Houses, wells and water
Frame houses in town, wells and pressure tanks on the acreage
One of the oldest towns in the county, ringed by farms that make their own water supply.
Florence was settled in the early 1850s, went briefly by Brooksville, and had a post office under its current name by 1857. A short rail line served it from 1912 to 1935. The town still has a core of older frame houses, with farm and ranch acreage spreading out on every side.
Where an older frame house sits on piers, the supply and drain lines run through the crawlspace. That makes them easy to reach for a repair, but it also leaves them open to cold air. Galvanized lines and mixed patches from past repairs are common in houses this age.
Water here has a groundwater story. Until 2014 the Trinity Aquifer was the town's only source of drinking water, and much of the rural land around it still runs on private wells. That well water is hard, so it scales water heaters, softener valves and faucet cartridges quickly.
A well system also has more parts to protect than a city meter: the well head, the pressure switch, the tank and the lines between them. Winter Storm Uri in February 2021 showed how quickly anything outside the house wall can freeze.
Local knowledge
SH 195, Georgetown water and a utility in transition
Who supplies the water matters when a leak sits near the meter.
SH 195 is the road in. TxDOT runs it from I-35 north of Georgetown northwest through town to Killeen, toward Fort Hood. The state has also designated a new alignment around Florence, with the old route becoming a business route.
Homes in the area have been on Georgetown water. In the February 2021 freeze, about 720 Georgetown water customers around Florence were the last to come off the city's boil-water notice. In May 2026 Georgetown voters approved selling the city's water territory around Florence, Liberty Hill and Salado to a private utility, pending state approval.
So check whose name is on the bill before you report a leak near the meter. Our calls here are steady. A pressure tank that short-cycles, a softener for a well, a scaled-up heater, a service line leaking between the road and the house.
