Pinehurst

Pinehurst is at the intersection of Farm roads 149 and 1774 and State Highway 249, 4½ miles north of the Harris county line and seventeen miles southwest of Conroe in the southwestern corner of Montgomery County. The earliest reference to the town is in 1860, when a post office was established under the name Prairie Home. In 1871 the name was changed to Hunter's Retreat. By 1885 the town shipped lumber and cotton and had six sawmills, two general stores, four churches, schools, and a population of 200. Mail was delivered semi-weekly. By 1890 the population had declined to seventy, and the town had a cotton gin and corn mill, two general stores, and four sawmills. The International-Great Northern Railroad came through town about 1902, when it built from Bryan to Spring. In 1904 the town was renamed to Pinehurst. By 1914 Pinehurst had a telephone connection, a sawmill, a general store, and an estimated population of twenty-five. By 1933 it had fifty people and two businesses. In 1946 Pinehurst had the railroad station, a post office, a church, two businesses, and thirty scattered dwellings. By 1950 the population had grown to eighty, and the number of businesses had climbed to four. By 1971 the population was 290, but the number of businesses had declined to two. During this time the Pinehurst oil and gas field operated two miles north of town, and a gravel pit was a mile northwest of town. In 1980 Pinehurst had 290 people and ten businesses. The population grew to 3,284 by 1990 and 3,301 in 1993, when the town had sixty-two businesses. In 2000 the population was 4,266. The general highway map that year shows considerable development just south of the town in the Oak Hills Acres and Cripple Creek Farms West subdivisions of Houston.

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.