Sugar Land was once a company town where groceries came out of the paycheck

The Williams brothers opened a raw-sugar mill on Oyster Creek in 1843. From 1906 to 1908, Isaac Kempner and William Eldridge bought the plantations and sugar company around it. They turned the isolated operation into an Imperial Sugar company town.

The company reached deep into daily life. Imperial and Sugarland Industries built homes, streets, utilities, churches, schools, and medical facilities. They owned the stores and bank, and workers could pay for food, clothes, or even a car through payroll deductions.

The company began selling its homes, businesses, and land in 1958. A year later, 480 residents turned out on a cold, rainy December day to elect Sugar Land's first city officials. In 2025, the city bought the nearly 40-acre former mill site and its century-old Char House. The old company center is now public property.