The county seat of Hill County, Hillsboro (originally spelled Hillsborough), was incorporated in 1881. The St. Louis, Arkansas and Texas Railway reached the town in 1888 and the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway in 1903. The railroads helped expand Hillsboro’s markets for cotton processing and related industries, and cotton sustained the town until the late 1940s. Processing of cattle and dairy products partially replaced the declining cotton industry. Hillsboro is now a retail and service center to surrounding small communities. Hill Junior College is one of the oldest municipal junior colleges in Texas. In 1981, Hillsboro became one of the state’s first five Main Street Programs, a collaboration of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Texas Historic Commission, which supported a significant revitalization effort on the courthouse square.
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