The City of Orange

Orange wore several names before it kept one. The Orange Leader traces them: Green's Bluff for the settler Green, Strong's Bluff, Pine Bluff in 1840 papers, a planned town called Huntley, and Jefferson variants. It dates the change to Madison to 1842, and says the Legislature incorporated Madison on September 1, 1856. Citizens asked for a new name because it was often confused with Madisonville, and the Legislature approved Orange on February 6, 1858. Three theories for the name are Pattillo's citrus grove, native orange trees, and the New Jersey hometown of commissioner A. H. Reading.

What the plaque says

The City of Orange The first known settlers in what is now the city of Orange were John and Elizabeth Harmon, who arrived in 1828 with their three children. Known first as Green's Bluff, the small farming community that developed along a bend in the Sabine River was selected as the seat of government when Orange County was created in 1852. The town was called Madison from 1852 until 1858, when the name Orange was adopted. The early Orange economy was based on the lumber and shipbuilding industries. Led by prominent pioneer area lumbermen and aided by the advent of the Texas and New Orleans Railroad in 1876, Orange was recognized as the leader in East Texas sawmill activity by the 1880s. The deep water port and the availability of lumber made the city an ideal location for the shipbuilding industry, which reached its highest production levels during World Wars I and II. For many years the city of Orange has maintained a full range of services for its citizens. Public schools have operated since the 1880s and electricity was instituted in 1890. Orange's shipbuilding and petrochemical industries continue to make the city a leading commercial center in southeast Texas. (1983)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Stark Museum of Art — steps away
  A white-marble museum in Orange built by the Stark Foundation and opened in 1978, holding Western art, American Indian art, Audubon's Birds of America and Steuben glass, free to enter.
• Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center — 1.0 mi
  More than 250 acres on Adams Bayou, begun by H. J. Lutcher Stark in 1937, with garden rooms, a cypress-tupelo swamp, a heronry blind and free pontoon tours in season.
• Museum of the Gulf Coast — 19 mi
  Port Arthur's regional museum in a former bank building: fossils, Native Americans, the petroleum story, a 125-foot history mural and Halls of Fame for musicians, athletes and artists.
• Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum — 21 mi
  A re-created oil boomtown on the Lamar University campus, with a derrick, period shops, a 1941 granite monument and an optional re-enactment of the January 1901 Lucas gusher.

More markers nearby

• Homesite of Dr. Edgar William Brown — steps away
• Henry Jacob Lutcher Stark — steps away
• First United Methodist Church of Orange — steps away
• First Baptist Church of Orange — steps away