Calallen

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. The rural Nueces County settlement of Calallen. It starts, as so many good Texas stories do, with land, water, and a man with a plan.

On August 18, 1910, the Calvin Townsite Company established the settlement. The president of that firm was a prominent local cattleman named Calvin J. Allen, born in 1859 and gone by 1922, and the town carried his name forward.

Now, the area had two things going for it right from the start: an abundant water supply and a location on the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Rail line. That combination turned Calallen into an important agricultural center of the region.

Not a maybe. Not a footnote. An important center.

From the nineteen-twenties all the way through the nineteen-forties, Calallen hit its stride. You want to talk about a full-service community? They had a hotel, a funeral home, a lumberyard, a post office, a doctor's office, a bank, churches, a whole variety of stores, and a school district that had been up and running since 1914.

Major employers included a Corpus Christi water plant and the vegetable packing firm of C.E. Coleman. The residents of Calallen weren't just getting by, either.

Some of the prominent cattlemen and business leaders of all of south Texas called this place home. Then came the roads. New roads brought dramatic growth to Corpus Christi, and that growth pulled the air right out of Calallen's sails.

The rural town was annexed by Corpus Christi in 1970. The school stayed open, but the town as it had been, that humming agricultural center with its bank and its hotel and its packing firm, faded into the broader city. The marker leaves you with this: the area today stands as a reminder of the early residents who were vital to the growth of Nueces County.

Vital. That word does a lot of work. These weren't people on the margins of Texas history.

They built something real, and the land still holds the memory of it.

What the marker says

The rural Nueces County settlement of Calallen was established by the Calvin Townsite Company on August 18, 1910. The president of the firm was the prominent local cattlemen Calvin J. Allen (1859-1922), for whom the town was named. The area's abundant water supply and the settlement's location on the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railline resulted in Calallen's development as an important agricultural center of the region. Calallen's greatest period of growth occurred from the 1920's to the 1940's. During that time it was the site of a hotel, funeral home, lumberyard, post office, doctor's office, bank, churches, a variety of stores and a school district, formed in 1914. Major employers here included a Corpus Christi water plant and the vegetable packing firm of C.E. Coleman. Residents of the community included some of the prominent cattlemen and business leaders of south Texas. Calallen's decline began as new roads resulted in dramatic growth for Corpus Christi. Although the Calallen school remained in operation, the rural town was annexed by Corpus Christi in 1970. Today the area serves as a reminder of the early residents who were vital to the growth of Nueces County. (1982)