Pattison, TX

Pattison is a Waller County city at FM 1458 and FM 359, about 35 miles west of Houston. James Tarrant Pattison built a plantation on a hill in 1839, and the family later donated land and a railroad right-of-way for a townsite. The Texas Western Narrow Gauge Railroad arrived in 1877, shipping mostly cotton toward Houston and helping Pattison grow into a regional stop. The railroad closed in 1899, and the town’s later history includes the 1900 Galveston hurricane, electricity reaching the community in 1930, and incorporation in 1972.

That railroad-and-school history still shows up around town. The original Pattison school buildings now house Royal Independent School District administrative staff and an alternative education program, while the district’s campuses serve communities across southern Waller County. The James Tarrant Pattison homesite sits along FM 359 near the Royal Early Childhood Center, marking the plantation and stagecoach-stop chapter. The 2020 census counted 547 residents. Pattison is a small city with a very legible past: a family land grant, a cotton-shipping railroad, a school district that grew out of consolidation, and a town government that arrived after the rail era had already passed.