Pantex

Phillips is three miles northeast of Borger in south central Hutchinson County. Early in 1926, after oil was discovered in Hutchinson County, the pioneer rancher James A. Whittenburg sought to cash in on the coming boom by founding a community. He initially named the town Whittenburg, after himself. Whittenburg's townsite was eagerly promoted by P. R. Williams of Amarillo, who predicted a population of 10,000 within a year. Soon it had a next-door rival in the community of Pantex, which was shortly renamed Phillips. The Phillips Petroleum Company completed its first plant in the Panhandle, the Alamo Refinery, at Pantex in 1927. As the company developed, the boomtown shanties and overcrowded rooming houses gave way to more permanent housing and other facilities for employees and their families, several churches, a hospital, and a progressive school system. In 1935 a new $77,000 school building replaced an earlier brick structure. In 1938 the two townsites voted to merge under the name of Phillips. Railroad service for the refineries was provided by a spur of the Panhandle and Santa Fe line.

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.