Longview Junction

Longview Junction, in eastern Gregg County, began in 1873 when the International-Great Northern Railroad completed its line from Hearne to Longview and intersected with the rails of the newly built Texas and Pacific. The tracks connected a mile east of the T&P depot in downtown Longview. A second T&P depot and the I-GN depot were located at the junction. Longview businessmen formed the Longview and Junction Railway Company in 1883 to provide transportation between the main T&P depot in downtown Longview and Longview Junction. The street railway began with one car and one mule. In 1896 a larger, two-mule car was inaugurated. An electric trolley replaced the mule-drawn cars in 1912 and continued until the system was discontinued in 1922. By 1877 the Barner brothers were operating a sawmill at the junction with a capacity of 20,000 board feet a day. Longview Junction prospered in the early 1880s as dwellings and businesses for the railroad industry and its workers were built. A Catholic church was constructed in 1883. The brick, two-story, seventy-five-room Mobberly Hotel was completed in 1884. Local businesses in May 1885 included two saloons, a gambling house, a grocery store, a fruit and cigar stand, a drugstore and news stand, and a dressmaker, as well as two boarding houses, two restaurants, the Mobberly Hotel, and the Junction Hotel. Between 1890 and 1896 the number of dwellings in a five-block area of Longview Junction increased 200 percent. A private, two-room school opened in 1896.

In 1904 the city of Longview annexed land on all sides of its corporate limits, including the site of Longview Junction. The additional residents made possible the issuance of bonds for many of Longview's first improvements, including wooden-block pavement for streets, cement sidewalks, and street lights. In 1919 a grade crossing at the junction, one of the longest in Texas, spanned eleven sets of tracks. In 1939 the Texas and Pacific Railroad Company constructed an underpass that eliminated the dangerous crossing. The Texas and Pacific moved its division offices and shops from Longview Junction to Mineola in January 1929, thus removing 700 families and a large payroll from the Longview area.