Alvarado

Duane's take

Here's what the official marker for Alvarado has to say, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, every town has a beginning, and Alvarado's goes back to the late 1840s, when a man named David Mitchell set up a trading post near this very spot. That wasn't long after the colonists of W.

S. Peters' empresario grant started filtering into the area, so Mitchell was right there at the front edge of settlement: trading post open, ready for business before the town even had a name. Then came William Balch.

He settled on an area land grant in 1852, and whatever he saw here, he saw potential. Balch pushed to get the townsite surveyed in 1854, opened the first general merchandise stores on the square, and donated land for a cemetery, a school, and a union church. The community thought enough of all that to give him a title he'd carry the rest of his days: the Father of Alvarado.

Now that's a legacy you can set your watch by. The town took its name from Alvarado, Mexico, and it didn't waste any time growing into that name. A post office went up.

Homes followed. Businesses. Churches.

A community school got established around 1855, and by 1875 it had grown into something with real ambition: The Alvarado Masonic Institute. But the engine that really opened the throttle on this town was iron and steam. The Missouri Pacific Railroad extended its lines through Alvarado in 1881.

Three years later, in 1884, the Chicago, Texas, and Mexican Central Railroad did the same. Two rail lines through one town. That kind of thing doesn't whisper; it shouts.

And the local economy heard it loud and clear. By 1885, Alvarado had several churches, two schools, two gins, an opera house, a bank, a newspaper, and a population of about two thousand people. An opera house, friend.

Out here on the Texas prairie. You have to smile at that. The Masonic Institute kept evolving along the way.

It became the Alvarado Normal Institute in 1899, and then in 1908 and 1909 it transitioned into Alvarado High School. Education growing right alongside the town, grade by grade, decade by decade. Now, right here where you're standing (or somewhere very near it), a large jail and town hall was erected in the mid-1880s.

It stood through the boom years and into the next century before it was removed in the 1920s. What replaced it wasn't bars and a badge's office. It was a garden arrangement.

Peaceful as you please. And sometime after that, somebody added a gazebo. From trading post to opera house to garden gazebo.

That's Alvarado: a town that kept reinventing itself, one generation at a time.

What the marker says

Early settler David Mitchell established a trading post near here in the late 1840s, about the time colonists of W. S. Peters' empresario grant began to settle the area. Colonist William Balch, who settled on an area land grant in 1852, was later to become known as the "Father of Alvarado" for his efforts in having the townsite surveyed in 1854, establishing the first general merchandise stores on the square, and for donating land for a cemetery, school, and union church. The town, named for Alvarado, Mexico, soon boasted a post office, homes, businesses, and churches. A community school established about 1855 became The Alvarado Masonic Institute in 1875. Rail lines extended through Alvarado by the Missouri Pacific Railroad in 1881 and by the Chicago, Texas, and Mexican Central Railroad in 1884 spurred a local economic boom. By 1885 Alvarado had several churches, two schools, two gins, an opera house, a bank, a newspaper, and a population of about 2,000. The Masonic Institute became the Alvarado Normal Institute in 1899 and Alvarado High School in 1908-09. A large jail/town hall erected at this site in the mid-1880s was removed in the 1920s and replaced with a garden arrangement; a gazebo was added later. (1994)