To modern-day Texans, Kyle is best known as the Pie Capital of Texas. And with a festival dedicated to that very distinction, it’s a badge of honor the town wears proudly. To Kyle’s earliest residents, however, the town was known less for pie and more for its proximity to the railroad.
Kyle’s Early Beginnings
The founding of Kyle dates back to 1880 when David E. Moore and Fergus Kyle (who would inspire the town’s name) set aside 200 acres for a new townsite along the International and Great Northern Railroad’s newly built line from Austin to San Antonio. Sitting square between Mountain City and Blanco to the west and San Marcos to the south, made Kyle an ideal location for new residents and businesses.
Within two years, the new town had a population of 500 residents – though it would take 80 years for Kyle to double its population to 1,000 residents. During that time, Kyle was home to Pulitzer Prize-winning author Katherine Anne Porter, and many of her short stories would take place in Kyle.
Kyle in the 20th Century
As Kyle grew, it was home to businesses such as a meat market, hotel, saloon, and other establishments aimed at providing for the needs of travelers. The epicenter of activity for many decades was the Kyle Railroad Depot, which caught fire in 1916 and burned to the ground. A new depot was built the following year and continued operating until 1965.
Another unique aspect of Kyle’s early days is that in the 1940s Kyle was noted as the only Texas town with an all-woman government. This even caught the attention of Life magazine, which named mayor Mary Kyle Hartson, the great-granddaughter of founder Fergus Kyle, the only female mayor in the state; she was in her 70s at the time.
Up through the rest of the 20th Century, Kyle remained a relatively small Texas town with a population of just over 5,000 residents in the year 2000.
Kyle Today
Whereas Kyle was a sleepy railroad town a hundred years ago, today it’s one of the fastest growing cities in Texas with a population of over 57,000.
This exponential growth has been a spillover from overall growth in Central Texas, and with it, many jobs and new businesses have come to Kyle. Both Lowe’s and Amazon have built a major distribution center here just in the last few years.
The city has also seen its landscape change with more business and retail centers, neighborhood developments, and the newly created Vybe Trail. When completed, the 80-mile paved path will connect to all neighborhoods in Kyle and open up the city like never before.
From its earliest beginnings through today, Kyle continues to draw people who come for a visit and find themselves planting down roots as residents.
If you’d like to find a home in Kyle, reach out to the Crosswinds team to learn more about our available inventory of homes.