History
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Colorado-based land developers A.M. York, J.H. York, I.R. Holmes, and Tom Lee formed the La Porte Land and Town Company in 1890, purchased over 1,000 acres in this area, and began laying out town lots in the fall of 1891. Edward York later joined his two brothers and the other investors to organize the La Porte Investment Company, and by January 1892 the developers were selling lots to prospective settlers in New York State and the Midwest. A hotel, general mercantile store, and U.S. Post Office soon opened in the new town. The La Porte, Houston, and Northern Railroad, chartered in 1892, completed a line to Sylvan Beach Resort in 1899, and along with agriculture, the beach became the town's main economic mainstay. The original investment company became insolvent by 1895, but a new company purchased the land in 1898 and continued development efforts. The destructive effects of the 1900 storm, another storm and a fire in 1915, the discovery of the Goose Creek oil field in 1916, and the area's industrialization following World War II increased the population and shifted the town away from its agricultural character.
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La Porte, Texas · United States
