Tyler Firsts
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The drawer, decade by decadeFrom the 1840s to the 2020s

1840s

  1. Smith County’s commissioners’ court meets for the first timeFirst · 1846
  2. The state’s inventory counts five courthouses in TylerBeginning · 1846–1955
  3. Tyler is authorized as a county seatBeginning · April 11, 1846
  4. Smith County holds its first electionFirst · August 8, 1846
  5. The county’s first court session meets in a log cabinFirst · December 1846
  6. A log courthouse, Tyler’s first civic buildingFirst · 1847
  7. Tyler gets its first post officeFirst · 1847
  8. Commissioners lay out the town around a squareBeginning · February 6, 1847
  9. Marvin Methodist, called the first church in Smith CountyClaimed first · 1848
  10. First Baptist Church of Tyler is organizedBeginning · April 8, 1848
  11. The Masons, Tyler’s first fraternal orderFirst · 1849

1850s

  1. Tyler’s oldest recorded school: four boys, west of townFirst · About 1850
  2. Tyler is incorporatedBeginning · January 29, 1850
  3. A female seminary opens, later Charnwood InstituteBeginning · 1851
  4. The Tyler Telegraph, the county’s first newspaperFirst · 1851
  5. The 1852 courthouse, whose bricks went into later onesBeginning · 1852
  6. The Methodists’ Sunday school, called “the first”Claimed first · 1852
  7. Oakwood Cemetery’s oldest marked graveBeginning · 1852
  8. Tyler University opens as a Baptist academyBeginning · 1852 or 1853
  9. The first try at a railroad: a charter, and no trackFirst · 1854
  10. The first brick buildings in Smith CountyFirst · 1855–58
  11. The first known record of a Disciples of Christ churchFirst · 1859

1860s

  1. Camp Ford becomes a prison campBeginning · July 21, 1863
  2. Missionary work begins what becomes Christ Episcopal ChurchBeginning · 1866–67
  3. The first school for Black children in the Tyler areaFirst · Late 1860s
  4. Murphey the Jeweler opens at Ferguson and BroadwayBeginning · January 1868

1870s

  1. Bonner and Williams, Tyler’s first bankFirst · 1870
  2. First Presbyterian Church is organizedBeginning · 1870
  3. St. James CME Church is organizedBeginning · Probably 1870
  4. The Tyler Tap Railroad is charteredBeginning · December 1, 1871
  5. Second Colored Baptist Church, today’s True Vine, is foundedBeginning · 1872
  6. The first railroad reaches TylerFirst · 1873–74
  7. Gas lamps light the squareBeginning · January 1873
  8. Tyler’s first fair, as the city’s survey dates itClaimed first · 1875
  9. Christ Episcopal Church builds its first churchBeginning · 1876
  10. The new Court of Criminal Appeals sits in TylerBeginning · 1876
  11. The Governor Hubbard brings in the Tyler Tap’s first trainBeginning · October 1, 1877
  12. The first recorded sale of rose plants near TylerFirst · 1879
  13. The railroad puts its shops and hospital in TylerBeginning · 1879

1880s

  1. Tyler’s Catholics become a parishBeginning · 1880
  2. Smith County’s fourth jail goes upBeginning · 1880–81
  3. Tyler’s first fire departmentFirst · 1882
  4. Tyler Colored High School, called the first known Black schoolClaimed first · 1882
  5. Tyler’s first public school opensFirst · 1883
  6. Voters approve a water plant on Victory LakeBeginning · 1883
  7. Land is bought for a Jewish cemeteryBeginning · 1884
  8. By 1885: a waterworks, an opera house and an ice factoryBeginning · 1885
  9. Tyler’s first ice factory, as the city’s survey tells itClaimed first · 1886
  10. The Grande Opera House opensBeginning · 1887
  11. Moore Grocery, Tyler’s first wholesale groceryFirst · 1887
  12. Congregation Beth El is foundedBeginning · 1887
  13. Calvary Baptist, the first known white suburban churchFirst · 1888
  14. The Cotton Belt’s hospital for railroad workersBeginning · 1888
  15. Electric light comes to TylerBeginning · 1888
  16. West End Negro School, Tyler’s first public school for Black childrenFirst · 1888
  17. Cedar Street Methodist is organized as Tyler City MissionBeginning · September 1888
  18. Savas Xydias, one of Tyler’s first Middle Eastern residentsBeginning · 1889
  19. St. James CME, the oldest surviving Black church building in TylerBeginning · Likely 1889–91

1890s

  1. Horace Chilton, Texas’ first native-born U.S. senatorFirst · 1891
  2. A brick church called the first in Texas built by Black TexansClaimed first · 1891
  3. Patterson’s 5 Acre, a subdivision for Black buyersBeginning · 1892
  4. Hispanic families appear in the city directoryBeginning · 1893
  5. The Lake Bellwood dam, one of the earliest of its kindBeginning · 1894
  6. Texas College opens with six studentsBeginning · 1894
  7. Telephone service comes to TylerBeginning · 1896
  8. Congregation Ahavath Achim is formedBeginning · 1898
  9. The Cotton Belt, called the first Southwest railroad to burn oilClaimed first · 1898
  10. Moving pictures are shown in Tyler for the first timeFirst · March 1898
  11. Five women’s clubs start a subscription libraryBeginning · 1899
  12. Tyler Commercial College files its charterBeginning · 1899

1900s

  1. The Tyler Chamber of Commerce is createdBeginning · 1900
  2. The East Texas Conservatory of Music opensBeginning · 1902
  3. The Carnegie Library, Tyler’s first public library buildingFirst · 1904
  4. A Baptist academy opens, later Butler CollegeBeginning · 1905
  5. Texas College organizes its first college-level classBeginning · 1905
  6. Red brick goes down on Tyler’s streetsBeginning · Early 1900s
  7. Sarah Bernhardt plays the Grand Opera HouseBeginning · April 2, 1906
  8. W. C. Stallings, the nation’s first agent for a single countyFirst · November 12, 1906
  9. Tyler becomes a cityBeginning · 1907
  10. The Tyler Gas Company begins supplying gasBeginning · 1908
  11. Smith County builds a three-story courthouseBeginning · 1909
  12. J. J. Ray, Tyler’s first police officerFirst · 1909

1910s

  1. The city runs a public hospitalBeginning · 1910
  2. The East Texas Fair Association is foundedBeginning · 1912
  3. The city’s first known money for parksFirst · 1912
  4. The Tyler Elbertas, a minor league team named for a peachBeginning · 1912
  5. The city council approves buying Bergfeld ParkBeginning · June 21, 1913
  6. Tyler Traction runs its first streetcar, to the fairBeginning · September 1913
  7. The first train carload of rose bushes shipsFirst · 1917
  8. Voters fund the county’s first paved roadsFirst · 1919

1920s

  1. Emmett Scott High School is completedBeginning · 1920
  2. Spanish surnames multiply in the city directoriesBeginning · The 1920s
  3. The Dixie Highway, the county’s first hard-surface roadFirst · 1921
  4. Citizens National Bank builds Tyler’s first “skyscraper”First · 1924
  5. Martin Hall goes up at Texas CollegeBeginning · 1924
  6. The Tyler Trojans join the East Texas LeagueBeginning · 1924
  7. Tyler Junior College opens at Tyler High SchoolBeginning · September 17, 1926
  8. Wood T. Brookshire opens a grocery on the squareBeginning · September 1, 1928
  9. The fair’s first “Colored Day,” after a petitionFirst · September 27, 1928
  10. Maurice Shamburger plants the first azaleas along Lindsey LaneFirst · 1929
  11. The Tyler Morning Telegraph debutsBeginning · November 14, 1929

1930s

  1. Tyler adopts its first city planFirst · 1931
  2. Radio station KGKB moves to TylerBeginning · 1931
  3. The first producing oil well in Smith CountyFirst · March 1931
  4. Tyler’s airport opens on Highway 64Beginning · May 1931
  5. People’s Bank raises a 15-story towerBeginning · 1932
  6. Texas College is accredited as a four-year collegeBeginning · 1932
  7. The Woman’s Building is completedBeginning · 1932
  8. Margaret Copeland is crowned the first Rose QueenFirst · 1933
  9. The first rose festival opens in TylerFirst · October 11, 1933
  10. Tyler Barber College, called the country’s first for African AmericansClaimed first · 1934
  11. Dr. Archie S. Senate moves his practice to East ErwinBeginning · By 1934
  12. Tyler Pipe, an iron foundry, dates to 1935Beginning · 1935
  13. Church women start a day care for low-income familiesBeginning · 1936
  14. Sam Greenberg’s smokehouse, the start of Greenberg TurkeysBeginning · 1937
  15. Mother Frances Hospital opens a day earlyBeginning · March 18, 1937
  16. The Mayfair Club opens for the Queen’s BallBeginning · 1938
  17. Live rose bushes fill the Rose Show for the first timeFirst · 1938
  18. City Hall, the first building to hold all the city’s officesFirst · 1938
  19. The Blackstone Building holds Tyler’s first union bus terminalFirst · February 1938

1940s

  1. The Ella Reid Library, once the Negro Public LibraryBeginning · About 1940–41
  2. The city’s survey dates Tyler’s first Black officers to the 1940sClaimed first · The 1940s
  3. An Army Signal Corps school trains at Tyler Commercial CollegeBeginning · April 1942
  4. Construction begins on Camp FanninBeginning · December 1, 1942
  5. Prisoners of war arrive at Camp FanninBeginning · October 1943
  6. Voters create a separate junior college districtBeginning · November 1945
  7. Delta flies from Tyler againBeginning · 1946
  8. Texas College houses a campus of Tyler Junior CollegeBeginning · 1946–66
  9. The Tyler Foundation and a rose research foundation startBeginning · 1946
  10. Camp Fannin becomes a tuberculosis sanatoriumBeginning · 1947
  11. The Apache Roses perform for the first timeFirst · September 27, 1947
  12. The first Black attorney to try a case in the county courthouseFirst · 1948
  13. Bergfeld Center, called Tyler’s first suburban shopping centerClaimed first · 1949
  14. First water fills the original Lake TylerFirst · January 12, 1949

1950s

  1. Tyler Civic Theatre opens a building for theatre in the roundClaimed first · 1951
  2. The Tyler Municipal Rose Garden officially opensBeginning · 1952
  3. KLTV Channel 7 signs onBeginning · October 14, 1954
  4. Elvis Presley plays the Mayfair ClubBeginning · 1955
  5. Andrew Melontree Sr., a first in the hospital laboratoriesClaimed first · 1956

1960s

  1. Downtown trade declines for the first timeFirst · The 1960s and 1970s

1970s

  1. Judge Justice rules that Texas must desegregate its schoolsBeginning · 1970
  2. A federal judge orders Tyler’s schools desegregatedBeginning · July 27, 1970
  3. Tyler State College is foundedBeginning · 1971
  4. The chest hospital joins the University of Texas SystemBeginning · 1977
  5. Plyler v. Doe begins in TylerBeginning · September 6, 1977

1980s

  1. Andrew Melontree Sr., the county’s first Black commissionerClaimed first · 1982
  2. Adopt-a-Highway starts in TylerFirst · March 9, 1985

1990s

  1. Herb Hayter, the police department’s first minority supervisorFirst · 1995
  2. Charnwood becomes Tyler’s first National Register historic districtFirst · August 20, 1999

2000s

  1. JoAnn Hampton, in her words the first Black woman commissionerClaimed first · January 1, 2003
  2. Barbara Bass, Tyler’s first woman mayorFirst · May 2008
  3. Heritage Neighborhood No. 1, Tyler’s first local historic overlayFirst · December 11, 2009

2010s

  1. Stanley’s neon sign, called the first in Tyler to get a markerClaimed first · 2011

2020s

  1. Viva La Rosa brings a quinceañera float to the Rose ParadeBeginning · 2022
  2. The UT Tyler School of Medicine seats its first classFirst · July 2023
  3. The East Texas State Fair adds its first PRCA-sanctioned rodeoFirst · 2025

Undated

  1. Bethlehem First Baptist, Tyler’s first Black Baptist congregationFirst · Undated
  2. The Cotton Belt, called the first railroad to go all dieselClaimed first · Undated
  3. The Douglas Addition, the first with a park and curving streetsFirst · Undated
  4. McDonald Lorance, Tyler’s first mayorFirst · Undated
  5. Budding roses on dog-rose stock, called a first for local nurserymenClaimed first · Undated
  6. Gustavo Ramirez, as of 2019 the only Hispanic elected to the councilClaimed first · Undated
  7. Ira Brown, called Tyler’s first Black policeman in a headlineClaimed first · Undated
  8. KLTV calls its founder the first woman to own and operate a TV stationClaimed first · Undated
  9. Quincy Beavers, Smith County’s first Black judgeFirst · Undated