- source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
- source: Family History Library Catalog
- the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia
Lake Jackson is a city in Brazoria County, Texas within the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown Metropolitan Area. As of the 2004 U.S. Census, the city population was 27,022.
Lake Jackson is named after an oxbow lake of the same name on the outskirts of town. The lake in turn was named after the family whose antebellum plantation house sat alongside the lake; only very minor ruins of the building can now be seen in a park at the site. The city is the birthplace of famous Tejano singer Selena.
History
- the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia
The city was built in the early 1940s as a planned community in support of a new plant of the Dow Chemical Company. The City of Lake Jackson was incorporated March 14 1944, and voted for home rule ten years later in 1954.
Streets
The layout of the streets in Lake Jackson was the whimsical vision of Alden B. Dow, the city’s original planner. In order to keep Lake Jackson from simply being another boring company town, Dow designed an unusual plan for the streets:
- All streets radiating from downtown end in the word “Way”. Among the streets are Center Way, Winding Way, and Parking Way. There is even an intersection of two streets named “This Way” and “That Way”.
- Most other streets not ending in “Way” were named after some form of flora. As the city grew and common names such as Pine, Mulberry, and Oak were taken, developers had to become more creative; thus, among the plants used were Jalapeño, Tangarine, Mango, and Habanero. Most of the tree names are the more main streets. The flowers came next, then the more exotic. There are few exceptions to the flora street names other than the Ways. These are the highways running through Lake Jackson (288 & 332) and Oyster Creek Drive.
- To further add charm, Dow intentionally laid out the streets so that they seldom follow straight paths. The streets, even main thoroughfares, twist and wind so much that in many areas of town one can travel in any of the four compass directions and have the same commute time and distance to a destination across town. Part of the basis for the winding streets was Dow's insistence that as few trees as possible should be removed in construction of the original street layout (which is still in practice today with the building of new subdivisions). Lake Jackson is listed on the Arbor Day Foundation's Tree City USA list. Also, many of the streets follow Oyster Creek, which twists and winds through town.
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