The thriving city of Richmond that we know and love today is deeply rooted in Texas history. With the new appearance of new homes and businesses, the community holds its charm thanks to historic points of interest in Richmond including the 1908 Historic County Courthouse, the 1883 Home of Congressman John M. Moore and the Long-Smith Cottage on the grounds of the Fort Bend Museum, and many more beautiful and historic homes.

Lead by the Old Three Hundred 

In early 1822 a group of twelve to fifteen men led by William W. Little camped in the vicinity of the present city and were soon followed by other members of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred. A log fort built at the bend in the Brazos River became the nucleus of a settlement, which came to be known as Fort Bend, or the "Fort Settlement." The community was then evacuated in 1836 during the Runaway Scrape.

Established in 1837 

In early 1837 the town of Richmond was established by Robert Eden Handy and his business partner, William Lusk, and as early as April the partners were advertising to sell lots in the town. Named after Richmond, England, the town was first incorporated by the Republic of Texas in May 1837; in December, when Fort Bend County was formed, Richmond became its seat of government. In January 1839 a Methodist Episcopal church was organized, and in April the town's first newspaper, the weekly Richmond Telescope and Texas Literary Register, began publishing. 

A Market Center for Cotton Plantations 

The town's early residents included some of the best known Texans of the period, including Erastus (Deaf) Smith and Jane Longqv; Mirabeau B. Lamar lived on a plantation within the present limits of the city. By 1851 Richmond included a brick courthouse, two stores, a Masonic Hall, the Methodist church, and the Richmond Male and Female Academy. A yellow fever epidemic swept through Richmond in 1853, but its future seemed assured in 1855, when the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railway extended its tracks into the town. By 1859 the town was a prosperous shipping and market center for the area's cotton plantations and had grown to include a cotton warehouse and two hotels; a brick building for other stores was also being built. 

Cattle Empire

Before the Civil War Richmond became a center of the "cattle empire" that grew between the Brazos and Colorado rivers; cattle were branded on ranges just west of the town before being sent north to market centers in the Midwest. In 1878 the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway extended its tracks through the area but bypassed Richmond; a new, rival community called Rosenberg was built on the railway three miles from the old town. In 1884 2,000 people lived in Richmond. That year, along with the courthouse and four churches, the town had a bank, sugar mills and refineries, and six schools. Cotton, corn, livestock, hides, sugar, and molasses were being shipped from the town.

Bridge Across the Brazos   

A wooden bridge across the Brazos was built at Richmond about 1888, and when that collapsed five years later it was replaced by a sturdier steel structure. Nevertheless, partly because of competition from Rosenberg and other new towns growing in the county at that time, Richmond's population dropped to 1,500 by 1890 and 1,180 by 1904. An enormous flood surrounded the town in 1899. Richmond's economy remained dependent on agriculture until the 1920s, when oil production began in the county. 

Rise in Development

By 1934 there were eight producing oilfields and a sulfur mine within an eight-mile radius of the town. During the 1930s sidewalks were extended through much of the town, and a large municipal pool was built; Richmond's citizens also approved a bond package that funded a number of other civic improvements, including a new city hall, a modern water system, and new fire-fighting equipment. Though local agricultural production suffered during the Great Depression, the surrounding cotton growers still supported two large cotton gins in Richmond, and the town also had a large irrigation pumping plant that supplied water to rice fields in the area. 

“Air of the Deep South”

Despite the improvements, a traveler passing through the town in the 1930s still thought Richmond's "fine old white frame residences of the plantation type" gave the town "the air of the Deep South." The town's population rose from 1,273 in 1920 to 1,432 by 1930, and to 2,026 by 1940. Beginning in the late 1940s people began moving to the Richmond-Rosenberg area to commute to jobs in Houston, and the trend intensified during and after the 1950s. As a result the town's population grew rapidly, rising from 2,026 in 1950 to 3,668 by 1960, to 5,777 by 1970, and to 9,692 by 1980. As Richmond and Rosenberg grew together the towns increasingly cooperated in development and planning projects.

Come be a part of the community! Find your new home in a charming old city.