unincorporated community
An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...
in
Matagorda County
Matagorda County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 36,255. Its county seat is Bay City, not to be confused with the larger Baytown in Harris and Chambers Counties. Matagorda County i ...
,
Texas
Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
, United States.
Founded on May 25, 1908, Collegeport is located on Tres Palacios Bay, which outlets into
Matagorda Bay
Matagorda Bay () is a large Gulf of Mexico bay on the Texas coast, lying in Calhoun and Matagorda counties and located approximately northeast of Corpus Christi, east-southeast of San Antonio, south-southwest of Houston, and south-southea ...
Collegeport was acquired through a land purchase in 1908. Ranchers Jonathan Edward Pierce and Abel Brown Pierce sold their land to developer Burton D. Hurd. In the agreement Hurd would develop a town that would include a college and a port on the Trespalacios Bay.
Families began relocating to Collegeport, also called the "Town of Opportunity", after an advertising venture by Hurd that promoted the area's mild climate and the prospective farming lands.Collegeport /ref>
Growth
A year after the land purchase, Collegeport officially opened Hotel Collegeport and was home to a Federated Church consisting of 14 denominations. As of 1912, the town boasted a population of 496, with a Business Men's League of 90 members, an
Episcopal
Episcopal may refer to:
*Of or relating to a bishop, an overseer in the Christian church
*Episcopate, the see of a bishop – a diocese
*Episcopal Church (disambiguation), any church with "Episcopal" in its name
** Episcopal Church (United States ...
Church, a Woman's Club with a roster of 86 members, and a brick school house that was under construction. Collegeport also claimed the first free public library in the county. Professor Will Travis opened the Gulf Coast University of Industrial Arts and proceeded to make deals with the pioneer orange growers from the north as part of a student labor program. A point of interest in Collegeport was its rail station and Pavilion that was perched over the bay.
Collegeport's State Bank was located on what is now Highway 1095 with a capital of $10,000, with Abel B. Pierce as president and J.B. McCain as cashier.
The town also had two newspapers in print: the ''Collegeport Chronicle'' and the ''Collegeport New Era.''
Collegeport had, at its peak, consisted of three hotels, a City State Bank, a telephone exchange, two hardware stores, a drugstore, two grocery stores, a barber shop, a
planing mill
A planing mill is a facility that takes cut and Wood drying, seasoned Wood, wooden boards from a sawmill and turns them into finished dimensional lumber. Machines used in the mill include the Thickness planer, planer and matcher, the Moulding plan ...
, carpenters, blacksmiths, a boat building shop, doctors, a dentist, a veterinarian, a lawyer, a college, a high school, an ice house, a pavilion with boat services, and the Missouri Pacific Rail Station.
Decline
Despite Hurd's claims of Collegeport's mild and warm climate, freezes began to plague the town and its farmers. In 1914, a heavy freeze passed through, killing most of the crops. The aftermath of the freeze brought a drought and a disease that killed off most of the livestock. Families suffered many losses through the freeze, causing a number of families to move away from Collegeport.
By 1935, the railroad depot was dismantled and rebuilt as the Mopac House. In 1961,
Hurricane Carla
Hurricane Carla was the most intense tropical cyclone landfall in Texas in the 20th century. The third named storm of the 1961 Atlantic hurricane season, Carla developed from an area of squall, squally weather in the southwestern Caribbean Sea ...
moved in off the
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...
, causing many of the original families to leave permanently.
Present day
As of 2008 Collegeport has two churches, a community center, the Mopac House, a volunteer fire department, and a post office.Collegeport Texas Gulf Coast /ref>
Education
The area is within the
Palacios Independent School District
Palacios Independent School District is a public school district based in Palacios, Texas (USA). The district is located south of Bay City, Texas.
Located in southwestern Matagorda County, a small portion of the district extends into southea ...
.
Climate
The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters. According to the
Köppen Climate Classification
The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...
system, Collegeport has a
humid subtropical climate
A humid subtropical climate is a subtropical -temperate climate type, characterized by long and hot summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between ...