Lytton Springs

Lytton Springs is on Farm Road 1854 ten miles northeast of Lockhart in northern Caldwell County. Settlement of the area began in the 1850s, and the early, somewhat scattered, community was known as Albade. A post office by that name was established in 1859. The community began to be known by the name of the nearby Lytton Springs in the early 1860s, but the name of the post office was not officially changed to Lytton Springs until 1888. By the mid-1880s the community had a steam cotton gin, a Baptist church, a district school, a general store, and 125 residents. By the 1890s its population was reported as 300. Most of the early settlers at Lytton Springs were livestock raisers; though ranching gave way to cotton around 1900, it regained its importance in the local economy after 1930. Oil was discovered near Lytton Springs in 1925, but by the 1940s only a few wells were still producing. The post office was discontinued in 1958 and was replaced by rural delivery from Dale. Population estimates for Lytton Springs rose from 131 in 1900 to 200 by the 1920s, but fell to 116 by the 1960s. By the early 1970s its population was reported as seventy-six, at which level it remained through 1990. Three churches, two cemeteries, and a business marked the community on the 1989 county highway map. By 2000 the population had increased to 500.