The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗The Alvin area was settled in the mid-19th century when bull ranches were established in the area. The Santa Fe Railroad eventually expanded into the area, and a settlement was established along the railroad. Alvin was originally named "Morgan" by the town's residents in honor of the settlement's original resident, Santa Fe employee Alvin Morgan; upon discovery that the name Morgan had been taken, the town named itself after Morgan's first name. The town was officially incorporated in 1893, making it the oldest incorporated settlement in Brazoria County. Alvin Morgan received a land grant from the state of Texas prior to 1891.
Alvin was a sundown town in the 1930s, where practically no African Americans were allowed to live.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Alvin’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
0 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old view[Galveston Tribune Supplement for…, 1897: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Alvin
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Alvin, decade by decade
![[Galveston Tribune Supplement for The Alvin Sun] (Galveston, Tex.) Friday, October 29, 1897](https://images.towntapestry.org/story/17610/108c5837b517fde11876-s.jpg)
Commons[Galveston Tribune Supplement for The Alvin Sun] (Galveston…1897![[Galveston Tribune Supplement for The Alvin Sun] (Galveston, Tex.) Friday, October 29, 1897](https://images.towntapestry.org/story/17610/c364c2982623301b2be8-s.jpg)
Commons[Galveston Tribune Supplement for The Alvin Sun] (Galveston…1897![[Galveston Tribune Supplement for The Alvin Sun] (Galveston, Tex.) Friday, October 29, 1897](https://images.towntapestry.org/story/17610/9d3f1cd27b2faa9f9239-s.jpg)
Commons[Galveston Tribune Supplement for The Alvin Sun] (Galveston…1897![[Galveston Tribune Supplement for The Alvin Sun] (Galveston, Tex.) Friday, October 29, 1897](https://images.towntapestry.org/story/17610/83be7c23c50eb2c53ef7-s.jpg)
Commons[Galveston Tribune Supplement for The Alvin Sun] (Galveston…1897![[Galveston Tribune Supplement for The Alvin Sun] (Galveston, Tex.) Friday, October 29, 1897](https://images.towntapestry.org/story/17610/63f5bfcd30fd0323d3cd-s.jpg)
Commons[Galveston Tribune Supplement for The Alvin Sun] (Galveston…1897![[Galveston Tribune Supplement for The Alvin Sun] (Galveston, Tex.) Friday, October 29, 1897](https://images.towntapestry.org/story/17610/4a01061896cc08d23eba-s.jpg)
Commons[Galveston Tribune Supplement for The Alvin Sun] (Galveston…18971990s
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as [Galveston Tribune Supplement for The Alvin Sun] (Galveston, Tex.) Friday, October 29, 1897 (1897) and it appears here side by side.
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nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (6). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.