City of Elgin Centennial, 1872-1972

Before it was Elgin, the stop was a Houston and Texas Central flag station called Glasscock, renamed on August 18, 1872. Much of its first population came from Perryville, which the railroad had bypassed. In 1879 Elgin was called a thriving depot town of 400; by 1884 it had five general stores, two druggists, three cotton gins and a saloon. The Missouri, Kansas and Texas arrived in 1886, adding cotton, wool and livestock shipping, and by 1890 the town had 1,100 people, two hotels, a broom factory and the Elgin Courier.

What the plaque says

City of Elgin Centennial, 1872-1972 After Houston & Texas Central Railroad built through this area in 1871, town was platted (1872) and named for Robert M. Elgin (1825-1913), H. & T. C. land commissioner. Brick and tile, for which Elgin is widely known, have been chief products here since 1882 when Thomas O'Connor (1846-1937) made hand-molded, sun-dried brick. Other manufacturing and agricultural products bolster the economy. Settlers of six ethnic origins have made the city a center of cultural richness, with good homes, churches and schools. (1972)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Bastrop State Park — 18 mi
  The westernmost loblolly pines in the United States, cut off from the East Texas forest by a hundred miles of post oak, burned almost entirely in 2011 and growing back.
• George Washington Carver Museum — 21 mi
  East Austin's museum of Black history and culture, grown from a segregated branch library moved across town in 1933, with a permanent exhibit on Juneteenth at its core.
• LBJ Presidential Library — 21 mi
  A ten-story travertine archive on the University of Texas campus holding 45 million pages from a presidency of civil rights laws, the War on Poverty and Vietnam.
• Texas State Cemetery — 22 mi
  A hill east of the Capitol that began with one general's grave in 1851 and now holds Stephen F. Austin, governors, Barbara Jordan and more than 2,000 Confederate veterans and widows.

More markers nearby

• Elgin Lodge No. 328, A. F. & A. M. — 0.7 mi
• Lund — 3.6 mi
• Pleasant Grove Cemetery — 4.3 mi
• Kimbro — 6.0 mi