Little Texas

Front: William E. Earle acquired much of the land now bounded by Beattie Pl., N. Church, Academy, and E. North Sts. at a foreclosure sale in 1869. He subdivided the land and sold the parcels. Much of the land was purchased by African Americans, including Milton Brooks, a 30-year-old laborer who bought the first lot in 1872. The community grew from about a dozen families in 1876 to become a neighborhood of more than 75 houses by the 1920s. Little Texas developed just south of Allen School. Reverse: Allen School, which had its origins as a Freedmen’s school in the 1860s, was a fixture of the neighborhood until a new Allen School was built on Stone Ave. in 1936. Memorial Auditorium was built adjacent to Little Texas in 1958. As the city continued to expand, Little Texas would succumb to the pressures of urban development. In 1971 the city condemned 65 homes in order to use the land for future development, effectively marking the end of Little Texas.