Broadway

Broadway is on Farm Road 1184 seven miles south of Paris between Robertson and Auds creeks in south central Lamar County. The settlement was founded in 1885, when F. E. Hutchins (sometimes Hutchings) opened a general store there. A post office opened at the community in 1890, and Hutchins suggested the name Broadway because of the townsite's prairie location. In 1892 the community had the general store, a cotton gin, and a blacksmith shop. Its population was reported as 127 from 1904 through the mid-1940s. In 1931 the community reported four businesses. The 1936 county highway map also identified a school at the site. After World War II and with the decline in farm prices, many residents began to leave the vicinity in search of jobs in the cities. The local school closed, and in 1957 area students were attending classes within the Delmar Independent School District. By 1970 the population of Broadway had decreased to twenty-five. A few scattered dwellings still marked the townsite on a 1983 map of the area. In 1990 and 2000 the community's population was still reported as twenty-five.

Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.