Porter Springs, Texas Explained

Official Name:Porter Springs, Texas
Settlement Type:Unincorporated community
Pushpin Map:Texas#USA
Pushpin Label:Porter Springs
Subdivision Type:Country
Subdivision Name:United States
Subdivision Type1:State
Subdivision Name1:Texas
Subdivision Type2:County
Subdivision Name2:Houston
Timezone:Central (CST)
Utc Offset:-6
Timezone Dst:CDT
Utc Offset Dst:-5
Elevation Ft:338
Coordinates:31.2708°N -95.6092°W
Area Code:936
Blank Name:GNIS feature ID
Blank Info:1365610

Porter Springs, also known as Porter's Springs, is an unincorporated community in Houston County, Texas, United States. According to the Handbook of Texas, the community had a population of 50 in 2000.

History

Just before the Civil War, Porter Springs became populated. The Bethlehem Baptist Church, the first church, was established before 1877. In 1895, a post office bearing the name of the postmaster, James McIntosh Porter, was created. There were two churches, a general store, a cotton gin, a drugstore, and an estimated fifty people living in Porter Springs by 1896. Porter Springs had three churches and many businesses in the middle of the 1930s; fifty people were reportedly living there in 1936. Up to 1990, the population was listed as fifty. Early in the 1990s, Porter Springs was a dispersed rural town with a few homes, three churches, and a cemetery. In 2000, the population was unchanged.

Geography

Porter Springs is located at the intersection of Farm to Market Roads 2967 and 132, 10miles southwest of Crockett in western Houston County.

Education

The first school in the community was established around 1870. It continued to operate in 1896. The settlement then had separate schools for Black and White students in the mid-1930s. It closed sometime after World War II, but Porter Springs had a high school and an elementary school in the early 1990s. Today, the community is served by the Crockett Independent School District.