LaCoste, Texas, Founded 1881

LaCoste, Texas, Founded 1881. . In 1881, the Galveston, Harrisburg, and San Antonio railroad began moving west from San Antonio. In order to service the county seat, Castroville at that time, a depot was located just inside the Medina County line. This depot became the site of LaCoste. Local tradition maintains that it was named for Col. Jean B. Lacoste, a wealthy businessman from San Antonio who had invested in the area., The town of LaCoste, meeting the railroad's needs, gradually grew around the depot. Shipping pens, warehouses, saloons, barbershops, blacksmith shops, and a butcher shop were opened. In the 1890s, the railroad dug a deep well to furnish water for its steam engines. With a dependable water supply available, LaCoste expanded rapidly. By the turn of the century, LaCoste was the major shipping point of eastern Medina and western Bexar counties., In 1912, a second boom hit--the arrival of irrigation water from Medina Lake. Record-breaking carloads of corn, cotton, livestock, and local produce were shipped out as farm machinery and building materials were shipped in to build homes and schools. Lacoste had a church, newspaper, general stores, drugstore, cotton gins, jail, hotel, bank, and a doctor. The town flourished until the depression of the 1930s, the drought of the 1950s, and the decline of local railroad shipping occurred., Today, area farming and ranching help to keep LaCoste a country town, while San Antonio's proximity provides residents the conveniences of a city.