History of North Houston: From Scoville to Abandonment
Published: 1952
Updated: June 21, 2017
North Houston was on the Burlington-Rock Island Railroad ten miles northwest of Houston in central Harris County. It grew up after a hurricane left it mudbound and without utilities, and residents asked the city of Houston for incorporation as a ward. The community was known as Tomball in honor of Thomas Henry Ball but took the name Scoville when a station stop on the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway was established there in 1907. A post office operated as Scoville from 1908 to 1909. The Scoville post office was replaced in 1910 by the North Houston post office, which was discontinued in 1928, after which mail was delivered from Fairbanks. By 1914 North Houston had a single general store. State highway maps in 1936 showed a single building at the townsite. Oil was discovered in the area in 1939, but by the 1980s all that remained of the community southwest of State Highway 149 were two abandoned railroad stations and a few scattered dwellings.
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The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.
Claudia Hazlewood, “North Houston, TX,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 09, 2026, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/north-houston-tx.
Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
TID:
HRN27
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- 1952
- June 21, 2017
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