Places on the map, as a list
The map as a list: every pin, every line, and the places we chose not to pin, each with its year, its coordinates and its sources.
- places.geojson pins, with OpenStreetMap coordinates
- timeline.json every entry, with fact ids
Pins, by year
| Year | Place | Pin | Where, and the source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1847 | Tyler City Square The center of the schematic. The sources say 'a central square'; we center it on the city square downtown, which they do not name. | Hollow: where it stands today. The sources do not say the event happened here. | 32.35124, -95.30116 OpenStreetMap way/544001614 (Tyler City Square) OpenStreetMap's 'Tyler City Square', the block west of Broadway between Erwin and Ferguson. |
| 1849 | Oakwood Cemetery On North Palace Avenue at West Oakwood Street; the Tyler MPS calls it the oldest cemetery in Tyler. | Filled: the sources tie the event to this place. | 32.35377, -95.30927 OpenStreetMap way/307810593 (Oakwood Cemetery) National Register Multiple Property Documentation Form The MPS also lists Oakwood as dating to 1846, the year of the first burials thought to have occurred there. |
| 1859 | Goodman-LeGrand House Built as 'Bonnie Castle', 624 N. Broadway. | Filled: the sources tie the event to this place. | 32.35672, -95.30146 OpenStreetMap way/589131561 (Goodman-LeGrand House) Tyler Morning Telegraph, September 6, 2025; Tyler Morning Telegraph, March 20, 2026 |
| 1862 | Near the ordnance plant The plant’s own site is not in our sources; the pin is the 1969 marker in Bergfeld Park that stands near it. | Hollow: where it stands today. The sources do not say the event happened here. Approximate: right to the block, not the building. | 32.33211, -95.30231 OpenStreetMap node/12453546106 (Near Site of C.S.A. Ordnance Plant) the state historical marker 'Near Site of C.S.A. Ordnance Plant' as OpenStreetMap maps it, in Bergfeld Park. |
| 1863 | Camp Ford A Civil War prisoner-of-war camp, four miles northeast of town. | Filled: the sources tie the event to this place. | 32.39567, -95.26692 OpenStreetMap way/666192191 (Camp Ford) Handbook of Texas: Tyler, TX; Handbook of Texas: Camp Ford; National Register of Historic Places nomination; 1 more The same Historical Society page also lists the park at 6600 US Highway 271. |
| 1881 | Smith County Jail (1881) On East Erwin Street just east of the square; the county’s jail until 1916. | Filled: the sources tie the event to this place. | 32.35058, -95.29803 OpenStreetMap node/5626036431 (Old Smith County Jail) OpenStreetMap's 'Old Smith County Jail'. National Register nomination; THC Atlas, National Register listing |
| 1888 | St. James C.M.E. Church 408 N. Border Ave.; begun in 1888 as a wooden church, bricked in the 1920s. | Filled: the sources tie the event to this place. Approximate: right to the block, not the building. | 32.35373, -95.30638 Open this point in OpenStreetMap Nominatim's geocode of 408 N. Border Ave. from OpenStreetMap address data: approximate to the block, because OpenStreetMap does not map the church by name. National Register Multiple Property Documentation Form; THC Atlas, National Register listing; National Register nomination The church's cornerstones read 1889 and 1888. |
| 1890 | Marvin Methodist Church Built in 1890 at the southwest corner of West Erwin Street and South Bois D’Arc Avenue. | Filled: the sources tie the event to this place. | 32.35037, -95.30348 OpenStreetMap relation/17015162 (Marvin Methodist Church) OpenStreetMap's 'Marvin Methodist Church' (300 West Erwin Street); the pin is the center of its grounds. National Register nomination; THC Atlas, National Register listing The downtown nomination's landmarks list says Marvin Methodist was listed in 2000 and the depot in 2000; the Atlas gives the depot's listing as August 8, 2001. |
| 1894 | Texas College Founded in 1894 north of the city limits; the campus at North Grand Avenue and Barrett Street. | Filled: the sources tie the event to this place. | 32.37487, -95.31252 OpenStreetMap way/672179552 (Texas College) Handbook of Texas; National Register nomination, Martin Hall at Texas College (2005); National Register nomination, D. R. Glass Library at Texas College (2007) |
| 1904 | Carnegie Library Tyler’s first public library, 125 S. College Ave.; the Smith County Historical Society since the mid-1980s. | Filled: the sources tie the event to this place. | 32.34984, -95.30197 OpenStreetMap node/368165528 (Smith County Historical Society) OpenStreetMap's 'Smith County Historical Society', which has occupied the library building since the mid-1980s. |
| 1905 | Cotton Belt Depot Built by the St. Louis Southwestern Railway, 210 E. Oakwood St. | Filled: the sources tie the event to this place. Approximate: right to the block, not the building. | 32.35464, -95.29932 Open this point in OpenStreetMap Nominatim's geocode of 210 E. Oakwood St. from OpenStreetMap address data: approximate to the block, because OpenStreetMap does not map the depot by name. Wikipedia: Cotton Belt Depot Museum; Handbook of Texas; Wikipedia: National Register of Historic Places listings in Smith County, Texas |
| 1906 | Bergfeld Park Platted in 1906, deeded to the city in 1909, bought in 1913. | Filled: the sources tie the event to this place. | 32.33301, -95.30172 OpenStreetMap way/168494860 (Bergfeld Park) Tyler Morning Telegraph, September 7, 2025; Tyler Parks and Recreation; Tyler Texas Online |
| 1910 | The 1910 courthouse (site) It stood in the middle of the square, where Broadway now runs; torn down in the 1950s. | Filled: the sources tie the event to this place. Approximate: right to the block, not the building. | 32.35123, -95.30064 Open this point in OpenStreetMap a point worked out from the source’s words: the middle of the old square, where Broadway now runs, halfway between the OpenStreetMap crossings of Broadway with Ferguson and with Erwin. Smith County; Smith County Historical Society, 1909 Courthouse young trees (print); Smith County Historical Society, 1909 Smith County, Texas Courthouse (print); 2 more The Handbook dates this courthouse to 1909 and the downtown nomination says construction began in 1908; the county and KETK give a 1910 dedication. The downtown nomination says the county razed it first and then built the new courthouse; the Historical Society dates its demolition to September 1955, the year the new courthouse was dedicated. |
| 1920 | Black Wall Street (210 E. Erwin) The 200 block of East Erwin Street; 210 still carries a ‘SENATE’ plaque. | Filled: the sources tie the event to this place. Approximate: right to the block, not the building. | 32.35084, -95.29935 Open this point in OpenStreetMap Nominatim's geocode of 210 E. Erwin St. from OpenStreetMap address data: approximate to the block. |
| 1926 | Tyler Junior College Opened in 1926 at Tyler High School; the pin is the campus on South Baxter Avenue today. | Hollow: where it stands today. The sources do not say the event happened here. | 32.33497, -95.28269 OpenStreetMap way/544444050 (Tyler Junior College) Tyler Morning Telegraph, September 13, 2026; Handbook of Texas; Tyler Morning Telegraph, September 7, 2026 |
| 1930 | Liberty Hall Opened as the Liberty Theater in 1930, 103 E. Erwin St. | Filled: the sources tie the event to this place. Approximate: right to the block, not the building. | 32.35067, -95.30041 Open this point in OpenStreetMap Nominatim's geocode of 103 E. Erwin St. from OpenStreetMap address data: approximate to the block, because OpenStreetMap does not map Liberty Hall by name. |
| 1932 | People’s National Bank Building Fifteen stories, at the northwest corner of North College Avenue and West Erwin Street. | Filled: the sources tie the event to this place. Approximate: right to the block, not the building. | 32.35089, -95.30174 Open this point in OpenStreetMap Nominatim's geocode of 102 N. College Ave. from OpenStreetMap address data: approximate to the block. |
| 1934 | U.S. Post Office and Courthouse Dedicated in 1934 at the northeast corner of West Ferguson Street and North Bois D’Arc Avenue. | Filled: the sources tie the event to this place. Approximate: right to the block, not the building. | 32.35182, -95.30187 Open this point in OpenStreetMap Nominatim's geocode of 211 W. Ferguson St. (the Atlas's address; the downtown nomination's inventory says 221) from OpenStreetMap address data: approximate to the block. The Atlas gives the address as 211 West Ferguson Street; the downtown nomination's inventory lists 221 W Ferguson St. |
| 1938 | Blackstone Building Art Deco, 315 N. Broadway; begun in February 1938. | Filled: the sources tie the event to this place. Approximate: right to the block, not the building. | 32.35303, -95.30077 Open this point in OpenStreetMap Nominatim's geocode of 315 N. Broadway from OpenStreetMap address data: approximate to the block. |
| 1938 | Tyler Rose Garden A 1938 WPA project, officially opened in 1952. | Filled: the sources tie the event to this place. | 32.34504, -95.32173 OpenStreetMap way/500520222 (Tyler Rose Garden) Visit Tyler; Tyler Morning Telegraph, September 6, 2025; Living New Deal; 4 more |
| 1938 | Lincoln Park 2.5 acres at North Confederate Avenue and West Nutbush Street, one of two ‘colored’ parks. | Filled: the sources tie the event to this place. | 32.36791, -95.31519 OpenStreetMap way/475700232 (Lincoln Park) |
| 1942 | Rose Stadium Opened in 1942, 609 Fair Park Dr. | Filled: the sources tie the event to this place. | 32.34223, -95.32406 OpenStreetMap way/475700222 (CHRISTUS Trinity Mother Frances Rose Stadium) KLTV, September 5, 2026; Tyler Morning Telegraph, September 6, 2025; TexasBob |
| 1951 | Tyler Civic Theatre Opened what it calls the nation’s first theatre-in-the-round building in 1951; the pin is the theatre at 400 Rose Park Dr. today. | Hollow: where it stands today. The sources do not say the event happened here. | 32.34603, -95.32240 OpenStreetMap way/546622120 (Tyler Civic Theatre) The "nation's first" is the theatre's own claim. |
| 1955 | Smith County Courthouse Six stories, dedicated in 1955 on the eastern half of the split square, 100 N. Broadway. | Filled: the sources tie the event to this place. | 32.35129, -95.30030 OpenStreetMap way/544001615 (Smith County Courthouse) Smith County; National Register nomination The Handbook says the present courthouse was constructed in 1954. |
| 1971 | UT Tyler Founded in 1971 as Tyler State College; the pin is the main campus today. | Hollow: where it stands today. The sources do not say the event happened here. | 32.31537, -95.25346 OpenStreetMap way/231354268 (The University of Texas at Tyler) |
| 1971 | Tyler Museum of Art Opened in 1971; it sits on the TJC campus at 1300 S. Mahon. | Hollow: where it stands today. The sources do not say the event happened here. | 32.33407, -95.28158 OpenStreetMap node/1798251452 (Tyler Museum of Art) |
| 1975 | Broadway Square Mall Opened April 1, 1975, when that part of town was 'out in the country'. | Filled: the sources tie the event to this place. | 32.29969, -95.30281 OpenStreetMap way/480933742 (Broadway Square Mall) |
Layers
Four things on the map are lines or shapes, not pins. Each is drawn from the data named here, and the note says what the drawing is not.
The 1847 plat (schematic) from 1847
The sources give 100 acres, 28 blocks, a central square and the names of the first streets, not a drawing of the plat, so the arrangement of the tiles is ours.
Computed: a circle with the area of 100 acres, 28 tiles in rings around the square, the square itself. Not geography.
Handbook of Texas; National Register nomination
The nomination spells the seller 'Edgar Pollitt' and places the townsite in the Isaac Lollar survey; the Handbook spells him 'Edgar Pollett'.
Railroad, as mapped today from 1873
Drawn from OpenStreetMap as it stands now. The historic maps under the plate show where the tracks ran in their year.
OpenStreetMap: 88 railway ways in the map frame (main lines and yards; sidings and spurs left out). Operators tagged in OpenStreetMap: Union Pacific Railroad. Which company ran a stretch in 1873, 1877 or 1905 is not in these tags.
Handbook of Texas: Tyler, TX; Handbook of Texas: Tyler Tap Railroad; National Register of Historic Places nomination; 1 more
The source gives a span (1873–74), not a single year. Others differ: the 2001 Tyler cover document and the Handbook's Tyler Tap entry say April 1873; the Handbook's Tyler entry and the downtown nomination say April 1874.
This is the Tyler Tap's first train into Tyler, not the first railroad to reach Tyler (see first-railroad-reached-tyler-1873).
Loop 323 from 1957
OpenStreetMap's geometry for the loop as it is today. The 1957 route is not in our sources.
OpenStreetMap: 172 ways tagged ref=Loop 323 (the two carriageways are separate ways).
Downtown rebuild from 2025
The four streets named in Phase I (Erwin, Ferguson, College, Broadway) as OpenStreetMap draws them within about 300 m of Tyler City Square. Solid: College Avenue between Ferguson and Erwin, where the sources say every brick was lifted; the saved bricks are going back down on College in front of Plaza Tower. The state's registration of the project lists its streets (College and Spring from Erwin to Ferguson, Erwin and Ferguson from College to Fannin, Broadway from Elm to Locust) but not their exact limits.
OpenStreetMap: one block of College Avenue (way 589157163, between Ferguson and Erwin) as the sourced stretch, plus the Erwin, Ferguson, College and Broadway ways within 300 m of Tyler City Square (7 stretches).
Tyler Morning Telegraph, April 29, 2026; Tyler Morning Telegraph, September 7, 2026; KLTV, March 2, 2026; 4 more
Existing facts (Tyler Morning Telegraph, KLTV) give an expected finish by April 2028; the state registration lists November 30, 2028.
The old maps under the plate
Eleven old maps lie under the plate, each from its year until the next edition (the last, the 1948 USGS map, until 1967). Each is placed by street crossings that still exist; the error is how far off a crossing left out of the fit lands, downtown.
Sanborn map, May 1885 1885–1888
Sheet 1, the blocks west of the public square (no key map that year). Placed by 5 street crossings; off by about 2 m downtown. Bounds 32.3496° to 32.3531° N, 95.3014° to 95.3051° W.
Sanborn Map Company, Tyler, Smith County, Texas, 1885. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division, Sanborn Maps Collection. The item page; rights; open 1885 on the ruler.
Sanborn map, November 1889 1889–1892
Sheet 1, the key map. Placed by 12 street crossings; off by about 8 m downtown. Bounds 32.3401° to 32.3586° N, 95.2940° to 95.3150° W.
Sanborn Map Company, Tyler, Smith County, Texas, 1889. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division, Sanborn Maps Collection. The item page; rights; open 1889 on the ruler.
Sanborn map, January 1893 1893–1897
Sheet 1, the key map. Placed by 14 street crossings; off by about 8 m downtown. Bounds 32.3393° to 32.3573° N, 95.2937° to 95.3146° W.
Sanborn Map Company, Tyler, Smith County, Texas, 1893. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division, Sanborn Maps Collection. The item page; rights; open 1893 on the ruler.
Sanborn map, September 1898 1898–1901
Sheet 1, the key map. Placed by 12 street crossings; off by about 9 m downtown. Bounds 32.3454° to 32.3585° N, 95.2922° to 95.3157° W.
Sanborn Map Company, Tyler, Smith County, Texas, 1898. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division, Sanborn Maps Collection. The item page; rights; open 1898 on the ruler.
Sanborn map, November 1902 1902–1906
Sheet 1, the key map. Placed by 12 street crossings; off by about 11 m downtown. Bounds 32.3446° to 32.3626° N, 95.2912° to 95.3162° W.
Sanborn Map Company, Tyler, Smith County, Texas, 1902. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division, Sanborn Maps Collection. The item page; rights; open 1902 on the ruler.
Sanborn map, September 1907 1907–1911
Sheet 1, the key map. Placed by 14 street crossings; off by about 10 m downtown. Bounds 32.3401° to 32.3625° N, 95.2910° to 95.3169° W.
Sanborn Map Company, Tyler, Smith County, Texas, 1907. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division, Sanborn Maps Collection. The item page; rights; open 1907 on the ruler.
Sanborn map, February 1912 1912–1918
Sheet 1, the key map. Placed by 19 street crossings; off by about 17 m downtown. Bounds 32.3400° to 32.3648° N, 95.2861° to 95.3167° W.
Sanborn Map Company, Tyler, Smith County, Texas, 1912. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division, Sanborn Maps Collection. The item page; rights; open 1912 on the ruler.
Sanborn map, August 1919 1919–1927
Sheet 1, the key map. Placed by 14 street crossings; off by about 14 m downtown. Bounds 32.3382° to 32.3646° N, 95.2857° to 95.3167° W.
Sanborn Map Company, Tyler, Smith County, Texas, 1919. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division, Sanborn Maps Collection. The item page; rights; open 1919 on the ruler.
Sanborn map, March 1928 1928–1937
Sheet 1, the key map. Placed by 12 street crossings; off by about 10 m downtown. Bounds 32.3287° to 32.3740° N, 95.2755° to 95.3261° W.
Sanborn Map Company, Tyler, Smith County, Texas, 1928. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division, Sanborn Maps Collection. The item page; rights; open 1928 on the ruler.
Sanborn map, 1938 1938–1947
The key map at the front of the atlas. Placed by 13 street crossings; off by about 11 m downtown. Bounds 32.3196° to 32.3879° N, 95.2724° to 95.3357° W.
Sanborn Map Company, Tyler, Smith County, Texas, 1938. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division, Sanborn Maps Collection. The item page; rights; open 1938 on the ruler.
USGS map, 1948 1948–1967
The 1:62,500 quadrangle, around Tyler. Placed by 6 checkpoints (the survey’s own coordinates, shifted); off by about 11 m downtown. Bounds 32.2920° to 32.4070° N, 95.2502° to 95.4177° W.
U.S. Geological Survey 1:62,500-scale Quadrangle for Tyler, TX 1948 courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey. The item page; rights; open 1948 on the ruler.
Not pinned, and why
A pin we cannot check is a claim we cannot back. These are named on the timeline and left off the map.
Bergfeld Center and Bergfeld Square 1949
OpenStreetMap does not name it, and the sources give an area (south of First Street between Broadway, Donnybrook and Troup Highway), not a building we could check against the map.
Tyler Morning Telegraph, September 28, 2014; Simon; National Register Multiple Property Documentation Form
Attributed: the city's 2000 historic-resources survey calls it both Tyler's 'first' and 'one of the first' suburban shopping centers; say 'the city's survey calls it the first' or 'one of the first'.
Emmett J. Scott High School 1918
The sources say it stood on what is now Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, not where on it.
Brookshire's first grocery, on the courthouse square 1928
The source says 'on the downtown Tyler courthouse square', not which building.
Brookshire's; Tyler Economic Development Council; Handbook of Texas
The store count is undated ("today"); re-check.
Tyler High School in 1926 1926
Tyler Junior College opened 'at Tyler High School'. The sources we have do not say where that building stood.
Tyler Morning Telegraph, September 13, 2026; Handbook of Texas; Tyler Morning Telegraph, September 7, 2026
The historic districts 1999
The sources describe their bounds in words (streets on each side), not as lines we could draw without guessing at the corners.
THC Atlas, National Register listing: Charnwood Residential Historic District; THC Atlas, National Register listing: Donnybrook Duplex Residential Historic District; THC Atlas, National Register listing: East Ferguson Street Residential Historic District; 5 more
The new Smith County courthouse 2024
The sources name the streets around its site (East Erwin, Fannin and Spring), not its block.
Tyler Morning Telegraph, June 10, 2026; Tyler Morning Telegraph, September 7, 2026; Smith County; 2 more
The opening is an expectation; sources say end of 2026, December 2026 or late 2026. Re-check.