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Historical
Marker TextAlvaradoEarly
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. |
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 |
Log
Building - Dedicated to Boy Scouts in 1932 Alvarado, Tx.
Photo courtesy Jim
and Lou Kinsey | |
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