Thurber, Erath County
This area of Thurber developed after 1917, when the Texas and Pacific Coal Company expanded into the burgeoning oil industry following W. K. Gordon's discovery of the Ranger oil field. Renamed in 1918, the Texas Pacific Coal and Oil Company brought staff for its new oil division to Thurber from New York. Thirty-one houses were built here on New York Hill. Church Street climbed the hill from town, as did sidewalks and brick steps, some of which were still visible decades later. The buildings on the hill were removed in the 1930s when the company town was dismantled. (1995)