Kyle is a city in Hays County, Texas, United States. Its population grew from 28,016 in 2010 to 45,697 in 2020, making it one of Texas' fastest-growing cities. It is part of the Greater Austin area.
History
As part of railroad expansion along the International-Great Northern Railroad (I&GN), railroad tycoon and entrepreneur, Jay Gould, found an opportunity for additional revenue between the cities of Austin and San Marcos which were lined with cotton fields and livestock farms. Originally, the line railline was to cross over to Mountain City, located three miles (4.8 km) north of Kyle, but when addressing with his secretary, Ira Evans, it was seen as more cost effective to build a straight track from Austin to San Marcos which went right through the private lands of Fergus Kyle and his wife, Anne Moore. Following an agreement between the I&GN and the Kyle and Moore families for $1 and the enhanced value of the developed land of 200 acres.
The rights to the track through Kyle was then sold to the Texas Land Company, which would be in charge of plotting the town, who then sent a surveying party and filed plans with the county clerk for the town on September 7, 1880. The town originally consisted only of 6x3 city blocks for both commercial and residential zoning as well as a combination train depot and separate cotton platform along the tracks. The first lots were sold at an auction on September 25 under the now historically designated 'Auction Oak' with the railroad offering free rides and food for attendees from Austin.
The new town drew residents and businesses from Mountain City as well as Blanco, four miles (6.4 km) west, as well as independent farmers and ranchers in the county. Tom Martin operated the first business in Kyle as a saloon-meat market combination, the first of four saloons to open in the town's inaugural year. Other founding families like the Nance and Wallace families would open a cotton gin and lumberyard not long after, and by 1883 the population exceeded 500, growing to over 700 by the first census the town participate in, but would later decline during the Great Depression and ensuing Dust Bowl.
Kyle was incorporated in 1928 as a general-law city with a mayor and five council members. In 1937, Mary Kyle Hartson, daughter of Fergus Kyle, was elected mayor by a write-in vote. Hartson, after winning election again in 1944, would serve as mayor as part of an all-woman city council and making Kyle the only Texas town with an all-woman government.
From 1892 to 1901, Kyle was the childhood home of Pulitzer Prize–winning author Katherine Anne Porter. Many of her most famous short stories, such as "Noon Wine", are set in locations in and around Kyle. Her former home is now a writer's residence open to the public by appointment. The Katherine Anne Porter Literary Center hosts readings by visiting writers.
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File:Kyle Townsite Plat - 1880.png|Kyle Townsite Plat of 1880
File:Kyle Auction Oak 2015.jpg|Auction Oak
File:Katherine Anne Porter Literary Center 2018.jpg|The Katherine Anne Porter Literary Center
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Geography
Kyle is in eastern Hays County and is bordered to the south by San Marcos and to the northwest by Mountain City. Kyle is southwest of downtown Austin and northeast of San Antonio on Interstate 35.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of , of which is land and , 1.06%, is covered by water. The Blanco River runs through the western side of the city, while the central and eastern parts of the city drain east to Plum Creek. Both waterways are tributaries of the San Marcos River.