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The town is a descendant of a plantation run by Jared E. Kirby, a former Confederate Colonel. The plantation was named Alta Vista and was one of four in the area. After the death of her husband in 1867, the cash-strapped Mrs. Kirby converted her plantation home into the Alta Vista Institute, a boarding school for women.
In the mid-1870s, she moved the school to Austin and sold the land to the State of Texas. In 1876, the Texas Legislature established the first higher-learning public institution for Blacks in Texas. The agricultural and mechanical training school opened in March 1878 on the grounds of the old plantation. The original eight students departed from the program within days; however, by a new act of the Texas Legislature (April of 1879), the Prairie View Normal and Industrial Training School was opened, which evolved into Prairie View A&M University.
Image by DALL-E