In July of 1954 a wealthy surgeon from River Oaks named Dr. Hampton Robinson, Jr. started buying large tracts of land near the community of DeWalt Texas. He was very well familiar with the area, as his father was a cattleman and lifelong resident of Missouri City. His mother was from the DeWalt family and had grown up in the old family plantation house that was located just south of the DeWalt Cemetery. Most of the land Dr. Robinson purchased was owned by descendants of the Dew family, who was once headed by Dr. Hugh Dew, a physician. However, Dr. Dew's main interest was not medicine, it was building the Dew Brothers Company. During the course of many years in the early 1900's, he accumulated massive amounts of property in Fort Bend County and used it for sugar cane, cotton, and cattle. Over the years the land was divided and was passed on to his family. Two of the these descendents that Dr. Robinson bought property from were Ruth Lalley and Jesse Dew Agnew. His goal when buying the land was to acquire ".... enough acreage in the area for its future development by others as a first class residential subdivision, with among other things, recreational facilities, customary sized residential lots and commercial reserves." When he purchased the property it was being used primarily for ranching. After acquiring it, he continued the ranching operation and also made many improvements. The first big one on his newly proclaimed Robinson Farm was a Palm Springs, California inspired mansion located on what is now Hampton Drive. This desert style house, with its flat roof and expansive layout, was designed by modern architect William F. Cody and completed in 1958. It took about 1.5 years to construct, with materials such as the stone exterior being sourced as far away as Santa Maria, California. At the time it was built, it was meant to serve only as a summer or weekend home. Other improvements to the Robinson Farm included a massive tree planting. About 1500 live oaks hand were hand dug from Pleak, Texas and planted in 1961 and 1962. These oaks can be still found today following the path of Hampton Drive. Dr. Robinson also constructed a small one story house and a horse stable by the lake on what is now Thunderbird Street. For many years the house was occupied by his brother, Joe Robinson. As early as 1959, Dr. Robinson started meeting with developers about the idea of developing a golf course on this selective property. The first group was the Houston Golf Association, along with their consultant - a former pro golfer and coach named Henry Ransom. The second was a group of developers/investors led by golfing legend Ben Hogan. Hogan and the investors even took a hayride tour of the property during the mid 1960's, but the deal failed. It made it all of the way to the final closing, but fine print was never worked out and the agreement wasn't reached. The third party involved James "Mac" MacNaughton and R.W. Carey, also known as Mac-Carey Properties. After negotiating with Dr. Robinson, they finalized the purchase of about 750 acres which was to become the new subdivision of Quail Valley. In May 1969 they also bought out several other smaller landowners including a Houston dentist named Mack Daughtery, who had a 40 acre horse ranch and house at what is now Cartwright and Oak Hill Drive. However, the family did not sell their home site and barn, and the neighborhood was built around it. Mac-Carey also purchased about 69 acres from Walter and Lillie Dew Brinkman. For years the couple operated a large chicken egg farm along Oyster Creek, close to what is now Quail Valley Middle School . At its peak, the Brinkman Egg Farm was home to over 30,000 egg-laying chickens. Within a few months of these transactions, Quail Valley became the first master-planned community in Fort Bend County when the plat for the El Dorado section of Quail Valley was approved by Missouri City on October 16th, 1969.
