Sienna, Texas

History

The Sienna subdivision is on land that previously operated as a sugar and cotton plantation, which relied on enslaved labor during the 19th century. The land was purchased in 1840 by Jonathan D. Waters, a South Carolina planter, who developed it into a working plantation along the Brazos River. Like many plantations in Texas at the time, it depended on enslaved people for agricultural production until the abolition of slavery in 1865.

In 1872, Houston businessman Thomas W. House acquired the property, followed by former Houston mayor Thomas H. Scanlan in 1913. The Scanlan family later entrusted the land to the Scanlan Foundation, which benefited the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Galveston–Houston. From the 1950s until 1972, the Cenacle Sisters operated the Cenacle Retreat on the property as a religious retreat center.

In the 1970s, developer Larry Johnson founded the Johnson Development Corporation and began planning the transformation of the area into a master-planned community. In 1978, the initial development phase started, including single-family homes, roads, and a 10-mile-long levee for flood protection. However, the project stalled during the economic downturn of the 1980s.

From the History section of Sienna, Texas on Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA 4.0.