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The Magnolia Standard
The Magnolia Standard Issue 06 · June 2, 2026

Issue 06

Published June 2, 2026 · Bilingual edition

One road, old to new. This edition follows FM 1488 — the corridor turning into Magnolia's main street — through the people and places along it. A directory of the road's churches, from an 1838 Methodist congregation to a 2020 church plant. A cafe that kept its sloping floors and its zombies. The former high school principal who wrote a book on being a dad. A friendly argument over where old Magnolia ends. And the harder look at the growth filling it all in. Celebrate first. Then weigh it.

Faith & Community

The Churches of FM 1488: From Old Magnolia to New

A road map of faith on FM 1488 — from a Methodist congregation that started in 1838 and a Baptist church with roots in 1850 to a plant that launched in 2020, with the big campuses, a cowboy church, and a Lutheran congregation that meets in a funeral home in between. Who they are, where they meet, and the service times each one keeps.

Read the directory →

Business · Magnolia 100

Magnolia 100: The Treehouse Cafe

The floors slope, there are tortoises in the yard and zombies in the windows, and you can rent the treehouse out back. A retired wine-and-spirits man and his wife bought it in 2020 and kept every bit of its strangeness on purpose — then started donating a share of every plate to Folds of Honor.

Read the profile →

Community · Hometown Heroes

The Principal Who Wrote the Book on Being a Dad

Dr. Jeff Springer ran Magnolia High School for 14 years and was named Texas Principal of the Year. Then the former football coach turned to fathers — founding a men's ministry at Wildwood UMC on FM 1488 and writing Dad Prep, a 52-week guide to the job he says matters most.

Read the story →

Magnolia Life · You Decide

Where Is Old Magnolia, and Where Is New Magnolia? You Decide.

Everybody in town has a line in their head between old Magnolia and new — and no two agree on where it is. A lighthearted field guide to a town that was Mink's Prairie before it was Magnolia, and an H-E-B parking lot before some folks were ready.

Draw your line →

Civic Watch · Two Views

FM 1488 Is Becoming Magnolia's Main Street. Can the Town Keep Up?

A 95,000-square-foot grocery, a 3,000-acre community, a billion-dollar town center — the corridor is filling in fast. One side: the stores, jobs, and tax base Magnolia has wanted for years. The other: the schools, drainage, and water bills that arrive late and land on the household. Both arguments, same page. You decide.

Read both views →

Coming next

More Magnolia 100 profiles, more churches added to the FM 1488 directory, and the county budget season as it opens in June.

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