The US 90/Old Spanish Trail passes through downtown Flatonia as North Main Street, paralleling the Southern Pacific railroad tracks which splits the US 90 into North and South Main streets. North and South Main are divided further into East and West segments by the TX SH 95, because Flatonia's downtown is so sprawlingly huge and complex that you need that kind of directional assistance (not).
The old Flatonia Post office was established in this building in the 1870s. It served as the city's post office until a new post office was built across the street in 1970. The old post office building is now used for retail, but is still located at 116 East South Main, a block off the OST. Anyone wanting to pick up or mail a letter, or any tourist who wanted to send a post card of their travels to the folks back home would have had to travel on the OST in order to stop in here.
From the NGS Datasheet: (
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"AX1285 DESIGNATION - L 121
AX1285 PID - AX1285
AX1285 STATE/COUNTY- TX/FAYETTE
AX1285 USGS QUAD - FLATONIA (1982)
AX1285
AX1285 *CURRENT SURVEY CONTROL
AX1285 ___________________________________________________________________
AX1285* NAD 83(1986)- 29 41 11. (N) 097 06 27. (W) SCALED
AX1285* NAVD 88 - 141.09 (+/-2cm) 462.9 (feet) VERTCON
AX1285 ___________________________________________________________________
AX1285
AX1285_MARKER: DB = BENCH MARK DISK
AX1285_SETTING: 36 = BRICK PILLAR
AX1285_STAMPING: L. 121. 1933
AX1285_STABILITY: B = PROBABLY HOLD POSITION/ELEVATION WELL
AX1285
AX1285 HISTORY - Date Condition Recov. By
AX1285 HISTORY - 1933 MONUMENTED CGS
AX1285 HISTORY - 1943 GOOD NGS
AX1285 HISTORY - 1988 GOOD USPSQD
AX1285 HISTORY - 19970607 GOOD USPSQD
AX1285
AX1285 STATION DESCRIPTION
AX1285
AX1285''DESCRIBED BY NATIONAL GEODETIC SURVEY 1943
AX1285''IN FLATONIA.
AX1285''BENCH MARK IS SET VERTICALLY IN THE CENTER OF THE NORTH FACE OF A
AX1285''BRICK PILLAR BETWEEN THE TWO NORTH ENTRANCE DOORS OF THE POST OFFICE
AX1285''AT FLATONIA. IT IS ONE BLOCK SOUTH OF AND ACROSS THE TEXAS AND NEW
AX1285''ORLEANS RAILROAD TRACK FROM THE CENTERLINE OF U.S. HIGHWAY NO. 90, 4.2
AX1285''FEET ABOVE THE TOP OF THE BOTTOM STEP OF THE NORTH ENTRANCE OF THE
AX1285''POST OFFICE AND IN THE CENTER OF THE PILLAR. A DISK SET IN A DRILL
AX1285''HOLE.
AX1285
AX1285 STATION RECOVERY (1988)
AX1285
AX1285''RECOVERY NOTE BY US POWER SQUADRON 1988 (DLP)
AX1285''RECOVERED IN GOOD CONDITION.
AX1285
AX1285 STATION RECOVERY (1997)
AX1285
AX1285''RECOVERY NOTE BY US POWER SQUADRON 1997
AX1285''RECOVERED IN GOOD CONDITION."
From the Drive the OST website: (
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"The Old Spanish Trail Highway in Texas
By Hugh Hemphill, author of "San Antonio On Wheels"
and "The Railroads of San Antonio and South Central Texas."
The concept of the first Southern transcontinental highway was begun in Mobile, Alabama. In 1915 civic leaders in the Gulf coast city announced plans for a better road to the Atlantic. At the same time, cities in Texas began to float ideas for improved access to New Orleans. In what became a series of annual conventions following the meeting held in Pensacola, Florida in 1916, a very grand vision arose for a continuous highway from the Atlantic at St. Augustine in Florida to the Pacific in San Diego California, a distance of 2,817 miles. While this does not exactly match the route of the modern IH 10 interstate, which runs from Jacksonville, Florida, to Los Angeles, California, it is fairly close and certainly demonstrated remarkable foresight at a time when there did not yet exist one hundred miles of continuously paved highway in the whole of Texas. . .
San Antonio was not originally included in the route proposed by the OST. Instead it was to go through the growing cities of Dallas and Fort Worth. A large delegation from San Antonio packed the 1919 OST conference in Houston and rectified the situation from the city’s point of view. San Antonio even assumed leadership of the OST within the state. . . .
As the Old Spanish Trail Highway progressed from Houston to San Antonio the route never strayed too far from the main Southern Pacific railroad tracks. . . . The OST did deviate from the railroads if counties along the way offered greater participation. Gonzales County did just that and so the OST swung south between Flatonia and Seguin, avoiding Luling at the southern tip of Caldwell County. . . . Being near the new main highway brought an additional advantage to railroad access."