Savoy, TX

Savoy is a Fannin County city at U.S. Highway 56 and Farm Road 1752, ten miles west of Bonham, on the old Missouri Pacific line. The town was established around 1863 and received a post office in 1873. Its most distinctive early institution was the Savoy Male and Female College, opened in 1876 as one of the first coeducational academic institutions in North Texas; the school admitted local students and Native American students from reservations in Oklahoma. The Texas and Pacific Railway then made Savoy an agricultural shipping center for cotton, corn, grain, and other farm products.

A tornado destroyed much of Savoy in 1880, yet the town rebuilt into a trading point with cotton gins, stores, gristmills, hotels, churches, and schools. Savoy's present municipal offices and police department moved into the old medical clinic building in 2011, and Savoy ISD remains the local school system. The 2020 census counted 712 residents. The rail line, farm shipments, and the college's educational history give Savoy a deeper civic story than its current size suggests.