Piney Point Village

 

In 1824, John D. Taylor received a land grant from Stephen F. Austin for a league centered on "pine point," at the southernmost turn of Buffalo Bayou.  Taylor's house became known as Piney Point.  In February 1844, the Board of Roads and Revenues of Harris County approved a public road from Houston to Piney Point and from there to the county line.  By this time Taylor had long since died and the Piney Point property was now owned by Buckman Canfield, a wealthy New Yorker who became the overseer of the public road.  Hardly a community, Piney Point was a welcome light on the wagon trail from Houston for the early settlers of Texas.  This is the story of the 170 years of near continuous occupation of that stopping place called Piney Point.

In 1994, the City of Piney Point Village sits in the shadow of Houston, the fourth largest city in the nation.  But in 1824 when Taylor selected his "pine point" league, Sam Houston had yet to begin his fight for Texas' independence from Mexico.  Houston was not founded until independence was won in 1836.  Our research does not tell us why John Taylor selected his league of land at a location so distant from the others.  It may have been due to its resources of water and timber or its natural location as a stopping place between John Harris's settlement of Harrisburg and Stephen F. Austin's headquarters in San Felipe de Austin. Taylor's League encompassed the land that today would stretch west from just east of Voss Road to near Strey Lane and north from just below Westheimer Road to Taylorcrest. The City of Piney Point Village is within the boundaries of the Taylor League, excepting the northeasternmost portion (including Marchmont Subdivision and Wilding Lane).