Railroad spurs Pflugerville’s growth
Railroad spurs Pflugerville’s growth
Written by Cathy Kincaid Tuesday, 07 February 2006
It was not until the Missouri-Kansas-Texas (Katy) railroad began service in Pflugerville in 1904, that the city experienced a period of rapid growth. With the addition of a railroad, the town’s prosperity was destined and its growth would develop along with Austin and Round Rock, its neighboring cities.
Two cotton gins were working by 1909. The town’s prosperity began attracting additional business concerns. Otto Pfluger added an ice factory next to his gin, and in 1913, H.H. Pfluger built the Sky Dome Theater. The theater showed motion pictures with accompaniment by a player piano on Friday and Saturday nights. A weekly newspaper, The Press, was published in Pflugerville from 1907 to 1942.
By the mid-1890s Pflugerville had a population of 250, and within ten years of the arrival of the railroad, the population had doubled to 500 residents.
The Depression, however, halted the community’s growth as citizens moved to larger cities to find work. The population continued to decline after World War II with the drop in cotton prices. By 1949, the number of residents in Pflugerville had fallen to 380.
But as Austin’s population grew, and highways allowed easier access out of the city, Pflugerville slowly grew in the 1960’s and was incorporated in 1965. The population rose to 452 by 1968 and to 662 by 1980.
From 1980 through 1988, new development in Pflugerville made it the fastest growing community in the state and by 1990 the population was 4,444. The tremendous growth of central Texas continues and the 2005 population now shows more than 28,000.
Source: www.cityofpflugerville.com
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