There is Spring Texas and then there is OLD Spring Texas
Spring is off Interstate Highway 45 twenty miles north of Houston in north Harris County. The area was originally inhabited by the Orcoquiza Indians, who were first visited by Spaniards in 1746. In the mid-1840s German immigrants, most notably Carl Wunsche, settled in the area and began farming the land. Immigrants from Louisiana and the postbellum South later moved into the farming community. Sugar cane and cotton were the main cash crops, but vegetables were also raised. The town had a sugar mill for syrup making and two cotton gins.
The Railroad is built through the town
After the Houston and Great Northern Railroad built through Spring in 1871, the town grew considerably. By 1884 Spring had two steam saw and grist mills, two cotton gins, three churches, several schools, and a population of 150. In 1901–03 the International-Great Northern Railroad connected Spring with Fort Worth. A roundhouse was built, and Spring became a major switchyard with fourteen trackyards and 200 rail workers. A sawmill was built near the tracks, and lumbering became an important business for a time. By 1910 the population had risen to 1,200. The Spring State Bank was robbed by Bonnie and Clyde in 1930. It was also robbed several times by lesser known criminals. n the 1930s; erroneous rumors have attributed one robbery to Bonnie and Clyde
The town begins to decline
In 1935 the bank consolidated with the Tomball Bank. One of the noted businesses in Spring about this time was the A. F. Russell Day Lily Farm, which had an international mail-order clientele. In 1923 the roundhouse was moved to Houston, and Spring began to decline. By 1931 its population had fallen to 300. In 1947, however, a population of 700 was reported, and by 1984 the figure had risen to 15,000, the number that was still reported in 1989. From 1969 to 1992, when it was moved to Akron, Ohio, the Goodyear airship America was based near Spring. The airship was one of three designed and built by Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. During its travels the blimp’s night signs provided public relation messages, and its TV camera filmed many sporting and public events. In the 1970s Houston suburbs expanded northwestward; an increasing number of subdivisions and residential areas grew up around Spring. Some of the old houses in Spring were restored and opened as shops.
NEW Old Spring Town created
In 1980 the Old Town Spring Association was formed to promote this unique shopping village. With this development came the ghosts. Or we should say with the new found interest in the old buildings the ghosts came out to haunt. Houston Press wrote this article about the ghosts.
THIS IS A LOCAL GHOST TOUR BUSINESS NOT A NATIONAL CHAIN Take your own ghost tour of Old Town Spring
Written by Jeanine Plumer
A Good Ghost Story by Austin Ghost Tours
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