Historical Marker
Missouri City
Missouri City, Fort Bend County · Texas
Erected 1981
Cash and his partner advertised the tract around St. Louis as a "land of genial sunshine and eternal summer," and McElroy chose the name Missouri City in 1893 to tie his eighty acres to their campaign. The first settlers actually came from around Arlington, Texas, and the first business was a blacksmith shop. A post office opened in a general store in 1897, a depot followed in 1902, and in 1926 Missouri City became the first town in the county to use natural gas. It stayed near 100 people until 1960, then grew to 52,913 by 2000.
What the plaque says
Missouri City In 1890 Houston realtors R.M. Cash and L.E. Luckel began a real estate development here, promoted to attract settlers from Missouri and Illinois. The settlement was established on four sections of land purchased from the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos & Colorado Railroad. In 1894 the townsite of Missouri City was platted on the property of W.R. McElroy of Houston. The early growth of the community was hindered by two major natural disasters that struck the area. In 1895 a severe snowstorm caused extensive damage. Many residents, attracted to the coastal region by the mild climate, were discouraged and left for other areas. In 1900 a destructive hurricane hit the town, leaving only three homes standing. Despite the early setbacks, the settlers rebuilt and Missouri City became a flourishing town. Oil was discovered here in 1920 and a salt mine opened a few years later. The economic development of the area, which included ranching and farming, helped make the town a major railroad shipping center. Missouri City incorporated in 1956 and Robert A. Stallings served as the first mayor. The community schools, established at this site in 1895, became part of the Fort Bend Independent School District in 1959. (1981)
Where it stands
29.61546, -95.53894 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Museum of Fine Arts, Houston — 12 miThe oldest art museum in Texas, grown from a 1900 schoolroom art league into a campus of Watkin, Mies van der Rohe and later buildings, with Ima Hogg's Bayou Bend up the bayou.
- The Menil Collection — 12 miJohn and Dominique de Menil's free museum in Montrose: a grey-sided Renzo Piano building among bungalows, holding antiquities, Surrealism and art of Oceania under natural light.
- Rothko Chapel — 12 miAn octagonal chapel open to all faiths, built by the de Menils around fourteen dark canvases by Mark Rothko, with Barnett Newman's Broken Obelisk standing in the pool outside.
- Buffalo Soldiers National Museum — 13 miA museum in Houston's 1925 Light Guard Armory that tells the service of Black soldiers from the Revolutionary War onward, built from one veteran's thirty years of collecting.