City of Hitchcock

City of Hitchcock. . In region held before 1820s by Karankawa Indians, and afterwards by cattle raisers. The Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway built through the area in 1870s, naming station for Galveston civic leader and late landowner, Lent Munson Hitchcock (1810-1869). On the railway, George Henckel in 1880s opened a produce commission house. Leaders among fruit and vegetable growers included Emil and Hypolite Perthius, H. M. Stringfellow, and Jacques Tacquard. Stores, a butcher shop, bakery, hotel, and saloons were established. The townsite was platted and public school opened 1894., Churches were active. St. Mary's (later Our Lady of Lourdes) Catholic parish had first house of worship. A building for Protestants, soon a Methodist church, was erected 1894. Other faiths arrived later., After 1920, truck farming declined; packing houses closed. In 1930s, local men found work in Texas City., A Coast Auxiliary Army Replacement Center opened here in 1940; it later became Camp Wallace, an anti-aircraft training center. A blimp base was operated 1941-45, for surveillance against enemy submarines., Hitchcock remains a center of small business and industry, with modern homes on garden acreage owned and occupied by urban and industrial workers.