The City of Baytown will celebrate its 60th anniversary on January 24th, 2008. The City will be serving cake at City Hall, 2401 Market Street, beginning at 5:00 PM and the public is invited to attend.
The area of Baytown was settled as early as 1822. An early resident was Nathaniel Lynch, who set up a ferry crossing at the junction of the San Jacinto River and Buffalo Bayou. The ferry service that he started, Lynchburg Ferry, is still in operation today. Other early residents of the Baytown were William Scott, one of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred, and Ashbel Smith, a plantation owner.
Baytown originally consisted of three separate communities. The first community was Goose Creek, named for the creek where Canadian Geese wintered. The community of Pelly was founded in the late 1910s and the community of East Baytown was founded in the early 1920s. The "East" in East Baytown was later dropped because the community was located west of Goose Creek.
Serious talk of merging the three communities started soon after the end of World War I, but the community of Baytown was opposed to this idea. In 1947, the three communities agreed to consolidate into one city. The citizens settled on the name Baytown for the new combined city. Baytown as it is known today was officially founded through a referendum on a City charter passed by voters on January 24, 1948.
The Baytown City Council hopes that the citizens will join in the celebration of this event.