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The
original Post Office in Catarina
Photo
courtesy Robert Vahle, June 2011
More Texas
Post Offices |
History
in a Pecan Shell
The name has been associated with the area
since at least 1778; legend holds that it is the name of a Mexican woman killed
by Indians on or near the site. The town was established after Asher Richardson,
a rancher, decided to build a railway link from Artesia
Wells to his planned town of Asherton.
In return for an easement through the nearby Taft-Catarina Ranch Richardson
agreed to allow the ranch to establish a railroad depot, with cattle-shipping
pens, on his railroad. By 1910, when the Asherton and Gulf Railway began operations,
these cattle pens had become the nucleus of a small community built by Joseph
F. Green, the manager of the ranch. Green moved the ranch headquarters to the
depot and added a bunkhouse, a commissary, a hotel, a post office, and a small
schoolhouse.
By 1915 the little town had twenty-five residents and had
become famous in the area for the Taft House, an expensive mansion that Charles
Taft, the owner of the ranch, supposedly built with oversized bathtubs to accommodate
his brother, President William Howard Taft.
Catarina Farms, a development
project, built roads, sidewalks, a waterworks, an impressive new hotel and installed
electric power and a telephone exchange. Agent Charles Ladd imported entire orchards
of fruit-laden citrus trees to impress prospective
investors with the area's agricultural possibilities.
By 1929 Catarina
had between 1,000 and 2,500 residents, a bank, at least two groceries, a lumber
company, and a bakery. Short supplies of water, marketing problems, and the Great
Depression damaged the town. By 1931 the population had dropped to 592, and many
of its businesses had been forced to close. In 1943 Catarina had 403 residents
and seven businesses; in 1956 it had 380 residents and three businesses. By 1969
some of the town's most picturesque old buildings had been abandoned, and the
population was 160. In 1990 the population was forty-five.
More Catarina
History, see Catarina
by Mike Cox |
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Catarina
School Today
Photo
courtesy Robert Vahle, June 2011 |
Catarina
Today (From Catarina
by Mike Cox )
In 1997, new owners reopened the long-boarded structure for
the first time since the early days of the Cold War. It has had two owners since
then, but the property has been renovated and does a steady business during the
South Texas dove, quail, deer and turkey seasons.
Just across the highway,
to give hunters a place to pick up a gift for the wives they left behind, a combination
antique and gift store has been in business for several years.
A few
blocks past the antique store, partially hidden by mesquite, is the old Catarina
School. The building has fallen to ruin, but its poured concrete structure assures
that the skeleton will survive for years to come.
Farther down the highway,
the town’s once lavish swimming pool — part of the Catarina Farms development
— is debris-filled. The country club building adjacent to it is long gone.
The Catarina cemetery, located at the end of a winding unpaved road a couple
of miles from town, is overgrown with mesquite, though some burials occurred there
in the 1980s and 1990s. But the location of the final resting place of the woman
who gave the area her name is as uncertain as the existence of the ghosts who
supposedly haunt the old hotel. more
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Catarina
School in a sad state of deterioration
Photo
courtesy Robert Vahle, June 2011 |
| Photo
courtesy Robert Vahle, June 2011 |
Catarina
street scene, 1927
Photo
courtesy texasoldphotos.com |
A Tour
for Prospective Landbuyers, Nov. 9, 1926
Photo
Courtesy Jason
Penney |
Closeup
of above 1926 photo
showing Catarina Winter Garden Farms Excursion
Courtesy Jason
Penney |
| Texas
Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history and vintage/historic
photos of their town, please contact
us. | |
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