Sugar Land History

Sugar Land’s roots can be traced back to Stephen F. Austin’s original Mexican land grant. Samuel M Williams, one of Sugar Land's founding fathers, was one of the first settlers of the land called “Oakland Plantation”, named after the many different variety of oak trees on the land. Nathaniel Williams, Samuel’s brother, purchased the land in 1838, then operated the plantation by growing cotton, corn and sugarcane. In 1953 the plantation was purchased by Benjamin Terry and William J Kyle. Terry named the town Sugar Land. Upon Terry and Kyle’s death the 12,500 acre plantation was purchased soon after the Civil War by Colonel E H Cunningham and the town was developed in 1879 around Cunningham’s sugar refining plant.

In 1908 Cunningham Plantation including it’s raw sugar mill and cane-sugar refinery was purchased by Isaac H Kempner and William T Eldridge, owners in partnership of the 5,300 acre Ellis Plantation, one of the few plantations to survive the Civil War in Fort Bend County. The partnership was then named Imperial Sugar Company, the name was associated by Kempner with the Imperial Hotel in New York City. After many harsh winters at the turn of the century most of the sugarcane crops were destroyed. Eldridge then moved to the site as General Manager to build the company-owned town of Sugar Land.

From the 1910s through 1959 Sugar Land was a self-contained company town. Imperial Sugar Company provided housing for the workers, constructed schools, a hospital and businesses needed by the city’s population. Many of the original homes built by Imperial Sugar Company remain today in The Hill and Mayfield Park.

In the 1950’s in an effort to expand the town, Imperial Sugar created Venetian Estates, featuring Oyster Creek waterfront homesites.

Sugar Land continued to expand establishing a municipal government and becoming a general law city. In 1959 T E Harman was voted the first Mayor of Sugar Land. Shortly thereafter, Sugar Land began to grow, developing it’s first contemporary affordable housing subdivision, Coventry Woods.

In 1968 a developer purchased the 1200 acre Imperial Cattle Ranch and created what is now known as Sugar Creek, Sugar Land’s first master planned community introducing country club and golf course living.

The success of Sugar Creek encouraged a new standard in the development of Sugar Land. In 1977, Sugar Land Properties Inc created a new 10,000 acre master planned community, First Colony and would continue for the next 30 years. Around the same time First Colony was being developed another master-planned community emerged in the northern portion of Sugar Land named Sugar Mill.

With this amazing growth, throughout the 1980’s, Sugar Land began attracting the attention of major corporations. Some of the first corporations to make Sugar Land their home were Flour Daniel, Schlumberger, and Unocal. The new commercial movement resulted in a 40/60 ratio of residential to commercial tax base with Sugar Land.

In 1981, a charter was adopted and approved by the voters establishing a municipal government, known as a mayor-council government. All powers of the City were invested in a Council composed of a mayor and five councilman. Amendments to this charter were approved in 1986 by a majority of voters to change the form of government from “mayor-council” to that of a “council-manager” form of government.

In 1986 Sugar Land began annexations and extending it extraterritorial jurisdiction across the Brazos River. The first master-planned community to be annexed was Sugar Creek and the first of its extraterritorial jurisdiction was the master planned community of Greatwood.

Sugar Land was considered one of the fastest-growing communities in the nation throughout the 1990’s.

The over one million square foot First Colony Mall opened in 1996 substantially increasing its tax base. In 1997 Sugar Land annexed First Colony master-planned community, bringing the population close to 60,000. In 1998 a new 428 acre master-planned community, Avalon, was developed offering lake-side living.

With the results of the US Census 2000, Sugar Land boasted the highest growth among Texas’ largest cities with a population of 63,328 and 2004 forecasted estimate of 73,721.

In 2002, as a need for a higher education facility to be located within the city, the University of Houston System at Fort Bend moved to it’s new 250 acre campus located at University Blvd and US Highway 59. This multi-institution teaching center was named University of Houston System at Sugar Land.

In 2002 a general land plan was approved for a new master-planned community located in the extraterritorial jurisdiction of Sugar Land, Riverstone. The 2,800 community will feature a golf course, country club and a Brazos River 500 acre park.

2018 acres of prison land in the western portion of Sugar Land was sold by the Texas Department of Transportation to the developer Newland Communities in 2003. The newest Sugar Land master-planned community is Telfair. Telfair in the heart of Sugar Land and is now projected to be completed by December, 2009. Telfair was annexed by Sugar Land in 2004, extending the city limits to the west and ensuring Sugar Land’s control of the overall quality of development.

In 2005 Sugar Land annexed several master-planned communities, Avalon and four section of Brazos Landing and is negotiating with Greatwood, New Territory, River Park, Tara Colony, and Tara Plantation. These annexations will bring the city proper’s population to approximately 120,000.beautiful lakes, parks and trails – even a world-class museum. beautiful lakes, parks and trails – even a world-class mm.