City of Rockdale

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the City of Rockdale. Now settle in, because this is a town that didn't ease into existence. It arrived with a whistle and a clatter of iron rails.

Rockdale came to life in 1874, planted right alongside a new line of the International and Great Northern Railroad. And from that first spike in the ground, it did not waste a single year. Folks came, goods moved, and before long this place was shipping cotton and grain and whatever else the surrounding country could produce.

It grew quick, the way railroad towns do when the timing is right. And growing, it dressed itself up proper. Churches rose.

Schools opened. Cotton gins and grist mills went to work. And then, because Texans have never been content with just the practical, somebody built an opera house.

A bank came too, and a newspaper to tell everyone about it. By 1875, the City of Rockdale formally organized, putting a name and a government to what ambition had already built. Then, in 1895, work began right here on a city hall, designed by Austin architect A.O.

Watson. It took years to complete, but when it was done, this building held just about everything a town needs. City programs.

Social gatherings. School functions. Political meetings.

And for eighty years it housed the volunteer fire department, which is about as essential as a building can get. Now, the 1930s came along and brought some changes, and in those changes the city hall lost something it can never get back, a tall bell tower that once announced this place to anyone within earshot. The tower is gone.

But the building is still standing, still serving, still carrying the memory of how fast and how boldly Rockdale showed up in 1874 and decided to stay.

What the marker says

Rockdale began as a railroad town in 1874 along a new line of the International & Great Northern. It grew quickly as a shipping point and soon boasted churches, schools, cotton gins, grist mills, an opera house, a bank and newspaper. The City of Rockdale formally organized in 1875. Work on a city hall began at this site in 1895 on the design of Austin architect A.O. Watson. Completed years later, it provided space for city programs, social gatherings, school functions and political meetings, and housed the volunteer fire department for 80 years. Altered in the 1930s, resulting in the loss of a tall bell tower, the former city hall still serves as a reminder of Rockdale's early development. (2005)