Page 24 - Senior Link Magazine Summer 2021- Online Magazine

Local
History

AMHERST, TEXAS

A SMALL TOWN BIG HEART

WITH A

by June Heim paving, which still exists,

was a layer of brick from
8th Street to 11th Street on
mherst, Texas, Main and was completed
once known as in 1930. Streetlights were
A“The Pick of installed, and City Hall
the Plains & Heart of was built in 1945. Halsell
the Irrigation District”, Land Co. provided
is located about a mile buildings for a school in
off US Hwy 84, about 1923 and paid the teachers’
half-way between salaries that year.
Lubbock, Texas and
Clovis, New Mexico. Early in 1924, Amherst
residents organized the
According to the first Amherst Independent
historical marker The first permanent building, the School District. Trustees were
located near the Amherst City Hall, Amherst Hotel, was known as the elected, and bonds for a school
the town began in 1913 when it most popular hotel between Clovis building were voted on. At that
was a cattle-shipping point on the and Lubbock. It also housed the time, it was reported that Amherst
Pecos & Northern Texas Railroad. It first general store which opened had 100 school children and three
served the 300,000-acre Springlake in 1923, the Post Office (1924), and teachers, but when the bonds
Ranch, which was established in the First National Bank (1925). were voted on, 250 children were
1902 by W. E. “Colonel Bill” Halsell Unfortunately, the Amherst expected the following year. A
and his son, Ewing. According to Hotel caught fire and burned in $50,000 bond was considered a
local tradition, the shipping point September 1952. Fortunately, the reasonable cost for the proposed
was named for Amherst College, bank had already moved to a new new school building. Over the years,
Massachusetts, alma mater of one of location. It remained First National the building has been renovated
the railway officials. Bank for many years, until it was and added onto multiple times,
sold to First State Bank, becoming a
In 1923, the economy of the High branch of the Shallowater bank. and Amherst has been proud of its
Plains began to switch from school for many generations.
ranching to farming, so the Halsells An election to incorporate the South Plains Hospital, the first
divided much of their land to City of Amherst was held January co-operative hospital in Texas, was
sell to the influx of new settlers. 19, 1925, and a Waterworks Bond built in 1940. It, too, was added onto
Farms could be purchased for $25/ election was held in August that several times and became one of the
acre. The Halsells set aside land year, with a bid of $50,000, by a most popular hospitals in the area,
at the railroad depot for a town company in Oklahoma. It was with membership fees costing $12 a
and donated lots for a school and approved, and the project was year for a farmer, $18 for a couple,
churches. completed in January 1926. The first

Amherst ISD, built in 1924 Amherst ISD, current day.

24 Lubbock Senior Link