hoist equipment were moved here for safe keeping.
The Red Cloud Mine operation housed the equipment you see illustrated and on display. The boiler (A) was a real workhorse - it made steam to power steam engines, which drove the hoist (B) that lifted men and equipment up and down the mine shaft on cables stretched over pulleys on the head frame (C). The boiler also powered the air compressor (D) that operated air drills and other machinery used by the miners.

(Industry & Commerce) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Woodstock

0
0
Virginia, Shenandoah County, Woodstock
County seat of Shenandoah
Scene of Peter Muhlenburg's Famous
call to arms 1776
Oldest Court House west of the
Blue Ridge 1795
First Clerk was Thomas Marshall,
Father of Chief Justice John Marshall
———
Turn at Court House square and visit Massanutten Tower, a superb view of the Valley showing famous horse shoe bends of the Shenandoah River.

(Natural Features • War, US Revolutionary) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Mabel Lee Walton and Sigma Sigma Sigma

0
0
Virginia, Shenandoah County, Woodstock
The Mabel Lee Walton House at 225 N. Muhlenberg Street is the national headquarters of Sigma Sigma Sigma Sorority, founded in 1898 at the State Female Normal School at Farmville (now Longwood University). The Walton family built the house in 19l4, the year after Mabel Lee Walton became Tri Sigma’s third and ultimately longest-serving national president. During her 34 years as leader and almost 70 years of membership, she promoted ideals of integrity and service. Tri Sigma’s philanthropic efforts, including a campaign to eradicate polio in the 1950s, have aided hospitalized children throughout the country.

(Fraternal or Sororal Organizations) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

The Cappon House / Isaac Cappon

0
0
Michigan, Ottawa County, Holland
Isaac Cappon

Isaac Cappon (1830 - 1902) emigrated from the Netherlands to the United States in 1847. After a brief stay in Rochester, New York, he came to Michigan's Holland Colony in 1848. Here he worked as a laborer in a local tannery. In 1857 he helped found the Cappon & Bertsch Leather Co., one of Holland's leading nineteenth century industries. When Holland incorporated in 1867, Cappon became its first mayor. He held that office for four subsequent but not successive terms. Cappon was prominent in both church and civic affairs.

The Cappon House

Completed in 1874, this Italianate home was built by John R. Kleyn for Isaac Cappon. Erected in the aftermath of the devastating Holland fire of 1871, the Cappon House is one of the finest extant homes in the city. It remained in the Cappon family until the death of Isaac's daughter Lavina in 1978. Its furnishings were willed to the Netherlands Museum, which with the help of the city acquired the property in 1981. Volunteer groups have restored and preserved the elegant home.

(Industry & Commerce • Settlements & Settlers) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Ninth Street Christian Reformed Church

0
0
Michigan, Ottawa County, Holland
Side 1

Dedicated on June 25, 1856, this church was built under the leadership of the Reverend Albertus C. Van Raalte, founder and the first pastor of the Holland colony. Jacobus Schrader designed the Greek Revival style building using native hand-hewn oak for the sills and crossbeams. The copper rooster on the belfry, symbolizing Peter's denial and pride is commonly found on Calvinist churches in the Netherlands. The city's oldest extant church, often referred to as the Pillar Church, was one of the few buildings in Holland to survive the devastating fire of 1871.

Side 2

The congregation of the Pillar Church was organized in 1847 and worshipped in a log church at the site of the Pilgrim Home Cemetery. Composed of immigrants in secession from the Nederlanse Hervormde Kerk, the church was without denominational ties until it joined the Reformed Church in America in 1850. A division occurred within its congregation in 1882 and the building was assumed by the seceding majority. The minority reestablished itself as the First Reformed Church. Over the years its members, and those of daughter congregations, have sought to fulfill the ideals which inspired the founders to seek a new home in America: freedom of religion; purity of doctrine; and a Christian education for their children in home, school and church.

(Churches, Etc. • Notable Buildings) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Old Stone Fort

0
0
Ohio, Coshocton County, near West Lafayette

Ohio Society
National Society
Colonial Dames XVII Century
Old Stone Fort
believed to have been built by
De’Iberville, LaSalle’s successor,
who built French forts in the
Mississippi Valley, 1679 to 1689. He located one northeast of the
Ohio River. This may be that fort
and Ohio’s oldest building.
Commemorating the Bicentennial USA 1776- 1976


(Exploration • Forts, Castles • Settlements & Settlers) Includes location, directions, 8 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
Viewing all 103096 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images