Lott

The man behind the name died poor. The Handbook of Texas calls Uriah Lott a promoter, not a financier; his first line, the Corpus Christi to Laredo narrow gauge, took seven years and was jeered as Lott's Folly, and he died in Kingsville in 1915. In Falls County the town did better, but the First National Bank went into receivership in 1933. The marker says the railroad route closed in 1949. The Handbook says the Southern Pacific abandoned the Waco to Rosebud line in 1967, and that local passenger service at nearby Travis ended in 1949.

What the plaque says

Lott Located on a straight line from Cameron to Waco, this site was the natural choice for development of a new town along the San Antonio and Arkansas Pass Railroad in 1889. The Texas Townsite Company bought land from area pioneers Captain and Mrs. George H. Gassaway, who had purchased 7,000 acres in 1871. The railroad was given a right-of-way, and development began on a town, named in honor of railroad president Uriah Lott (1842- 1915). As the construction crew worked to complete the rail line businesses sprang to life in the new town. A post office was established, and the city was incorporated in a November 1890 election. City officers were elected in December, and Albert B. Hemphill became the first mayor. The Texas Townsite Company donated land to the town for a school and churches. The first school opened in 1890, followed by churches of several denominations. Fraternal organizations were established, and the Lott Volunteer Fire Department was organized in 1895. Following the completion of the railroad, Lott experienced a time of rapid growth. Although the railroad route closed in 1949, the town flourished. (1986)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Temple Railroad and Heritage Museum — 20 mi
  The Santa Fe depot of 1911 in a railroad town that began in 1880 as a construction camp, now a museum with locomotives and cars parked beside the active rail yard.
• Armstrong Browning Library — 24 mi
  A three-story Italian Renaissance library on the Baylor campus built to hold A. J. Armstrong's Browning collection, dedicated in December 1951 and now, by its own account, the world's largest of Browning material.
• Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum — 25 mi
  The official state repository of Texas Ranger memorabilia, opened in 1968 in Fort Fisher Park on the Brazos, named for a Ranger post of 1837 whose site no one has located.
• Dr Pepper Museum — 25 mi
  The 1906 bottling plant of the Artesian Manufacturing and Bottling Company, built where Dr Pepper outgrew a Waco drugstore soda fountain, now the Dr Pepper Museum.

More markers nearby

• Union Cemetery — 4.5 mi
• Old Settlers and Veterans Association of Falls County — 5.1 mi
• Fort Milam — 5.9 mi
• Falls of the Brazos River — 7.3 mi