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 Texas : Towns A-Z / Central Texas N : Alvarado

ALVARADO, TEXAS

Johnson County, North Central Texas
Junction of US 67 & 81 and I-35W
26 miles S of Fort Worth
15 miles E of Cleburne
Population: 3,288 (2000) 2,918 (1990)

Alvarado, Texas Area Hotels:
Cleburne Hotels | Fort Worth Hotels

Alvarado, Texas First Methodist church
First Methodist Church
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson July 2005
Historical Marker Text

Alvarado

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.
Alvarado town square gazebo
Alvarado Town Square
Photo courtesy Jim and Lou Kinsey
Bethany Church, Alvarado, Texas
The closed Bethany Church, NW of Alvarado
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson January 2006
Nearby Destinations

Alvarado Park Lake - On US 67 three miles east of I-35W
www.tpwd.state.tx.us/fish/infish/lakes/alvarado/lake_id.htm

Alvarado is only:
26 miles S of Fort Worth on I-35W
30 miles N of Hillsboro on I-35W
15 miles E of Cleburne on US 67
26 miles W of Waxahachie via US 287

Alvarado Chamber of Commerce
400 E. Hwy 67 Alvarado, Texas 76009
(817) 783-2233

Alvarado, Texas Area Hotels:
Cleburne Hotels | Fort Worth Hotels
Alvarado, Texas log cabin
Log Building - Dedicated to Boy Scouts in 1932 Alvarado, Tx.
Photo courtesy Jim and Lou Kinsey
Alvarado, Texas
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Fort Worth
Cleburne
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