The Interurban in Burleson

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker at this site tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, picture yourself standin' at the corner of what was once the beating heart of Burleson, Texas, and let me take you back to when electricity was still something close to magic, and a train that ran on wires instead of steam was about to change everything for this little town. At the turn of the 20th century, the Northern Texas Traction Company had already figured out something big, an interurban railway humming along between Fort Worth and Dallas, and it was doing just fine.

That success had people thinking. In 1911, a group started planning a new line, one that would stretch from Fort Worth all the way down to Cleburne, threading right through Everman, Burleson, and Joshua along the way. Now, Burleson at that point had around 700 residents and an active business district.

The city incorporated in 1912, the very same year the Fort Worth Southern Traction Company came rolling into town looking for employees and, more importantly, looking for the right kind of person to be their man on the ground. They found him. Albert H.

Loyless, businessman, community leader, was their pick. And Loyless didn't waste time. He took his Loyless-Robbins Pharmacy, which had been sitting in a two-story wooden building across the street, and moved it right here, into a brand-new brick building at this very site.

The traction company built an electrical plant and a freight dock behind the building. Out front, that orange-brick structure housed the pharmacy, soda fountain, interurban ticket counter, the whole works. A place where you could get a cold drink, buy your ticket, and watch the future pull into the station all at once.

And that future arrived right on schedule. September 1, 1912, the first public run of that electrical train line came through Burleson. From that day forward, until 1931, the interurban carried people in and out of town, brought goods rolling in from other cities, and turned that pharmacy into something more than a pharmacy.

It became a community center, the kind of place a town wraps its whole life around. Nearly two decades of that. Then, the way things go, the interurban ceased its service.

Motor coaches and automobiles took its place. By 1935, Loyless himself had accepted the position of Burleson postmaster, and he moved his business next door to the post office. The orange-brick building passed to a man named Robert Deering, who bought it and published his newspaper out of it, the Burleson News, which later became the Burleson Dispatcher.

And then the city purchased the building, turning it into a visitors center. One building. A pharmacy, a traction company outpost, a newspaper, a visitors center.

Every chapter of Burleson's story seems to have stopped here to catch its breath.

What the marker says

At the turn of the 20th century, the Northern Texas Traction Co. found success with an interurban railway that operated between Fort Worth and Dallas. In 1911, a group began planning a new interurban that would run from Fort Worth to Cleburne by way of Everman, Burleson and Joshua. By that time, Burleson had approximately 700 residents and an active business district, and the city incorporated in 1912. The Fort Worth Southern Traction Co. came to town that year seeking employees and arranged with businessman and community leader Albert H. Loyless to be their local representative. He moved his Loyless-Robbins Pharmacy from a two-story wooden building across the street to a new brick building at this site. The traction company constructed an electrical plant and freight dock behind the building, and the pharmacy, complete with soda fountain and interurban ticket counter, occupied the front of the orange-brick structure. The first public run of the electrical train line came through Burleson on September 1, 1912. From that date until 1931, the train carried people in and out of town, brought goods to them from other cities, and helped make the pharmacy a community center. In 1935, a few years after the interurban ceased its service and motor coaches and automobiles took its place, Loyless, accepting the position of Burleson postmaster, moved his business next door to the post office. Robert Deering bought the former pharmacy building and from it published his newspaper, the Burleson News (later Burleson Dispatcher). The city later purchased the building for use as a visitors center. (2006)