Brick Streets in Granger

Paved Davilla Street was one of several civic boasts. The Handbook of Texas says the Storrs Opera House, built by A. W. Storrs in 1905, hosted traveling shows and even the Chicago Opera Company. By 1910 Granger also had a combined cotton compress and cottonseed oil mill, an electric light plant, an ice factory and a waterworks, and its gin ranked among the largest in the United States in its day. In 1938 the first corn carnival south of the Mason-Dixon Line drew 20,000 visitors. The population peaked above 2,000 in the mid-1920s.

What the plaque says

Brick Streets in Granger Area landowners A. S. Fischer and W. C. Belcher platted the townsite of Granger in 1884, in anticipation of its potential to develop along the rail line that had been laid two years previously. The town plan called for a 100-foot-wide main street, named Davilla, along which businesses and dwellings soon appeared. By 1910 Granger's economy was booming. It was an important cotton marketing and shipping point for the region, with a combined cotton compress and cottonseed oil mill, an ice factory, a waterworks, churches, banks and schools. The vast expanse of Davilla Street proved to be a problem, however, especially after rainstorms when the street became a colossal mud puddle. With the increasing popularity of the automobile, the issue of Davilla Street was even more pronounced, and the decision was made to pave it with bricks. The job of paving Davilla Street took place in the summer of 1912. The weekly Granger News proclaimed, "Granger is said to boast the distinction of being the only city in the state of less than 5000 inhabitants that has paved streets, or that is paving them." The Business League of Granger held annual "good roads and pavement celebrations" to continue its promotion of Granger as a progressive community. Ironically, the proliferation of the automobile diminished the importance of the railroad, upon which Granger had based its prosperity, and the community began to lose its population to larger cities and towns. The remaining brick streets continue as a reminder of Granger's early prosperity and its role as a center of commerce. (2001)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Williamson County Courthouse — 15 mi
  The fifth Williamson County courthouse, a Beaux Arts building by C. H. Page, rises over a Georgetown square of more than 50 Victorian-era buildings.
• Inner Space Cavern — 16 mi
  A Georgetown cave found in 1963 when highway engineers drilled test holes, holding Pleistocene fossils and 72-degree rooms that visitors reach by an artificial tunnel.
• The Round Rock — 20 mi
  A table-shaped stone in Brushy Creek gave Round Rock its name in 1854; the Chisholm Trail crossed the creek near it, and Old Town stayed behind when the railroad pulled the town east.

More markers nearby

• Saints Cyril and Methodius Catholic Church — steps away
• Saints Cyril and Methodius Catholic School — steps away
• Granger Brethren Church — steps away
• Macedonia Cemetery — 2.9 mi