Gregory

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Promotion: Nearby Map of San Patricio County

Gregory is at the intersection of U.S. Highway 181 and State highways 35 and 361, three miles northeast of Portland in southeastern San Patricio County. The community began after the Coleman-Fulton Pasture Company and the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway agreed to build a town at Corpus Christi Junction, the point on the railroad where a spur led off to Corpus Christi, across Nueces Bay. The town was named after United States attorney general Thomas Watt Gregory, a close friend of George W. Fulton. In 1887 the company gave 640 acres for the town and built cattle pens; that same year a post office was granted to the town. J. S. M. McKamey, who bought a two-mile-square block of land north of Gregory in 1890, was one of the first settlers in the area. He built a two-story building and operated the community's first store on the ground floor; his family lived upstairs. The Coleman-Fulton Company gave land and built the first schoolhouse for Gregory in 1891, and by 1892 the community's population was 250. In 1900 McKamey opened the town's first bank. To simplify the transaction of its ranch business, Coleman-Fulton in 1898 moved its headquarters from Rincon to the prospering new railroad town. In 1912 the company built a two-story building that housed its offices, a bank, and a company store downstairs and an auditorium upstairs for local gatherings. After Joseph F. Green took over management of the Coleman-Fulton Company in 1900, his innovative farming and ranching programs drew an increasing number of visitors to the company's ranch, seven miles north of Gregory at Rincon. In 1909 the company built Hotel Green in Gregory at a cost of $55,000. It was recognized as one of the finest hotels on the coast and quickly became famous for its food. The hotel was completed in time to furnish accommodations for the press corps that accompanied President William Howard Taft when he visited the ranch in 1909. As many as twelve passenger trains passed through Gregory daily, and travelers made it a point to spend the night in Hotel Green. The hotel was moved to Taft in 1922. Gregory, a company town in its early years, gradually turned into a trading center with a bank, shops, general stores, and three cotton gins. It declined in the 1920s when the company office was moved to Taft. Growth revived when Reynolds Metals built a plant at La Quinta in 1952. Gregory was incorporated in 1951, and N. A. East was elected the town's first mayor. In 1990 its population was reported as 2,458, and in 2000 as 2,318.

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Keith Guthrie | © TSHA

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

Belongs to

Gregory is part of or belongs to the following places:

Currently Exists

Yes

Place type

Gregory is classified as a Town

Location

Latitude: 27.92266510
Longitude: -97.29223000

Has Post Office

Yes

Is Incorporated

Yes

Population Count, 2021 View more »

1,740