City of Manor

Manor, on U.S. Highway 290 twelve miles northeast of Austin, reached about 1,000 residents in the late 1920s, but the Depression brought a decline. Even so, it remained a commercial center for area farmers, many of whom shipped livestock and dairy products by rail. Its population rose from 688 in the 1940s to 813 in the 1950s and 940 in the 1970s. In 1988 the town had 1,233 residents and sixty-two businesses; the count was 1,041 in 1990 and 1,204 in 2000.

What the plaque says

City of Manor In area first settled by James Manor (1804-81), who came from Tennessee with Sam Houston in 1832, later returning for his family and a sister and brother. Until 1852, area was subject to Indian raids. Other pioneers included A.F., W.M., and James Boyce, Sterling Chamberlain, Dave Eppright, J.I. Haynes, Ed Harrington, A.C. and W.H. Hill, W.B. Howse, N.A. Rector, W.L. Shipp, E. D. Townes, and Joe, Bill, Sam, and Walter Vaughan. In 1854 a boys' school was opened and a Methodist church organized. Isaac Wilbahn (1857) gave site, and Parsons Female Academy (named for a leading contributor) was established, to become one of the celebrated schools of 19th century Texas. Its teachers included the Rev.and Mrs. D.H. Bittle, and T.C. Bittle; its students, T.B. Wheeler (1840-1913), Mayor of Austin (1872-77), Judge of 12th District (1880-86), Lieutenant Governor of Texas (1887-91); and John C. Townes (1852-1923), Judge of 33rd District (1882-85), 26th District (1888), and Dean of the University of Texas Law School (1901-02, 1907-23). In 1871 James Manor donated right of way for the Houston & Texas Central Railroad. The town founded and named for him in 1872 was incorporated in 1913. Cotton, king here for years, has been supplanted by cattle raising as base for the local economy. (1972)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• LBJ Presidential Library — 11 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.
• George Washington Carver Museum — 11 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.
• Texas State Cemetery — 11 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.
• French Legation State Historic Site — 12 mi
  A raised pine house built in 1840 and 1841 for France's envoy to the Republic of Texas, who left Austin in a rage over a neighbor's pigs before it was finished.

More markers nearby

• Manor Cemetery — 0.3 mi
• Clayton Vocational Institute — 0.4 mi
• Decker United Methodist Church and Community — 4.2 mi
• St. John Church — 5.7 mi