A Tale of Three Cities...All Named Boston, Texas

Boston, New Boston and Old Boston are cities in Bowie County Texas. Not very imaginative in the area of naming cities. 

Here's what happened: The city of Boston was formed and all was good. Then, in 1876, the Missouri Pacific Railroad was coming through and the proposed depot was going to be six miles north, which was a considerable distance at the time. The city leaders knew that their business would decline if they weren't closer to the depot. So, they moved. They met with the railroad and picked a spot for their depot as close to the city as possible. Then they all moved north. This town became New Boston, making the original town Old Boston.

But wait! There's more!  In 1877, the county seat, which had been moved to Texarkana, was now being moved back to the middle of the county. The middle of the county was between Old Boston and New Boston. They wanted to name the town "Center" but that had been taken. They tried a few other names but those had been taken as well so they threw up their hands and said, let's just call it Boston. So they did.

In 1889, the courthouse was built in Boston (photo of the courthouse in 1891). 

But in 1986 a new modern courthouse was built in New Boston, even though, technically, Boston was still the county seat. Upon construction of the new courthouse, the old one was abandoned. In 1987, the courthouse was burned to the ground by an arsonist.

The Bowie County Courthouse off of I-30. You can see it from the highway. You can't tell from the photo but there's a statue of James Bowie, for whom the county was named, in front of the courthouse. The city is about 20 miles west of Texarkana just off I-30.

New Boston is about 160 miles northeast of Dallas and 25 miles from Texarkana. There's only about 5,000 people that live there. Here's a lovely mural depicting the three bostons. The old courthouse of the 1840's, the courthouse of the 1890's and the train depot of the 1870's. The mural was completed in 2023.

For all of their history, there's not much here.

This is the old Bowie County Jail. It sat on the same square as the old Bowie county courthouse. While the courthouse burnt down, the jail survived, but did it really? This could become a really cool museum if someone would invest a little time an money.

This is the New Boston visitor's center as well as the 3 Boston Museum. The museum is open Tues - Sat 10-5. We didn't have time to go in but I bet it's got some interesting stuff.

The public library.

The Red River Army Depot is located here in New Boston. It was created during World War II as an ammunition storage facility. In the review of military bases in 1995, it was scheduled to close but it hung on. In the review in 2005, it was, once again, schedule to close but it still hung on. Today it remains open as maintenance support for the Army.

We saw some of these guys when we were in Texarkana. The depot is the number one employer of Texarkana and, I would assume, New Boston as well.

While they only have about 8,000 people with a median income of $26K per year, they have a Wal-Mart and a Brookshire's. They have several fast food chains, though they are along the interstate connected to the big gas stations. Still, that counts.

If you like history, it's well worth a stop.