On our way down to the Texas Coast, we stopped in a little town called Bay City. We got there kind of late with just enough light to take a quick walk around the town square.
Bay City was established in 1894 with the hopes of supplanting Matagorda as the county seat of Matagorda County. By September of that year, their hopes had been realized as the voters elected to move the county seat to Bay City. It is centrally located in the count about two miles from the Colorado River. It's named for its location on the Bay Prairie.
Before any buildings had been erected, the town planners put out the first issue of the town paper, the Bay City Breeze, promoting the new community. A couple of buildings were physically moved from Matagorda to Bay City such as D. P. Moore's dry-goods store, which also housed the post office. By 1901, the first telephone had been installed and the Bay City Rice Mill had completed construction on its warehouse. From there other businesses followed.
The county courthouse was erected in 1896 in this Second Empire Style. I love this! Unfortunately, it didn't stay that way.
In 1928, the building was severely modified. Wings were added and the clock tower was removed giving it a more Spanish Revival look. Even this is not bad.
By 1965, that old courthouse had become too expensive to maintain, which I can understand. Money pit, right? The old courthouse was demolished and this is what it was replaced with. I guess this was the style in the 1960s but, yikes! This looks terribly dated though I assume it's functional. It's too bad they couldn't figure out a way to at least save the other courthouse and use it for something else.
Bay City has a museum. The Matagorda County Museum sits inside the old 1918 Federal Post Office. It served as a post office until 1989. At that time it was repurposed as a museum. Unfortunately, the museum didn't open until 1pm and we had a lot of ground to cover that day. Choices had to be made. We passed on hanging around and hope to see the museum on another trip.
On the corner of Avenue F and 7th Street, across from the Courthouse is this stately building. It's the Old Bay City Bank. It was established in 1898 and the building was erected in 1903. It's gorgeous! I would love to tour the inside. The bank closed in 1990 and the building is currently vacant. It would make a cool residence for a nosy person like myself. I could sit and watch the goings on from the many windows.
A couple of buildings down on 7th Street is this cool looking building. It's the Masonic Lodge built in 1906. The ground floor was retail and the second floor was where the Masons met. In 1908 it survived a fire that devastated a lot of the downtown area. Then in 1961, Hurricane Carla damaged the building. While the building was repaired, the Masons decided to move their lodge to another location. Now the building is vacant.
If you travel down Avenue F, you'll find this red brick building. Above the door you can see that it was Huston's Drug Store. This was from 1914 to 1965. It's on the town square. The plaque to the right of the door on the brick wall tells you a little of the history of the building. I like the markers here as they tell you what occupied the buildings over the years.
A little further down Avenue F is this old theater. It was originally the Colonial Theater which opened in the 1920s as a movie house. By 1943, it had been renamed the Texas Theater and remained so until 1957 when it closed. It looks like it was then part of a church but now it appears to be vacant.
On 6th Street is this U-shaped building. It used to be the Baytex Hotel. Built in 1927, it was the finest hotel in Bay City. It hosted all kinds of social events during its heyday. The hotel closed in the 1970s and the building fell into disrepair until it was rescued in 2014. It was repurposed into apartment lofts.
On the town square is the Brunner Building. According to the marker, it was built in 1907 and the first occupant was the Doubec & Hawkins Grocery Store which lasted until 1915. Then the Sisk Family, who came to Bay City in the 1890s, bought the grocery store and merged it with their own hardware store. It became the Sisk Grocery and Hardware and remained so until 1955.
Further up 6th Street just off the town square is this building which was erected in 1950. It was the Evatt Furniture Company until 1954. The Sisk Family moved their hardware store here in 1955. Sadly, the store closed in 2012. It had been family run since it opened and I guess there wasn't anyone to take over.
I love these murals on the side of the building! I'm always a sucker for a good Coca Cola Mural but I like the Sisk mural as well.
Directly across the street is the original City Hall and Fire Station for Bay City from 1927 to 1963. After that, the Matagorda County Museum resided here until 1992. In 1997, the Municipal Court took over the building.
The Cane Belt Railroad was the first to reach Bay City in 1901 providing both passenger and freight service. It connected the city to other areas and allowed the shipping of agricultural products. In 1902, the New York, Texas and Mexican Railway came through Bay City connecting with the Palacios. In 1905 the Missouri Pacific (MoPac) Railway built this train depot providing both passenger and freight service from here until 1984 when passenger service ceased. As you can see in the back, the trains just pass through here these days.
This is the MoPac Screamin' Eagle Caboose, which was part of an actual freight train. Traditionally, the caboose is the last car on the freight train and served as an office and lookout for the train crew. This caboose served an active rail service until it was retired in 1988. Cabooses were normally painted red because it was highly visible (important for safety reasons signally the end of the train).
Bay City was an interesting town. There are about 17K people that live here. They have most of your fast food chains but only Chili's in terms of national restaurant chains. They have an H-E-B, which we visited and a Walmart.
There's also a nuclear power plant nearby that employs about 1,200 people. It's called the South Texas Project. We had no idea this was out here. Other major employers are the Bay City ISD, HEB and Walmart.
We enjoyed our time in Bay City. If we're back in this area again, we'll certainly make time to visit the museum. Meanwhile, if you're in the area, check it out!
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