Aldine

Duane's take

Here's the story as the official marker tells it — my job's just to do it justice. Back before it had a proper name, this patch of Harris County went by Prairie Switch. Not exactly a name that inspires confidence in the real estate brochure, but it suited the place just fine — until 1873, when the railroad came rolling through and put Prairie Switch on the map.

By 1896, the community had itself a post office, and a name to go with it: Aldine. Twenty-five to thirty families had settled the fertile land hereabouts, most of them of Swedish descent, and they were coaxing something remarkable out of that Texas soil. Satsuma oranges.

Pears. Magnolia figs. Out here on the coastal plain, these families were growing things that would have seemed almost exotic in other parts of the state.

Now, word of good land travels fast — especially to folks with something to sell. In 1900, a developer by the name of E. C.

Robertson and his partner, F. W. Colby of Kansas, started marketing parcels of Aldine land to out-of-state speculators.

Many of those buyers purchased their tracts sight unseen. Sight. Unseen.

You have to admire the confidence — or maybe just the salesmanship. The town kept growing. A Presbyterian Church was organized from a Union Sabbath School in 1902.

A hotel went up. A general store. A two-room schoolhouse was erected on this very site in 1910, and in 1911 a cemetery was deeded for community use.

Aldine was becoming a real, breathing town. And then there were the figs. Oh, the figs.

Aldine resident J. C. Carpenter operated a small fig cannery, and sometime around 1914 or 1915, that operation grew into the Carpenter Fig Company, which opened a cannery nearby.

Reportedly one of the largest fig preserving plants in the entire United States — employing twenty-five to thirty people during canning season. A Texas fig operation competing with anyone in the country. Not bad for a place that used to be called Prairie Switch.

But here's where the story turns. Between 1918 and 1920, the fig industry died out. Freezes came through.

Blight set in. And with the country deep in World War I, sugar — the very thing you need to preserve a fig — was in short supply. Just like that, the crop that had defined Aldine was gone.

The community adapted. Dairy farms replaced the fruit farms. The Magnolia Oil Company established a large crude oil pumping station in Aldine in 1923.

The town shifted, pivoted, kept its footing — for a while. Then came the Aldine Railroad Depot shutting down in 1931 or 1932. The post office closing in January 1935.

The community turned to automobiles and started marketing its wares in Houston. The town of Aldine — the hotels, the cannery, the little two-room schoolhouse — gradually declined. One institution held on.

In 1932, four area common school districts joined together to form the Aldine Independent School District. Something worth building, even as the town around it faded. Today, Aldine is part of the metropolis of Houston.

The townsite itself remains only in the annals of Texas history — a place that went from Prairie Switch to Swedish farmsteads to the biggest fig cannery you'd ever heard of, and then quietly folded back into the land. The railroad came, the figs rose, the freezes came, and Houston grew until there was nothing left to grow around. That's a Texas story if I ever told one.

What the marker says

The railroad arrived in this area, first called Prairie Switch, in 1873. The Aldine Post Office was established in 1896; twenty-five to thirty families, most of Swedish descent, settled on Aldine's fertile land. Here they grew such products as Satsuma oranges, pears and magnolia figs. In 1900 developer E. C. Robertson and his partner, F. W. Colby of Kansas, began to market parcels of land to out-of-state speculators, many of whom bought tracts sight unseen. A Presbyterian Church was organized from a Union Sabbath School in 1902, and the town began to grow. It soon boasted a hotel and general store, a two-room schoolhouse erected on this site in 1910, and a cemetery deeded for community use in 1911. Aldine resident J. C. Carpenter operated a small fig cannery until 1914 or 1915 when the Carpenter Fig Company opened a cannery nearby. Reportedly one of the largest fig preserving plants in the U. S., it employed twenty-five to thirty people during the canning season. The fig industry died out from 1918 to 1920 because of freezes, blight and lack of sugar during World War I. Dairy farms replaced fruit farms and the Magnolia Oil Company established a large crude oil pumping station in Aldine in 1923. The Aldine Railroad Depot shut down in 1931 or 1932, and the post office closed in January 1935. The community turned to automobiles for transportation. Farmers began marketing their wares in Houston. The town of Aldine gradually declined. In 1932 four area common school districts joined to form the Aldine Independent School District. Now a part of the metropolis of Houston, the townsite of Aldine remains only in the annals of Texas history. (1999)