Georgetown, Texas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgetown,_Texas
|
Georgetown
is a city and also the county seat of Williamson
County, Texas,
United States[3]
with a population of 47,400 at the 2010 census. Southwestern
University, founded in 1840, is the oldest university in
Texas and is located in Georgetown, about 1/2 mile east of the
historic square. Sun
City Texas (formerly called Sun
City Georgetown) is a large retirement-oriented and age
restricted development which constitutes more than one-third
of the population of Georgetown.
Georgetown has
a notable range of Victorian
commercial and residential architecture. In 1976 a local
historic ordinance was passed to recognize and protect the
significance of the historic central business district and in
1977 the Williamson
County Courthouse Historic District, containing some 46
contributing structures, was listed on the National
Register of Historic Places.[4]
Geographically,
Georgetown lies across the Balcones
Escarpment,[5]
a fault line that divides Georgetown into areas roughly east
of Interstate 35 in the Blackland
Prairie which is flat farmland characterized by having
black, fertile soils, where cotton is the primary crop; and
the west side of the Escarpment which consists of hilly, karst-like
terrain pocketed with vugular limestone
openings that allow water to percolate through the limestone
and into the Edwards Aquifer below. The area typically has
little topsoil and has higher elevations, and is considered
part of the Texas
Hill Country. [6]
History
Prehistoric
era
Georgetown has
been the site of human habitation since at least 9,000 B.C.,
and possibly considerably before that. The earliest known
inhabitants of the county, during the late Pleistocene (Ice
Age), can be linked to the Clovis
culture, a Paleo-Indian culture that first appeared around
9200 B.C., and possibly as old as 11,500 B.C.[10]
at the end of the last glacial period, and characterized by
the manufacture of the distinctive "Clovis points."
One of the most important discoveries in recent times is that
of the ancient skeletal remains dubbed "The Leanderthal
Lady" because of its age and proximity to Leander,
Texas.[11]
The site is immediately southwest of Georgetown and was
discovered by accident by Texas Department of Transportation
workers while drilling core samples for a new highway. The
site has been extensively studied for many years and samples
carbon date to the Pleistocene
period at approximately 10,500 years ago (8500 BC).
Archeological dig sites showing a much greater evidence of
Archaic Period inhabitants has been recovered from burned rock
middens at several sites along the San Gabriel that are now
inundated by Granger Lake, and at the confluence of the North
and South San Gabriel Rivers in Georgetown.[12]
Early history
The earliest
known historical occupants of the county, the Tonkawas,
were a flint-working, hunting people who followed buffalo on
foot and periodically set fire to the prairie to aid them in
their hunts. During the eighteenth century they made the
transition to a horse culture and used firearms to a limited
extent. There also appear to have been small numbers of Kiowa,
Yojuane, Tawakoni, and Mayeye Indians living in the county at
the time of the earliest Anglo settlements.[13]
Even after most native Americans were crowded out by white
settlement, the Comanches continued to raid settlements in the
county until the 1860s.
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Example of a Clovis fluted
blade that is 11,000 years old. |
This 1900-1910 "patern book" house was
moved
to Georgetown from Round
Rock, Texas in 2006
and is now located in Georgetown, Texas
overlooking the South
San Gabriel River |
Modern
history
Georgetown was named for George
Washington Glasscock who donated the land for the new
town. Early American and Swedish pioneers were attracted to
the area's abundance of timber and good, clear water. In
addition, the land was inexpensive and extremely fertile.
Georgetown, Texas is the county seat of Williamson County,
which was formed on March 13, 1848 after the early settlers
petitioned the State Legislature to create it out of Milam
County. The county was originally to have been named San
Gabriel County, but was instead named after Robert
McAlpin Williamson (aka Three-Legged Willie), a Texas
statesman and judge at the time.[14]
Georgetown was
an agrarian community for most of the 19th and early 20th
centuries. The [Shawnee
Trail]], a cattle trail that led from Texas to the rail
centers in Kansas and Missouri, crossed through the heart of
Georgetown. The establishment of Southwestern University in
1873 and construction of a railroad in 1878 contributed to the
town's growth and importance. A stable economy developed,
based largely on agricultural activity. Cotton was the
dominant crop in the area between the 1880s and the 1920s.
Williamson County was the top producer of cotton in the State
of Texas.[15]
Primarily to
transport cattle and bales of cotton, at one time Georgetown
was served by two national railroads, the International-Great
Northern Railroad, which eventually was merged into the
Missouri Pacific, and the Missouri–Kansas–Texas
Railroad. The regional Georgetown and Granger Railroad (GGR)
was completed to Austin
in 1904. Currently, Georgetown is served by the appropriately
named Georgetown
Railroad, a 'short line' railroad that uses portions of
the former M-K-T and the I-GN to connect with the Union
Pacific Railroad at Round
Rock and at Granger.
Extensive
damage and loss of life throughout the county from a 1921
flood led Georgetown to seek flood control. A low pressure
system from a hurricane settled in over Williamson County and
brought more than 23 inches of rain in Taylor and 18 plus
inches of rain in Georgetown. An estimated 156 persons
perished in the flood, many of them farm laborers .[16]
The flood and its horrific destruction culminated in the
building of a dam on the north fork of the San Gabriel River
to create and impound Lake
Georgetown, which opened officially on October 5, 1979.[6]
Both Georgetown and Round Rock own the water rights to Lake
Georgetown for municipal water use.
Population growth and industrial expansion continued
modestly in the twentieth century until about 1960 when
residential, commercial, and industrial development, due to
major growth and urban expansion of nearby Austin, greatly
accelerated. In 2008, Fortune Small Business Magazine named
Georgetown the No. 2 best city in the nation to "live and
launch" a new business.
External
links
PICTORIAL
HISTORY OF GEORGETOWN
Georgetown
Heritage Society
|
Georgetown History
http://mainstreet.georgetown.org/georgetown-history/
|
Georgetown, located in Williamson
County, was founded in 1848 on land donated by Thomas B.
Huling and George
Washington Glasscock, Sr., for whom the town was named.
Though the young town quickly established itself as a center
for government and commerce, it is best characterized during
these early years as a “frontier town of the most common
type–a mean looking, tough town composed mainly of shacks
and log cabins.”
By 1880 things had begun to change. A limestone courthouse
stood on the square, early settlers and merchants had begun to
prosper, Southwestern
University, the state’s oldest college, had located on
the eastern edge of town (1873), and the railroad had arrived
in Georgetown (1878). It was a time of great promise for the
citizens of Georgetown.
Between the years 1880 and 1910 Georgetown experienced a
Golden Age during which the town was alive with the activities
of physical expansion and economic development. Though that
robust ear ended in the early 20th century, it left a
permanent mark on the city in the wealth of Victorian
architecture which abounds in downtown Georgetown today.
The earliest buildings in Georgetown were probably log
cabins and crude shacks. When milled lumber became available,
it was used to construct simple wood-frame structures which at
one time were evidenced on all four sides of the square. The
new-found prosperity of the late 19th century and advent of
the railroad expanded the horizons of building in downtown
Georgetown.
Wood was eliminated as a building material for more
permanent masonry. Limestone was quarried near Georgetown as
early as the 1860s and became the preferred material in the
late 1800s as evidenced by the quantity of limestone found in
downtown Georgetown today. Limestone was used almost
universally on the party walls and rear facades, while
occasionally more expensive brick was imported for the
important storefront. Other prominent materials in
turn-of-the-century Georgetown were cast iron and pressed
metal, imported by rail from manufacturing centers and applied
to the storefronts.
One company in particular, Mesker Brothers of St. Louis,
appears to have been an important source in Georgetown.
Bernard and Frank Mesker began their catalog marketing
technique and manufacture of highly decorative sheet metal
storefronts in 1884 and sold over 5,000 storefronts nationwide
within the next 23 years. While Georgetown boasts a few
outstanding examples of pressed metal storefront design,
virtually every structure includes some amount of metal
detailing, particularly in the cornice area. |