Editing Milano, Texas (section)

==History==
The [[International-Great Northern Railroad|International-Great Northern Railroad Company]] laid out the original site of Milano in 1874, about a mile and a half west of the city's present site. A [[United States]] [[post office]] opened there the same year.  Soon, a [[Baptist]] [[Church (building)|church]] was also established in the area. The community around Milano became a [[Electoral precinct|voting precinct]] in 1880.<ref name="Handbook of Texas">{{cite web | author=Smyrl, V.E | title=Milano, Texas | work=The Handbook of Texas Online, Texas State Historical Assoc. (June 6, 2001) | url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hlm66 | accessdate=2007-07-14}}</ref>

[[Image:Hudson Store in Milano-TX.jpg|thumb|left|230px|Hudson Store in Milano, Texas (c. 1900)]]
Local sources offer several possibilities for the origin of the name "Milano." One story suggests that the town was simply named after [[Milan, Italy]], because of similarities in the climate, but truly, the climate of [[Milan]] in [[Northern Italy]], is cold and continental; another says that the name was supposed to have been "Milam," but the [[United States Post Office Department]] either got it wrong or changed it intentionally because another Milam, Texas, already existed.<ref name="Handbook of Texas"/>

Nevertheless, when the [[Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway|Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad Company]] built the section of track between [[Brenham]] and [[Belton, Texas|Belton]] in 1881, it established the town of Milano Junction at the railway's intersection with the International-Great Northern, about two miles east of Milano. As the focus of social and economic life shifted to the new town, Milano became "Old Milano" and Milano Junction became Milano. By the late 1880s, Milano was a commercial hub, with 500 residents, and served as a shipping point for cotton and hides produced in the area. [[Truck farming]] became an important industry for Milano in the 1920s, with [[tomato]]es, [[watermelon]], and [[cantaloupe]]s as the principal crops.<ref name="Handbook of Texas"/>

The small city of Milano reached its population peak in 1939, when approximately 920 residents were reported to be living there. The number of local residents began to decline in the early 1940s, and fell to a low of 380 by the early 1970s, before beginning to grow again in the late 1970s. By the time Milano was finally incorporated in the early 1980s, the city officially had 468 residents.<ref name="Handbook of Texas"/>