Before Austin: Tracing The Legacy Of Texas’ Former Capitals

If someone were to ask you "what's the capital of Texas", your answer would most likely be "Austin". And you'd be correct. but back then, that wasn't always the case. No we've seen a myriad of different cities take the role of being Texas' capital before we finally gave Austin the title.

How many cities were the capital of Texas had before Austin?

To answer this question, we have to go back to the times BEFORE Texas became part of the United States. In 1824, Stephen F. Austin would establish the first capital of the state called, San Felipe de Austin. It would hold this position until 1836. when Texas would see its 2nd capital: Washington-on-the-Brazos.

Shortly after that, Texas would have 3 additional cities be considered the capital: Harrisburg, Galveston, Velasco...they would become the capital of Texas before West Columbia became the site where Sam Houston was inaugurated president on October 22, 1836. Around this time, West Columbia became the 6th capital city for Texas before Sam Houston would move to Houston on December 15, 1836.

For a while Houston WAS favored but the marshy conditions wasn't favored by the people. The living conditions and environment in Austin were favored by Mirabeau Lamar, who was the president of Texas in 1839, so they decided to make Austin the PERMANENT capital city of Texas. In 1844, it was made official and since then, Austin has been the capital ever since. You can read more about each capital's history here.

So there we go. Texas went through 7 different cities before finally making Austin its capital. In total: the state has changed its capital, 8 times. It'll most likely never happen again. But if for some reason it DOES...well I know many cities could be ready to take that position of being Texas' capital.

If you want to read another story of Texas' unique history, you can read about how we were a part of the UK BEFORE we became part of the United States here.

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