Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, Volume 3, Number 2, May 1993 Page: 86

Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal

May and Alice Streets were named after the wives of the developers, May (McMickin)
Gregory and Alice Geraldine (McDaniel) Gegenworth, respectively.
In its original form, the addition contained nine blocks; however, only three
lots on Block 2 and no part of Blocks 3, 4, 5, 8, and 9 were developed. On January 2
and January 13, 1965 the Columbus Independent School District purchased the
undeveloped part of the addition, eventually building a high school on the site. As a
result, neither Alice Street nor Vineyard Street exists.
The part of the addition owned by the Columbus Independent School District
was annexed by the city on October 11, 1965. Blocks 1, 6, and 7 and Lots 1, 2, and
3 of Block 2 were annexed on September 26, 1966.24
Ben Davis Subdivisions
On November 9, 1942, Ben Henry Davis presented the plat of what he styled
"The Ben Davis Subdivision to the Town of Columbus" to the Commissioners Court of
Colorado County. Davis had purchased the land on which he laid out his subdivision on
July 18, 1938, for $50. The addition, which lay west of and adjacent to the city limits
of Columbus, contained 12 lots in two blocks, though the northern block was roughly
half the size of the southern block. Preston Street was extended to divide the two blocks.
Lots north of Preston Street, numbered 1 through 4, were 134 by 55 feet; those south
of Preston, numbered 5 through 12, were 111 by 55 feet.
On December 30, 1944, two years after presenting his first subdivision to
the county, Ben Davis returned with a second. His new subdivision, officially known as
"Ben Davis Subdivision Number 2," adjoined the first Ben Davis Subdivision and
contained 16 variously shaped lots of comparatively modest dimensions, each of which
fronted Crockett Street. It was laid out on a 3.54 acre tract that Davis had purchased
from Ludwig Hanak two months earlier, on October 23, 1944, for $354. Both additions
were taken into the city limits on December 28, 1953.25
Taylor Addition
On July 28, 1944, the Town Commission of the Town of Columbus accepted
a plat presented by Reginald Taylor of the part of a 14.5 acre tract he had purchased from
Trula Wells that lay within the city limits of the Town of Columbus. The new subdivision,
which was named the Taylor Addition, contained four blocks of six lots each and three
so-called "out lots" adjacent to the river. The addition extended Bonham, Wallace,
Harbert, Front, and Charter Streets. Its northernmost two blocks had been on the original
plat of Columbus, and retained their original numbers, 27 and 28. The two blocks south
of Wallace Street had been on the map filed when the city was reincorporated in 1927
and retained the numbers then assigned, 141 and 142.
24 See Slide 19 of Plat Records, Deed Book 244, pp. 493-495 and Deed Book 245, pp. 159-160,
Office of the County Clerk, Colorado County, Texas, The Colorado County Citizen, December 13, 1928, and
Minutes of the City Council of Columbus Book 10, pp. 2339-2344, 2451-2453, 2454-2457, Archives of the
Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus.
25 See Commissioners Court Minute Book 14, pp. 264, 441-442, Deed Book 104, pp. 607-608,
Deed Book 123, p. 78, and Slide 12 and Slide 22 of Plat Records, Office of the County Clerk, Colorado County,
Texas, and Minutes of the City Council of the City of Columbus Book 7, pp. 1692-1697, Archives of the Nesbitt
Memorial Library, Columbus, Texas.

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