Hitchcock was created as a station of the railroad between Galveston and Houston in 1873 and around the turn of the 20th century, it became a vegetable shipping center.

The settlement's economy crashed in the 1930s after insect plagues in the surrounding areas, and the area stayed impoverished until the establishment of Camp Wallace[4] an anti-aircraft training base and the Naval Air Station Hitchcock at the beginning of World War II.

After the end of the war, the bases were used as discharge centers, and some former soldiers settled in the area.

[5] The Galveston County Fair & Rodeo began in 1938 and was held at facilities in Runge Park in Arcadia.

The director of community development, D. Joe Wood, stated that bankruptcy was a possibility in the post-Hurricane environment.

[8] As of the 2020 United States census, there were 7,301 people, 2,880 households, and 2,021 families residing in the city.

[16] Each year Juneteenth is celebrated in the Stringfellow Orchards, a 9.5-acre (3.8 ha) complex previously owned by a slave owner.

In 2004, the site had not been previously maintained, but John Collins discovered it in 2004 and, with his wife Doris, later purchased it.