Shared from @ H.L. Roberts Packing House From the 1890’s and into the 1920’s Hitchcock Texas produced more vegetables almost any other part of our county. The vegetables were sent by railroad to cities as far away as Chicago. After the vegetables were picked from the farms located here, they were sent to “packing houses” located here. They were placed in wooden barrels and packed in ice to keep them fresh. There were several packing houses here. Among those was one owned by H.L. Roberts. Other families owning packing houses were: Shiro, Henckel, Reitmeyer and Brett. Two factors led to the decline of the vegetable packing business in Hitchcock. One was when an insect attacked the crop and the other was the development of the refrigeration railroad car. When that happened the Texas valley area became the center for sending vegetables north, as they had a longer growing season. The H.L Roberts packing house is pictured here, as well as his family home that was built in about 1904. There is also a picture of the home today. Do you recognize this beautiful home? Shared from Hitchcock Heritage Society
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The City of Hitchcock is located on Hwy 6 in Galveston County 10 north of Galveston and 30 miles south of Houston.
Hitchcock is a city in Galveston County, Texas, United States. The population was 6,386 at the 2000 census. Hitchcock was created as a station of the railroad between Galveston and Houston in 1873 and around the turn of the 20th century became a vegetable shipping center. The settlement's economy crashed in the 1930s after insect plagues in the surrounding areas, and the area stayed impoverished until the establishment of both an anti-aircraft training base and the Hitchcock Naval Air Station at the beginning of World War II. Archives
March 2021
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