Celeste, Texas

Quality 0.50 · 1 view · Updated 2 months ago

title: "Celeste, Texas" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["dallas–fort-worth-metroplex", "cities-in-texas", "cities-in-hunt-county,-texas"] topic_path: "geography" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celeste,_Texas" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::data[format=table title="Infobox settlement"]

Field	Value
official_name	Celeste, Texas
settlement_type	City
image_skyline	Celeste November 2015 1 (U.S. Route 69).jpg
image_caption	U.S. Route 69 in Celeste
image_map	TXMap-doton-Celeste.PNG
mapsize	250px
map_caption	Location of Celeste, Texas
image_map1	Hunt County Celeste.svg
mapsize1	250px
subdivision_type	Country
subdivision_name	United States
subdivision_type1	State
subdivision_name1	Texas
subdivision_type2	County
subdivision_name2	Hunt
unit_pref	Imperial
area_footnotes
area_total_km2	3.48
area_land_km2	3.48
area_water_km2	0.00
area_total_sq_mi	1.34
area_land_sq_mi	1.34
area_water_sq_mi	0.00
population_as_of	2020
population_total	809
population_density_km2	auto
population_density_sq_mi	auto
timezone	Central (CST)
utc_offset	-6
timezone_DST	CDT
utc_offset_DST	-5
elevation_footnotes
elevation_ft	653
coordinates
postal_code_type	ZIP code
postal_code	75423
area_codes	903, 430
blank_name	FIPS code
blank_info	48-13672
blank1_name	GNIS feature ID
blank1_info	2409420
::

History

Like many towns in Hunt County, Celeste was a product of railroad development. The townsite was platted in 1886 by the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway 3 mi north of Kingston, on open prairie already crossed by the Missouri, Kansas and Texas line. This location was chosen in order to ensure that Kingston, whose elected officials had refused to offer incentives to attract the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe to build through their community, would be bypassed by the line as it put down tracks from Paris through Farmersville to Dallas. ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/Celeste,Texas(ca._1905-1909).jpg" caption="Sanger Street (circa 1905–09)"] ::

Celeste was named for the wife of a Santa Fe official. The two rail lines stimulated rapid growth. A post office opened in Celeste in 1886, and a number of merchants moved their businesses from Kingston to Celeste. By 1888 three churches were holding services in the settlement. The population by the mid-1890s stood at 600, and the community maintained three gristmills and cotton gins, a bank, a weekly newspaper, and a graded public school. Celeste was incorporated in 1900, and its population increased from 671 that year to 850 on the eve of World War I.

By 1914 the community had two banks, three cotton gins, a water works, an ice factory, and a weekly newspaper, as well as some thirty-five other businesses. It reported a population of 1,022 by 1926. Its high school and two elementary schools registered 500 students. Some fifty business establishments, including two banks and a newspaper, were in operation. After the 1920s, however, the population of Celeste fell from 803 in 1933 to 518 in the mid-1960s; businesses correspondingly declined, from thirty to sixteen. After the 1960s the town revived; in 1976 its population was 745. In 1982 the community, where World War II hero Audie Murphy once lived, had a bank, four churches, ten stores, and a school that enrolled 300 students. The population was 733 in 1990 and 817 in 2010.

Geography

Celeste is in northwestern Hunt County along U.S. Route 69, which leads northwest 40 mi to Denison and southeast 12 mi to Greenville the Hunt county seat. According to the United States Census Bureau, Celeste has a total area of 2.9 km2, all land.

Demographics

| 1890 = 250 | 1900 = 671 | 1910 = 821 | 1920 = 1022 | 1930 = 803 | 1940 = 730 | 1950 = 729 | 1960 = 588 | 1970 = 736 | 1980 = 716 | 1990 = 733 | 2000 = 817 | 2010 = 814 | 2020 = 809 | footnote = U.S. Decennial Census | align = right | align-fn = center

2020 census

As of the 2020 census, Celeste had a population of 809. The median age was 32.0 years, with 27.6% of residents under the age of 18 and 10.9% of residents aged 65 or older. For every 100 females there were 95.4 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 92.1 males age 18 and over.

0% of residents lived in urban areas, while 100.0% lived in rural areas.

There were 293 households in Celeste, of which 46.8% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 44.7% were married-couple households, 17.7% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 31.1% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 27.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 14.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

There were 338 housing units, of which 13.3% were vacant. Among occupied housing units, 63.5% were owner-occupied and 36.5% were renter-occupied. The homeowner vacancy rate was 3.6% and the rental vacancy rate was 4.4%.

::data[format=table title="Racial composition as of the 2020 census{{cite web|title=2020 Decennial Census Redistricting Data (Public Law 94-171)|url=https://api.census.gov/data/2020/dec/pl?get=NAME%2CP1_001N%2CP1_003N%2CP1_004N%2CP1_005N%2CP1_006N%2CP1_007N%2CP1_008N%2CP1_009N%2CP2_001N%2CP2_002N%2CH1_001N%2CH1_002N&for=place%3A13672&in=state%3A48|website=United States Census Bureau|year=2021|access-date=January 27, 2026|df=mdy}}"]

Race	Percent
White	82.1%
Black or African American	4.2%
American Indian and Alaska Native	0.7%
Asian	0%
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander	0%
Some other race	2.6%
Two or more races	10.4%
Hispanic or Latino (of any race)	11.7%
::

Education

The city is served by the Celeste Independent School District and is home to the Celeste High School Blue Devils.

Notable people

Clint Lorance (born 1984), Army officer convicted of second-degree murder for battlefield deaths; pardoned
Audie Murphy, the most decorated soldier in World War II, was born 4.5 miles south of Celeste

Notes

References

"2019 U.S. Gazetteer Files". United States Census Bureau.
"U.S. Census website". [[United States Census Bureau]].
{{GNIS. 2409420
[https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hlc16 Texas State Historical Association], CELESTE, TX The Handbook of Texas Online
"Geographic Identifiers: 2010 Census Summary File 1 (G001): Celeste city, Texas". U.S. Census Bureau.
"Census of Population and Housing". Census.gov.
(2021). "2020 Decennial Census Demographic Profile (DP1)".
(2023). "2020 Decennial Census Demographic and Housing Characteristics (DHC)".
(2021). "2020 Decennial Census Redistricting Data (Public Law 94-171)".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::