Matagorda County is centered in the Texas Coastal Bend at the crossroads of the Colorado River and the Gulf of Mexico. The name Matagorda, Spanish for thick brush, was derived from the canebrakes that formerly lined the extensive shoreline. This vast coastal prairie is rich in history and tradition, with its roots dating back to 1685 when the explorer LaSalle sailed into Matagorda Bay. Later Stephen F. Austin used the seaports of Matagorda and Brazoria to build his new colony. The Gulf of Mexico, the rivers, the rich agricultural soil, the natural habitat full of wild game and birds, and the...

Early settlers first called this area Boldface Hill, for a Native American chieftain, but the name was soon changed to Price s Hill, named after Rees Price and his family, who were among the first city dwellers to see the residential potential of the area. Rees s father, Evan Price, speculated in land west of the city, and his son opened a brickyard and sawmill to serve the building boom. In 1874, Rees s sons John and William built an inclined plane to make the commute up the hill easier. With improved transportation, the community s population soared, mostly because the air was cleaner up on...

The history of Charlotte is inseparable from the history of its neighborhoods. From the city s founding until the late 1890s, the four wards created by the crossing of Trade and Tryon Streets
defined the residential fabric of Charlotte. As the twentieth century approached, the Southern textile boom fueled labor and housing demands that were met by the earliest suburbs that rose out of the farms and pastures surrounding the small town. Dilworth was the first of these suburbs, connected to the town
center by the city s maiden electric streetcar line. More new communities quickly followed....