Faith and family bring Bellville together
Between Houston and Austin, Bellville, Texas, is a faith- and family-oriented small town attracting residents looking to live in a tight-knit community. “Life in Bellville circles around schools, kids’ sports, churches and church activities,” says lifelong resident Reesa Ueckert, a broker for 1851 Properties. “It’s kind of Mayberry-like. Everybody cares about everybody. If somebody’s sick in the hospital, somebody will put together a barbecue fundraiser, and the men will stay up all night barbecuing chicken in the Catholic church, and hundreds of people will buy a plate.” The town showed this level of solidarity recently after the loss of Virginia Hollis, an eight-year-old Camp Mystic camper and victim of the 2025 Kerr County flood. “You would’ve thought we were having a county fair parade,” she says. “Hundreds of people lined the street, and the whole town was covered in green ribbons for her. It’s a great town.”
Farmhouses, ranch-style and New Traditional homes
Bellville has a mix of farmhouses, ranch-style and New Traditional homes, most of which sit on at least an acre. “You can have chickens in Bellville,” Ueckert says. “When the town was laid out, all the lots were really big, so you can have goats and chicken in town.” She notes that Bellville has grown significantly in recent years, with new housing continuing to be built to meet demand. “COVID really boosted Bellville,” she says. “People were getting out of Houston. With work from home, a lot of people were able to get out in the country. We’ve added four subdivisions in the last seven or eight years. Before that, we had maybe two.” Prices for single-family homes in Bellville vary greatly, starting around $200,000 and getting as high as $4.5 million.
Learning in Bellville Independent School District
Students in Bellville can attend schools in Bellville Independent School District, which gets an overall B-plus grade from Niche. “We have an excellent school district,” Ueckert says. “The whole community is involved in it. We have pep rallies on the square, things like that.” O’Bryant Primary School and O’Bryant Intermediate School get B-minus grades, Bellville Junior High School receives a B, and Bellville High School gets a B-plus. Bellville High School’s career and technology programs include FFA, construction technology and culinary arts. Bellville is also home to Faith Academy of Bellville, a private Christian school for preschool through high school students with a C-plus grade from Niche.
City parks, baseball and golf
Margaret Chesley Memorial Park – known by locals as the “mini park” – is a scenic outdoor space with a playground, picnic tables and a gazebo. City Park hosts events throughout the year like festivals, antique shows and family cookouts. Clark Park has sports fields amidst wooded rolling hills, and residents spend a lot of their spare time here since “Baseball’s big, and softball’s big,” according to Ueckert. Bellville is home to the nearly 100-year-old Bellville Golf and Recreation Club, a member-owned nine-hole golf course.
A historic downtown filled with local businesses
Bellville has a charming historic downtown with late-1800s buildings filled with local businesses. The town has a Brookshire Brothers for groceries and Bellville Meat Market, which is “world-renowned for its sausage,” according to Ueckert. “People come from everywhere to go there,” she says. Popular local restaurants include Newman’s Bakery, a pastry shop partnered with Newman’s Castle, a tourist attraction and real-life castle just outside the city, and Trump Burger of Bellville, a burger joint that celebrates and sells merch for the current president. Bellville also has fast-food chains in town like Dairy Queen, Sonic Drive-In and Subway for a quick bite to eat.
Between Houston and Austin
Bellville, Texas, is 64 miles west of Houston and 104 miles east of Austin. The town is home to CHI St. Joseph Health Bellville Hospital, so residents have convenient access to medical care. The closest airport options are George Bush Intercontinental Airport, 70 miles east, and Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, 98 miles west.
