Tyler, Then and Now
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1847: Twenty-eight blocks around a square

A 100-acre site bought for $150 and laid out as a town.

Town and civic· 1847–1850

28 blocks around a central square, 18472

12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728Tyler City Square
What the sources put on the map by 1850, over today’s streets.Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

The record

  1. April 11, 1846

    Tyler is authorized. The Texas Legislature creates Smith County and its county seat, and the town is named for President John Tyler, for his support of admitting Texas to the Union.1

  2. February 6, 1847

    Commissioners buy a 100-acre site from Edgar Pollett (the downtown nomination spells it Pollitt) for $150 and lay out the town in 28 blocks around a central square.23

  3. 1847

    The townsite has five north-south avenues (Bois D’Arc, College, Broadway, Fannin and Spring) and four east-west streets (Locust, Ferguson, Erwin and Elm); College, Fannin, Ferguson and Erwin got those names later.3

  4. 1847

    The founders name the north-south roads avenues and the east-west roads streets. Downtown, the avenues measure 50 feet wide and the streets 35 feet.3

  5. January 29, 1850

    Tyler is incorporated. It is the county seat of Smith County.2

Notes

  1. Handbook of Texas: Tyler, TX (tshaonline.org); National Register of Historic Places nomination, Brick Streets Neighborhood Historic District (Texas Historical Commission Atlas) (atlas.thc.texas.gov). Research notes

  2. Handbook of Texas: Tyler, TX (tshaonline.org). Research notes

  3. National Register nomination, Tyler Downtown Historic District (NRHP 100008283) (atlas.thc.texas.gov). The nomination spells the seller 'Edgar Pollitt' and places the townsite in the Isaac Lollar survey; the Handbook spells him 'Edgar Pollett'. Research notes

About this plate

  • The sources give the plat’s 100 acres, its 28 blocks, its central square and the names of its first streets, not a drawing of it. The map shows a schematic: a circle with the area of 100 acres and 28 numbered tiles around the square. The arrangement is ours.
  • Tyler City Square: a hollow pin marks where it stands today; the sources do not say the event happened there. 32.35124° N, 95.30116° W, from OpenStreetMap way/544001614.
  • The faint linework is today’s map, from OpenStreetMap. How the map is made.