Shingle Arbor

Shingle Arbor, also known as Arbor, was between Kelm and Black Hills four miles south of the site of present-day Emhouse in north central Navarro County. The community grew up in the late 1880s or early 1890s around a large arbor where local residents held religious services in the summer. A. L. Gamble had a store and blacksmith shop, and an Arbor post office operated briefly in 1892. The settlement began to decline after 1900; many residents moved to nearby Emhouse, located on the railroad. By the mid-1930s Shingle Arbor no longer appeared on highway maps. In 1990 the site was marked only by a grove of old oak trees.