---
title: "Save the Town Square"
html: https://savetownsquare.com/
part_of: "Keep It Texas (https://keepittexas.org/)"
last_checked: 2026-11-08
---

# Save the Town Square

> Early draft — we're just getting started. Pages marked 'sketch' are outlines.

*A Keep It Texas project. Town Square, not Times Square.*

[Go to Keep It Texas](https://keepittexas.org/) | [Read the book](https://keepittexas.org/book/kl-0201.md)

## Town Square, not Times Square

Times Square is a place you visit once in a long while, if ever. You go to look at it.

A town square is where you live. It is where you get a haircut, eat Tex-Mex, see a movie, and buy feed and hardware. The people behind the counter are your neighbors, and the businesses are owned by neighbors too.

When outside money buys the buildings and the businesses, and a square slowly becomes a row of franchises, that is Times Square creeping in.

> **Our opinion.** This is what we think, not a finding of fact. Outside owners are not villains, and some are good for a town. We just think neighbors should be able to see who owns the places that make a square a square.

## What we are doing

We are mapping who owns the businesses on and around Texas town squares, from public records. We go county by county. Texas has 254 counties, more than any other state, so this will take a while.

Each business gets one of four colours. Every colour will link to the public record behind it.

- **Green.** The owners live in the same county as the business.
- **Yellow.** The owners are in Texas, but in another county.
- **Red.** The owners are out of state.
- **Grey.** Not confirmed yet. Most places start here.

We never guess. If we cannot show the record, the place stays grey.

We will also walk each square with our own street photos. Faces and licence plates are blurred before we keep anything. We plan to redo each square every year, so you can see what changed.

## First square: Hallettsville (Lavaca County)

**Coming soon.** Hallettsville is the county seat of Lavaca County, and its courthouse stands in the middle of the town square. It is our first square. Nothing is mapped yet, so every place starts grey.

(The HTML page shows an illustration of a made-up courthouse square, not Hallettsville's real map. It uses no real businesses and no real data. Every building in it is grey.)

## How you can help

- [Read the Keep It Texas book](https://keepittexas.org/book/kl-0201.md). It is free, in plain words.
- [Tell your chamber of commerce](https://keepittexas.org/resources.md). Our resources page has a way to find yours.
- More ways to help are coming soon.

There is nothing to sign up for. This site has no forms and collects nothing.

[Back to Keep It Texas](https://keepittexas.org/)

## Sources

- [Texas Historical Commission Atlas, Lavaca County Courthouse (Hallettsville)](https://atlas.thc.texas.gov/Details/5285003050)
- [City of Hallettsville, local historical information (county seat)](https://cityofhallettsville.org/local-historical-information/)
- [Wikipedia, List of counties in Texas (254 counties)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_counties_in_Texas)

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Save the Town Square · a Keep It Texas project · keepittexas.org