The Day Baytown Became One City: January 24, 1948

Baytown became a city on January 24, 1948. Two oil-patch towns, Pelly and Goose Creek, had to agree to become one first, and they did it at the ballot box.

The Handbook of Texas puts it plainly: "On January 24, 1948, the city of Baytown was established." Voters in both towns had gone to the polls on Feb. 15, 1947, and approved consolidation by a large majority. The new city counted 20,958 residents. The Census Bureau now estimates 86,561. This story follows the steps from refinery to city.

You can still see where it happened. The City of Baytown marker stands at Town Square, 213 W. Texas Ave., and two more markers sit across town (details at the end).

The short version

• Baytown was established on Jan. 24, 1948, when the towns of Pelly and Goose Creek merged.
• Voters approved the merger on Feb. 15, 1947, by a large majority.
• The city had 20,958 residents at its founding and 66,430 by the 2000 census.
• The Census Bureau counted 83,701 people in 2020 and estimates 86,561 for July 1, 2025.
• The refinery came first: Humble's builders chose the site in 1917, and construction began in fall 1919.

The refinery before the city

Ross Sterling first invested in oil in 1909, and two years later he formed Humble Oil Company with five partners. The Texas Historical Commission marker at the refinery's main entrance says the company was formed in 1911.

In 1917, Sterling and his associates decided to build a refinery near the Goose Creek field, according to the Handbook of Texas. Humble Oil and Refining Company received its state charter that year. To help pay for the plant, Humble sold half its stock to Standard Oil of New Jersey.

Construction began in the fall of 1919, and Humble's partners bought about 2,200 acres near the field that year. The first oil went into a still on May 11, 1920.

The name Baytown comes from the refinery. The Handbook gives two dates, and they do not match. One entry says the partners named the refinery site Baytown in 1919. Another says Humble finished its major refinery by April 1921 and named both plant and townsite Baytown. The safe reading is that the name was in use by April 1921, and may be older. Both entries agree on the name itself.

The community built its own institutions along the way. Memorial Baptist Church traces to February 1918, when Rev. John Wesley Anderson preached its first sermon on a Goose Creek street. A weekly newspaper, the Goose Creek Gasser, launched in 1919. Voters in the Goose Creek school district authorized a junior college on Feb. 24, 1934, and classes opened that fall as Lee Junior College, later Lee College.

Two towns become one

Before 1948 the area had separate towns, each with its own habits. Goose Creek voted to incorporate on Jan. 28, 1919. Pelly's volunteer fire department was chartered in 1920. The Goose Creek school district, formed in 1919, already covered Goose Creek, Pelly and Baytown, so kids from all three towns sat in the same classrooms years before the towns shared a mayor.

After the Feb. 15, 1947 vote, the merger followed, and Baytown was established on Jan. 24, 1948. The new city covered only about seven and a half square miles. The local newspaper took a new name that year too. It had been the Daily Tribune by 1929, and it became the Baytown Sun in 1948.

The Handbook and the markers do not record the vote counts or what any one resident said that day, and we won't guess. The record shows the large majority, the date and the number: 20,958 people.

• 1917: Humble's builders decide to build a refinery near the Goose Creek field, and the company gets its state charter.
• 1919: construction begins in the fall, and Goose Creek votes to incorporate.
• 1920: the first oil goes into a still.
• 1947: Pelly and Goose Creek voters approve consolidation.
• 1948: the city of Baytown is established.

Growth since 1948

Baytown grew from 20,958 residents in 1948 to 66,430 by the 2000 census. That is more than triple. The 2020 census counted 83,701 people. The July 1, 2025 estimate is 86,561, more than four times the 1948 figure, or about 65,600 more people than the day the city began. Land grew too. Annexing the communities of Cedar Bayou and Wooster later pushed the city's land area past thirty square miles.

Where to see the history

The Texas Historical Commission placed a City of Baytown marker in 2018 at Town Square, 213 W. Texas Ave. Another marker, placed in 1989, stands at the refinery's main entrance. A third, placed in 2011, honors Robert E. Lee High School at 1809 Market Street. The school opened in fall 1928. The City of Baytown marker describes the city as located mostly within Harris County plus a small portion of Chambers County.

Read each marker for its date. An old sign that says Goose Creek, Pelly or Baytown belongs to a different stage of the same story.

SH 146 was first designated on March 19, 1930. The Baytown Tunnel opened in 1953, and it was 4,110 feet long. It stayed open until 1995.

What this means for you

Baytown was established as a city in 1948, but its parts, a refinery, two towns and a school district, were already there. If you want to see the story, start at Town Square, then drive out to the refinery gate and Market Street. Dates differ from source to source, so check the date on each marker before you repeat it.

Sources

• Handbook of Texas: Baytown, TX (https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/baytown-tx)
• Handbook of Texas: Pelly, TX (https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/pelly-tx)
• Handbook of Texas: Goose Creek Oilfield (https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/goose-creek-oilfield)
• Texas Historical Commission: Atlas, City of Baytown marker (https://atlas.thc.texas.gov/Details/5507018941)
• Texas Historical Commission: Atlas, Humble Oil & Refining Company marker (https://atlas.thc.texas.gov/Details/5201010703)
• Texas Historical Commission: Atlas, Robert E. Lee High School marker (https://atlas.thc.texas.gov/Details/5507016880)
• U.S. Census Bureau: QuickFacts, Baytown city, Texas (https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/baytowncitytexas/PST045225)
• Baytown Sun: History (https://baytownsun.com/site/history.html)
• Texas State Historical Association: https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/goose-creek-tx
• City of Baytown: https://baytown.org/376/History-of-the-BFD
• Historical Marker Database: https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=247388
• Historical Marker Database: https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=64396
• Historical Marker Database: https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=282278
• Texas State Historical Association: https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/lee-college
• AARoads reference: https://wiki.aaroads.com/wiki/Texas_State_Highway_146
• Transportation Research Board: https://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/hrbproceedings/33/33-004.pdf