Most of Port O'Connor was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1992. Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1952 on, and the census since 1980.
Port O'Connor was laid out in the late 19th century as a fishing settlement called "Alligator Head". As it grew in popularity with both permanent residents and tourists, the community took on more municipal characteristics, earning the formal designation finally in 1909 as the town site of Port O'Connor. It was named after its main landowner at the time, Thomas M. O'Connor, son of Thomas O'Connor, who owned 70,000 acres (280 km2). Aside from local cattle raising and fishing, the town was also a producer of figs and citrus fruit.
Its initial population growth spanned the years 1909 to 1919. Excursion trains ran on weekends to Port O'Connor, and an estimated 10,000 tourists came every summer.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Port O'Connor. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1952Port OConnor sheet · 1:24,000
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Port O'Connor.
Then & now
Stand where they stood
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Retake this viewPort O'Connor, Texas. House of shell construction, built about 1850 by Irish settlers, 1943
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Port O'Connor’s page.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From the Library of Congress (3), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1943
1943
