URBANA, TEXAS

Texas Ghost Town
San Jacinto County, East Texas

U.S. Highway 59 at the Trinity River
E of Coldspring the county seat
SW of Livingston
About 60 Miles N of Houston
Population: 25 (2000) 10 (1990)

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The Urbana Depot, built in 1911, now stands in the Old Coldspring townsite in Coldspring, TX
Photo courtesy Terry Jeanson, November 2014

History in a Pecan Shell

Homesick Ohioan S.P. Coughlin named it for his former home when the railroad came through this part of San Jacinto County. In this case, the railroad was the Houston East and West Railroad.

The area was ideal for cotton farming and early in the 20th Century when deposits of sand and gravelwere discovered, it started another local industry.

In 1914 a post office was granted although no early population figures are available. The first figures available are from the mid 1920s when 75 residents were reported. The Boll Weevil, the Great Depression, WWII and postwar prosperity hit the town hard. There were only 10 people by the mid 1970s – a figure that was reported through the 1990 census. It swelled to 25 residents in 2000.

Urbana, TX 1954 last day post office postmark

Cover cancelled with Urbana 1954 postmark
Courtesy The John J. Germann Collection

San Jacinto County 1920s map showing Urbana
(Southeast San Jacinto County)
Courtesy Texas General Land Office

Take a road trip

Urbana, Texas Nearby Towns:
Coldspring the county seat
Conroe
Livingston

See San Jacinto County | East Texas

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