Sinton, TX: Research Jessica Thompson Arch 5301

46 Pages·2005·0.6 MB·English

Sinton, TX: Research

Jessica Thompson

Arch 5301
Table of Contents:

Community Contact Information 3
City Council and Mayoral Registry 4
Community History 5
Community Profile 6
Demographics 8
Community Surveys 10
Existing Resources 15
Welder Wildlife Foundation 18
New Resources 24
Recommendations 26
Funding 30
Case Study 1- St. Augustine, FL 44
Case Study 2- Georgetown, TX 45
Design Recommendations 46

Appendix A- Main Street Report
Appendix B- Community Surveys
Appendix C- R/UDAT Guideline

2
Sinton Contact

Melanie Thomas
Sinton Main Street Executive Director
361/364-4884
[email protected]

3
City Council and
Mayoral Registry

Municipal Government
City of Sinton: 302 East Market Street, Sinton, TX 78387. Sinton has
a Council - Manager type of government with 5 Councilmen (including
the mayor) and a City Planning Commission plus a City Master Plan.
Emergency personnel include 9 policemen, 7 police cars and regular
night police patrol, a Fire Department with 30 volunteers, 7 units and
2 police reserves.
Pete Gonzales - Mayor
Anna Franklin - Mayor Pro-Team
Eloy Reyna - Council
Jessica Thomas-Bates - Council
Vicente Ortiz - Council
Jackie Knox - City Manager
Betty Wood - City Secretary
City Attorney - Donald Kubicek
Chief of Police - Eugenio DeLeon
Director of Public Works - Beverly Agomuo
Fire Marshall - Clemente Sanchez
Municipal Court Judge - Molly Petrus-Thomas
Librarian - Yolanda Bustamante

4
Community History

A timeline of significant facts in Sinton’s history:
1886: The San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway builds through
1888: post office granted
1892: post office discontinued
1893: Sinton’s school system is born with a one-room schoolhouse
1894: Sinton is declared county seat
1907: The St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexican Railway appears
1908: Packing sheds are supplied by J. W. Benson - population is a
mere 78 persons
1910: Sinton has banks, a newspaper and at least one hotel
1912: Fire destroys large part of downtown
1916: Sinton incorporates
1920s: Brick buildings replaces wooden buildings in downtown Sinton
1935: Oil discovered on Easter Sunday

Sinton continues to be a farming, petroleum, and petrochemical
center. One of the more distantly visible structures in town is a huge
grain elevator.

5
Community Profile
SINTON, TEXAS. Sinton, the county seat of San Patricio County, is
at the intersection of the Southern Pacific and Missouri Pacific
railroads and U.S. highways 77 and 181, near the center of the
county. Soon after the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway built
through the county in 1886, Col. George W. Fulton, qv founder of the
Coleman-Fulton Pasture Company, qv received approval from the
board of directors to give 640 acres for the town site of Sinton on the
south bank of Chiltipin Creek. The town was named for David Sinton,
majority stockholder in Coleman-Fulton. The company built cattle-
loading pens immediately, and a post office in the section house was
granted in 1888, with Margaret Camp as postmistress. By 1892 the
post office had been discontinued. The charter for the Sinton Town
Company was granted in 1894 for 1,000 acres. The organizers
proved to be the leading citizens in the new town: George W. Fulton,
Jr., John J. Welder, David Odem, Darius Rachal, Sidney G. Borden,
qv William J. Scofield, L. N. Scofield, S. W. McCall, and S. D.
Scudder. An election made Sinton county seat on June 23, 1894, and
on June 28 the commissioners’ court met in Sinton. The St. Louis,
Brownsville and Mexican Railway arrived in 1907. Growth was slow,
and the population, reported as seventy-five in 1908, began to grow
only after home seeker trains began arriving in San Patricio County
from the Midwest and from northern and central Texas. Several
blocks of land were offered for sale to farmers. By 1910 the town had
a number of businesses, a bank, a hotel, and a newspaper. Sinton
developed as a shipping point for locally grown vegetables after J. W.
Benson arrived in the county shortly before 1908 and set up packing
sheds. Cattle continued to be shipped out by rail in large numbers. A
four-alarm fire destroyed a block of business buildings in 1912. The
city was incorporated in 1916, and W. E. Haisley was elected mayor.
A home rule charter and a council-manager form of government were
approved in 1966. A building boom transformed the main street into
modern brick buildings shortly after World War I.qv The discovery of
oil near Sinton on Easter Sunday, 1935, by the Plymouth Oil
Companyqv changed the face of the town. Plymouth set up
6
headquarters in Sinton and sponsored a baseball team, the Plymouth
Oilers, qv who in 1957 became the first Texas team to win the national
semiprofessional baseball crown. A few wells drilled during this period were
still in production in 1988. After World War IIqv the city grew; a number
of new businesses and several residential developments were
constructed. The economy remained tied to the land. Vegetable-
packing sheds operat1ed in Sinton until the mid-1960s, when
sorghum, cotton, and, to a lesser degree, corn took over as the
leading crops. Ranching also continued to be important in the north
and west part of the county. A school system started in Sinton in
1893, when Miss Drew Moore presided over the one-room school.
The town now has a modern system that was swelled by a rash of
school consolidations in the decade following World War II. By the
1970s Sinton was a center for farming, petroleum, and petrochemical
industries. In the 1980s the Rural Electrification Administration
maintained a regional headquarters in Sinton, and the town was the
site of a Dr Pepperqv plant. A large grain elevator served the town.
The population in the late 1980s was estimated at 6,500. Sinton is the
site of the annual San Patricio County Agricultural and Homemakers
Show, an October Old Fiddlers Parade, and the county Youth Rodeo.
It is also noted for its Rob and Bessie Welder Wildlife Park, qv a
3,000-acre recreation area belonging to the city. In 1990 the
population was 5,549.

1 BIBLIOGRAPHY: Keith Guthrie, History of San Patricio County
(Austin: Nortex, 1986). Vertical Files, Barker Texas History Center,
University of Texas at Austin.

7
Detailed
Demographics
Sinton is located at 28(cid:176)2’5" North, 97(cid:176)30’32" West (28.034824, -
97.508942)1.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total
area of 5.7 km† (2.2 mi†). 5.7 km† (2.2 mi†) of it is land and none of
the area is covered with water.

Population (year 2000): 5,676,
Est. population in July 2002: 5,590 (-1.5% change)
1,845 households,
1,409 families residing in the city.
Population density is 996.1/km† (2,582.0/mi†).
2,026 housing units at an average density of 355.6/km† (921.6/mi†).
Males: 2,847 (50.2%), Females: 2,829 (49.8%)Median resident age:
32.3 years
Median household income: $27,911 (year 2000)
Median house value: $44,900 (year 2000)

Races in Sinton:
Hispanic (71.0%)
White Non-Hispanic (25.0%)
Other race (18.5%)
Black (3.6%)
Two or more races (3.4%)
American Indian (1.1%)
For population 25 years and over in Sinton
8
High school or higher: 60.3%
Bachelor’s degree or higher: 9.1%
Graduate or professional degree: 2.9%
Unemployed: 8.4%
Mean travel time to work: 21.6 minutes
For population 15 years and over in Sinton city
Never married: 26.3%
Now married: 51.5%
Separated: 4.3%
Widowed: 9.4%
Divorced: 8.5%
3.5% Foreign born (3.4% Latin America).

9
Community Opinion

The following is a compilation of the Citizen
2
Survey

1. What are things you like best about living in Sinton?
• Quiet
• Small town atmosphere
• Lumberyard
• Friendly people
• Movie gallery
• HEB
• Whataburger
• Good schools
• Safe

2. What places do you show visitors to Sinton?
• Restaurants
• Welder Wildlife Refuge
• Aggie D(cid:146)s
• Parks
• Residential areas
• Main Street
• Antique stores
• Schools
• Lumberyard
• Butterchurn
• Churches
• Back street

3. What are the best things about downtown Sinton?
• Cleanliness

2 See Apendix B
10