The Baytown Sun

Of the newspapermen on this plaque, Fred Hartman left his name on the skyline. He grew up in Marlin, earned two Baylor degrees and taught journalism there before joining the Tri-Cities Sun in 1935 as circulation manager and sports editor. He became editor in 1944, and the 1950 sale to Carmage Walls required that he stay on as editor and publisher. He led the Texas Daily Newspaper Association in 1965 and chaired Southern Newspapers from 1974. He died in 1991, and the cable-stayed bridge that replaced the Baytown-La Porte Tunnel in the mid-1990s bears his name.

What the plaque says

The Baytown Sun The Baytown Sun can trace its roots to the weekly newspaper the Goose Creek Gasser, established by Frank Boyer in 1919, two months before construction began on the humble Oil & Refining Company's Baytown Refinery. The Gasser was created to serve the rapidly growing tri-cities of Goose Creek, Pelly and Baytown, which evolved from oil boom towns to a permanent community centered on the refinery. In 1924, new ownership changed the paper's name to the Semi-Weekly Tribune, and again in 1929 to the Daily Tribune, when its circulation was around 4,500. The financial strain of the Great Depression led the owners of Goose Creek's Tribune, the Pelly Telegram, and Baytown's Tri-Cities News-Herald to merge into a single paper, the Tri-Cities Sun, operating out of the Tribune's building at 119 West Pearce. First published on July 19, 1931, it was renamed The Daily Sun two years later. Goose Creek, Pelly and Baytown consolidated in 1948, and the paper, renamed The Baytown Sun, became the sole daily newspaper in the old Tri-Cities area. In 1949, the facility was greatly expanded, including a new press and, for the first time, an air conditioned workspace. That year, The Sun surpassed a circulation of 8,000 and employed forty individuals. In 1965 The Sun moved to its current location at 1301 memorial drive. The first paper printed at the new location went out to more than 12,700 subscribers. Longtime publishers and editors of The Sun included William Pendergraft (1931-44), Robert Matherne (1931-50), Fred Hartman (1935-74) and Preston Pendergrass (1954-81). Since 1919, The Baytown Sun and its predecessors have primarily focused on the area's local news and history, while providing readers with matters of state, national and international importance. (2016)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site — 6.3 mi
  The 1,200 acres of coastal prairie and marsh where the Texas Revolution ended in eighteen minutes, and the 567-foot shaft of fossil-studded limestone that has stood over them since 1939.
• Space Center Houston — 15 mi
  The visitor center of NASA's Johnson Space Center at Clear Lake, with flown capsules, a shuttle replica riding a 747, and tram tours to Mission Control and a Saturn V.
• Emancipation Park — 23 mi
  The Third Ward park that freedpeople bought for Juneteenth in 1872, rebuilt in 2017 on Emancipation Avenue and still the center of the city's June 19 celebration.
• Sam Houston Park and the Heritage Society — 24 mi
  Ten historic buildings gathered in a downtown park below the skyscrapers, among them the 1870 house of the Reverend Jack Yates, built five years after emancipation.

More markers nearby

• Lee College — 0.7 mi
• City of Baytown — 0.8 mi
• George Washington Carver High School — 1.2 mi
• Humble Oil & Refining Company — 1.5 mi