North Pleasanton

North Pleasanton's population tracks the railroad's fortunes. The Nueces Valley Townsite Company platted it in 1913, a year after the SAU&G reached Pleasanton, and the roundhouse and shops supplied its first residents. A post office opened in 1914. The Handbook of Texas counts 364 people in 1925 and about 600 in the late 1920s, then 369 in the 1930s as the shops dwindled. Growth returned, to 673 in 1941 and 1,018 in 1961, the year Pleasanton annexed the town. Its post office was folded into Pleasanton's in 1962.

What the plaque says

North Pleasanton The Crystal City and Uvalde railroad was built in 1909 with bonus money and land donations. J.E. Franklin, chairman of the railroad, changed the name to San Antonio, Uvalde and Gulf (S.A.U. & G.), and extended the tracks toward Pleasanton. In 1912, a new town, North Pleasanton, was established at the division point by President M.E. Leming and other officials of the Nueces Valley Townsite Company to accommodate railroad employees. The division point, between San Antonio and Corpus Christi, made a suitable location for the general operating offices and machine shops, round house, etc. The two-story S.A.U. & G. Depot, designed by Henry Phelps, the architect who designed the Atascosa County Courthouse, was built in the Mission Revival Style. As the town began to grow, streets were surveyed and named, and a bridge was built over the Atascosa River to connect North Pleasanton to Pleasanton. Businesses opened along First Street, including the Gulf Coast Hotel, a post office, the First State Bank of North Pleasanton, multiple stores and other hotels. In 1914, an advertisement in the San Antonio Light newspaper named North Pleasanton as the fastest growing town in the south. In 1927, the Missouri Pacific Railroad purchased the S.A.U. & G. And the shops began closing down as the town struggled through the depression. In 1952, in an effort to improve the town, the citizens created the North Pleasanton Community Club. A new city hall, fire station, park and swimming pool were built. The residents of Pleasanton and North Pleasanton lived side by side for almost fifty years when the idea of consolidation resurfaced. Citizens voted unanimously to consolidate with Pleasanton on December 22, 1961. (2013)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Longhorn Museum — 0.9 mi
  Atascosa County in one roadside museum: longhorn-and-mustang ranching, a moved railroad depot and caboose, a horse-drawn hearse and the town that calls itself the birthplace of the cowboy.
• Atascosa County Courthouse — 5.3 mi
  The only surviving Mission Revival courthouse in Texas, built in 1912-13 on Jourdanton's town circle after a county seat vote that some residents still call a theft.
• Mission Espada and the Espada Aqueduct — 24 mi
  The southernmost San Antonio mission and the oldest Spanish aqueduct in the United States, still carrying river water over Sixmile Creek to the fields after nearly three centuries.

More markers nearby

• San Antonio, Uvalde and Gulf Railroad — steps away
• Capt. Peter F. Tumlinson — 0.2 mi
• Old Rock Schoolhouse — 0.7 mi
• Dr. Ben and Mona Parker and KBOP Radio — 0.7 mi