Beaumont Commercial District
Roughly bounded by Orleans, Bowie, Neches, Crockett, Laurel, Willow, Broadway, Pearl, Main, and Gilbert Sts., Beaumont, TXThe City of Beaumont started in the 1830s as a small river crossing settlement and grew steadily during the last half of the 19th Century due to its transportation and lumber industries. The town played significant roles in both the Texas Revolution and the Civil War, but the thriving industrial town became nationally prominent as a result of two sensational oil discoveries at the Spindletop oil field in the early 20th Century.
The earliest recorded settlers of the Beaumont area were Noah and Nancy Tevis and their seven children from Tennessee. They settled on what is now known as Tevis Bluff on the Neches River around 1825 under the protection of Lorenzo de Zavala, who was granted land in 1829 by the Mexican government. By this time small groups of log dwellings were scattered throughout the area. Seven houses and one trading post have been attributed to the settlement in 1830 when Thomas P. and Joshua Lewis brought their families to the area from North Carolina.
The town of Beaumont was laid out in 1835, with formal organization and platting taking place two years later. It was during this organizational period that families fleeing Santa Anna's army during the "Runaway Scrape" of the Texas Revolution were forced to camp on the banks of the flooded Neches. Provisions were scarce and panic imminent by the time word reached the refugees of Texas' victory at San Jacinto on April 21, 1836.
Feeling secure in their recently won independence from Mexico, a small group of Tevis Bluff, or Neches River Settlement, pioneers recorded the 100-acre township of Beaumont in the Jefferson County Courthouse at Orange in 1837. The next year reorganization of the county changed the seat of government for Jefferson County from Orange to Beaumont.
Bibliography
Tyrell Public Library. Building Files.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.