Pilot Point Commercial Historic District

Beginning in the mid-19th century, downtown Pilot Point, Texas, served as an important commercial center in an area based largely on an agricultural economy. The Pilot Point Commercial Historic District includes historic commercial properties and buildings that retain architectural integrity reflecting the historic character of the Pilot Point community and its commercial development from the 1870s through the 1930s. The Pilot Point square and the downtown area embody the distinctive characteristics of many styles of commercial architecture. The appearance and overall feeling of the square have changed very little. In 2002 Pilot Point became a Texas Main Street Community, and this created a desire on the part of many property owners to renew and bring new life to the downtown area of Pilot Point. The Pilot Point Commercial Historic District is nominated in the areas of Commerce, Community Planning and Development, and Architecture, at the local level of significance. The period of significance spans from 1872 (the date of the earliest building) to 1935 (the date of the most recent historic building).

Settlement and Establishment of Pilot Point, Texas

Pilot Point is eighteen miles north of Denton in northeastern Denton County and is named for its ridge-top location. In the early 19th century, tribes of the Caddodochan Confederacy occupied the future site of the city. The Blackland Prairie location on the border of the Crosstimbers woodland provided a natural habitat for game animals and birds, and abundant grasses, nuts, and fruits. The area also had a number of streams and springs of clear fresh water.

The land around Pilot Point was granted to Charles M. Smith's heirs on March 13, 1841. Smith came to Texas in 1836 and was granted a parcel of land in the north Trinity Valley, under the colonization laws of the government of Mexico. Smith never lived to settle in the area, but his wife Sophia Smith was assigned the rights to this grant by the Republic of Texas in 1845. In 1843 the Republic of Texas opened the "Preston Road" which allowed settlers access to this area and family farmers, buffalo hunters, and cattle ranchers soon followed. By 1845 settlers built log homes and established family farms. In 1853 Mr. D.W. Light founded a large cattle ranch in the area with its famous "53" brand, signifying the year of its establishment.

Sophia Smith remarried James Pierson, who in 1853 formulated the plan to lay out a town on the Shoenee Trail. The trail was a supply route for the frontier Indian forts, running to the west of the present-day Pilot Point public square. The wagonmasters and pilots of these supply trains used the highest point in the area, which was marked with a large stand of cottonwood trees, as a reference point on the trail to locate the best crossings for the river. This little hill was clearly visible from miles around and became known as the pilot's point. An ideal campground just to the north became known as "Dripping Springs" because of the constant supply of fresh water that dripped from the rock outcropping. This campground and the grove of trees to the south had also been widely used by the Indians, who told the early settlers the "Big Winds" (tornadoes) had never hit the trees growing on the hill. Settlers began to take their advice and began building around the grove of trees.

On Christmas day 1853, a surveyor named G.W. Newcome from Kentucky Town in nearby Grayson County, together with James Pierson laid out the plan for the town. It is said that they surveyed the streets to the south of the square in the morning and then they took a break for an afternoon of Christmas celebration. The survey was certified on February 11, 1854, and recorded in the records of Denton County on June 28, 1854. Shortly after, Pierson began selling lots in the new town. One of his first customers was Dr. R.W Eddleman and his wife Alvina, who moved to the area from Missouri in 1852 and lived in a log cabin west of town. Dr. Eddleman built the Star Drug Store on the north side of the newly formed square, near the west end, and his sister's husband Major James D. Walcott, purchased the land on the east end of the north side of the square. Major Walcott built a log house on the property and opened the first General Merchandise store on the corner lot in late 1854. Mrs. Linch pitched a tent on the present site on the Pilot Point City Hall and opened a hotel, and thus commerce was in full swing in the city. Early on, it became necessary to provide a mill for grinding corn and wheat to help feed the growing population. Mr. Rankin had built a mill west of town, which was purchased by J.C. Thomas and Jim Graham and moved one block south of the square. Jefferson Elmore and "Uncle" Nick Wilson later bought the grist mill and built their homes across from it where the water tower now stands. The mill consisted of a large tread wheel for oxen. The original burr stones from this mill are embedded in the asphalt at the crosswalk on Washington and Liberty.

The first U.S. Post Office opened in Pilot Point at postmaster Major James Walcott's general store on June 12, 1855. Between 1858 and 1861 the Butterfield Stage Line opened a station in Pilot Point at 108 East Liberty. The stage line carried mail and passengers between St. Louis, Missouri across North Texas to San Francisco, California. In 1856, the First Baptist and Methodist churches formed. Also in 1856, Alpheus Knight, a New Yorker, built a frame school house on the northwest corner of Liberty and Hill Street. Known as "Yankee Knight's" school, it was a "subscription school" as there were no free schools at this time. In 1858, the Texas Legislature passed an act allowing the incorporation of Pilot Point, but the city did not incorporate it until 1866. Lured by the mild climate and productive soil, new settlers cleared the forests, planted cotton and food crops, and erected buildings. Dan and C.L. Carter opened the first of many saloons on the northeast corner of the east side of the square.

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Pilot Point sent a company of 101 men under the direction of Capt. Nick Wilson to fight for the Confederacy. These men went camping with their horses soon to discover that there were not enough oats and hay to feed the horses. The horses were returned to Pilot Point, and the men became foot soldiers. As the war dragged on, progress in the new city came to a halt. The remaining inhabitants, because of their location near the frontier, were troubled by horse and cattle thieves. The old men and young boys soon organized a vigilante group called the Regulators to maintain law and order in Pilot Point, and the group meted out swift justice to all the horse thieves it could catch. The Regulators once hanged six horse thieves from the same tree, a large post oak that stood on the Southeast corner of the square. One man, who claimed to be a former federal soldier, "Spoon" Butler, roamed the county stealing jewelry and silver spoons before he was hanged from a post oak near the square. Many deserters from both the Union and the Confederacy drifted into town towards the end of the war.

Commerce and Community Development

After the Civil War Pilot Point continued its progress, which had been halted by the war. On October 8th, 1866 the Texas Legislature passed an act incorporating the town of Pilot Point and providing for a mayor, five aldermen, and a constable who also acted as tax assessor and collector. During the reconstruction period, the town saw turbulent times, and the records show that for 1871-72 the city employed nine policemen. It was during this time that the old stone jail on West Liberty was built. The citizens decided in 1878 that they could do just as well without local government and the incorporation was voted out. It was not until 1906 that the city became incorporated again.

In 1872, Dr. M.B. Franklin and Mr. Greene consolidated two schools and founded the Pilot Point Seminary, a subscription school that offered education from first grade to college. In 1884, the school obtained a charter and the name was changed to Franklin College. Pilot Point began offering free public schools in 1894 and Franklin College enrollment dwindled until it finally closed in 1900. The Holiness Church purchased the campus in 1901, and a church and orphanage operated on the school's campus. The bell from the tower - all that remains of Franklin College - is currently on display under the water tower, south of the square.

In 1872 John Hundley built a kiln and began a brick company, using clay hauled from a pit three miles west of town. He was immediately hired by John Merchant to build a two-story brick building on the northwest corner of the square. This building stands today as the oldest brick building in Denton County. Hundley was soon hired by Dr. Eddleman to build the Star Drug Store out of brick as well, and soon most of the wooden buildings on the square were replaced with John Hundley's bricks. Hundley also built the first brick home in Denton County on West Walcott Street. The 1870s were a booming period for Pilot Point with many new families moving to town. Several small newspapers sprang up during the 1870s. Of these, only the Pilot Point Post (later Post-Sentinel), founded by J.T. Jones and D. J. Moffitt has been published continuously ever since, making it the oldest newspaper in the area.

As more southern farmers were located in Pilot Point after the war, cotton began to become one of the most important crops in the area. In the 1870s Mr. Henry Selz built the first cotton gin in the east part of town. It later burned and was rebuilt north of the square by Mr. Selz and his new partner J.P. Cooper. This gin began operation in 1882 and continued to operate well into the 20th century. The first bank in Pilot Point (Pilot Point Bank) opened on January 1, 1884. By 1887 the bank had a capital of $25,000. By 1892 the capital had increased to $60,000. The bank received a Federal charter and the name was changed to Pilot Point National Bank and continues to operate as Point Bank.

Pilot Point became more accessible to the outside world in the late 1870s with the arrival of the railroad and telegraph. In 1877 the federal government put a telegraph line through the town, connecting Sherman with Jacksboro. The road out of Pilot Point to the west towards Sanger followed the wire and became known as the "Wire Road." Until the arrival of the railroad in the 1870s, most merchandise arrived in Pilot Point via oxcart from Jefferson. During the 1880s two railroads had come through the community. The Texas & Pacific Railroad extended the line west to Ft. Worth and reached Pilot Point in the fall of 1880. A few years later, Missouri, Kansas, and Texas (MK&T) leased a right of way, giving Pilot Point service from two railroad lines.

The Pilot Point Horticulture Society was formed in 1885, and they persuaded the railroad to build a canning factory a few blocks west of the square. The canning factory was later moved to the north side of the Wire Road, east of the railroad tracks. After it ceased to operate it was sold to the Pilot Point Ice and Power Co., which began generating electricity for the city in the 1890s, while a well on that spot provided water for the manufacture of ice. The building later became vacant and burned in the late 1920s, but the city purchased the land and continues to use the well for the production of city water.

In 1890 Pilot Point achieved a population of 1,090, and the once-quiet farming community had become an industrial center for the North Texas area. Many new businesses were established and old businesses were expanded. Pilot Point Bank received a federal charter, becoming the Pilot Point National Bank, and other banks were formed including the Farmer's and Merchant's Bank, which built a beautiful new building on the northwest corner of the square in 1898. The Pilot Point Independent School District was also formed in 1894, offering free educational opportunities to the public for the first time.

By 1900, Pilot Point boasted of a buggy manufacturing company, an ice plant, a bottling works, an electric light company, an oil mill, a flour mill, and a waterworks. Shoppers could patronize numerous businesses on or near the town square, in buildings that stand today in the heart of the district. The town had two jewelry stores, eight grocery stores, five dry goods stores, three hardware stores, a furniture store, two secondhand stores, three restaurants, two hotels, four book stores, two ice cream parlors, two milliners, three barber shops, three tailor shops, a shoe store, two banks, and eight saloons. The town's medical needs were provided by six doctors, two dentists, and four drug stores. Other businesses included a photography studio and four blacksmiths. There were eight churches in town and ten passenger trains stopped daily.

Beginning in 1891, the Flusche brothers in brought in a major influx of new residents. Emil Flusche and his brother Joseph, along with local land owner J. M. Sullivan, published promotional literature encouraging German Catholics to settle in Pilot Point. Emil had founded other German colonies in Texas, Iowa, and other states, including the community at Muenster, Texas, about 30 miles to the northwest of Pilot Point. Many of these German settlers attended the newly- completed St. Thomas Catholic Church, which held its first mass on November 4, 1891. A parochial school opened in 1893, with an enrollment of fifty students, offered classes through the fourth grade taught in German and English by two nuns. By 1901 the enrollment increased to eighty.

Pilot Point continued its growth, and by 1906 its citizens voted to reincorporate. The population was 1,371 by 1914, the city provided services through its municipal electrical plant and water works. Local businesses at the time included a creamery, an ice plant, and three banks. The population rose slightly in the 1920s, but the Depression-era population dropped to its pre-1900 level of 1,108. Nevertheless, the community had forty-five businesses, including the Pilot Point Refining Company, and buildings around the square featured a variety of tenants, including 2 hotels, a movie theater, two undertakers, and numerous retailer and service-oriented businesses, as the city remained an important commercial center for the surrounding agricultural region. By the 1950s Pilot Point had 1,156 residents and sixty-five businesses, including two lingerie manufacturers and a manufacturer of church and school furniture.

Pilot Point had a population of 2,538 in 1990 and 3,538 in 2000, reflecting the growth of the population in the county overall as it became more closely associated with the greater Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. The community nevertheless retains a small-town feel, with a public library, three public schools with an enrollment of 865 students, twelve churches, and two municipal parks with baseball diamonds and soccer fields. Pilot Point currently has three banks and ten manufacturers, including cabinet and counter manufacturers, irrigation equipment makers, equestrian supply, and clothing manufacturers. In 2002 Pilot Point became a Texas Main Street Community, fueling a desire on the part of many property owners to reinvest in the commercial area and bring new life to the downtown area of Pilot Point.