Village opening years, pools, parks and village centers
When Each Village in The Woodlands Opened, and Its Pools, Parks and Village Centers
Updated November 2026
Which villages in The Woodlands are the oldest and newest, and what pools, parks and village centers does each one have?
In November 2026, Grogan's Mill (1974) remains the oldest village in The Woodlands and Creekside Park (2007) the newest, each designed to include a village center with a grocery store.
Paige Martin, Houston Properties Team, The Woodlands
Source: Visit The Woodlands, the official visitor guide: History of The Woodlands, November 2026.
Which village in The Woodlands is the oldest, and which is the newest?
Grogan's Mill is the oldest. The official visitor guide, Visit The Woodlands, says it opened in 1974, the same year as The Woodlands grand opening.
Creekside Park is the newest village on that list, opening in 2007. The developer's timeline from Howard Hughes gives the same year.
The visitor guide sets out the order in between. Panther Creek followed in 1976, then Cochran's Crossing and Indian Springs, both in 1984. Alden Bridge opened in 1994, College Park in 1995, Sterling Ridge in 1999 and Carlton Woods in 2000.
The opening year belongs to the village as a whole. Ask the seller or the listing for the year a particular house was built.
Which Township pools are in which villages?
The Woodlands Township's pool list ties each pool to a village. Sawmill Pool is in Grogan's Mill, with a traditional swim area and sprayground features. Forestgate Pool is in Indian Springs, with a large swim area, a shallow entry and park space beside it.
Lakeside Pool is in Alden Bridge, with lap lanes, slides and a shallow water play area. Wendtwoods Pool in Creekside Park has a zero-depth entry, a slide and lap lanes. A park with a playground and picnic areas sits near it.
Those pools run from the oldest village, Grogan's Mill, to the newest, Creekside Park.
Which parks does the Township list in Sterling Ridge and Alden Bridge?
The Township's parks directory places Bantam Woods Park in Sterling Ridge, with playgrounds, BBQ pits, pavilions, swings and picnic areas. Artist Grove Park, also in Sterling Ridge, lists swings, BBQ pits, play areas and picnic tables among its features.
In Alden Bridge, the directory lists Alden Woods Park. It has play areas, courts, picnic spots and a fishing area.
What is in a Woodlands village center, and when did the newer ones open?
The visitor guide says each village was designed to include village centers with a grocery store, restaurants and local businesses such as nail salons and boutiques.
Howard Hughes dates two of the newer centers. Sterling Ridge Village Center opened in 2001, two years after the village itself. Creekside Park Village Center opened in 2015, anchored by an H-E-B.
The same timeline describes Creekside Park Village Green there. It holds retail, dining, services and a village green for leisure and entertainment.
How can the village dates and amenities shape one house-hunting trip?
Before you travel, note the pool, park and village center closest to each address on your shortlist. The Township's pool list and parks directory name the village each one sits in.
Plan a stop at the nearest village center and pool on the same day as the house tours. Ask for each house's year built beside its village's opening year.
Then confirm the county, utility district and covenant set from the parcel's own records before an offer. Paige Martin of Real Broker, LLC reads a lot's paperwork, from its utility district to the county line, before anyone writes an offer.
Questions & answers
The Woodlands questions, answered
Which county is each village of The Woodlands in?
Montgomery County, for every village but one. Visit The Woodlands, the official visitor guide, places all the villages in Montgomery County with the exception of Creekside Park, which is in Harris County. Alden Bridge, Carlton Woods, Cochran's Crossing, College Park, Grogan's Mill, Indian Springs, Panther Creek and Sterling Ridge are all on the Montgomery County side of the line.
The county line moves the tax bill more than anything else. For tax year 2025, a Creekside Park home paid about $2.44 per $100 of value in all. Homes in the Montgomery County villages paid about $1.69 to $1.89. Creekside Park's bill carries Harris County's units, an emergency services district and Harris-Montgomery Counties MUD 386. The parcel's appraisal district account settles the county for one address. Most Woodlands parcels are on the Montgomery Central Appraisal District's rolls, and Creekside Park parcels are on the Harris Central Appraisal District's. Both accounts can be read online, so check yours before the trip.
Is the Grogan's Mill Village Center being renovated?
A renovation began there on August 5, 2024, according to Howard Hughes, the developer of The Woodlands. Its timeline describes the work as revitalizing the first village center in The Woodlands. Grogan's Mill is also the village the official visitor guide names as the first one in the community.
If the grocery store and shops near a house matter to your choice, see the center in person on the day you tour. A photo taken before the work began may not match what stands there now. Sawmill Pool, on the Township's pool list, sits in the same village, so both can share a stop on one trip.
How many parks and trails does The Woodlands have?
The Woodlands Township's own figures count 150 parks and 220 miles of hike and bike trails across the community. The Township runs parks and recreation itself, along with the fire department, contracted trash and recycling service and the covenants. It is funded by property and sales taxes, and its own tax rate is the same in Montgomery and Harris counties.
The Township adopted $0.1694 per $100 of value for 2026, down from $0.1714 for 2025. For most Woodlands homes, that rate sits on the bill beside the county, the school district and a utility district. To judge how close one house is to a trail or a park, study the map around the address before you travel. Then see the setting in person during the visit.
Who founded The Woodlands, and when?
The developer George P. Mitchell founded The Woodlands in 1974, as a master-planned community about 27 miles north of downtown Houston. Its first village, Grogan's Mill, opened alongside the community that year, according to the official visitor guide. The Woodlands is governed today by The Woodlands Township, a special-purpose district, instead of by a city.
The Township says it took its current role in 2010, gathering services that homeowner associations and special-purpose districts had delivered before. On November 2, 2021, voters turned down making The Woodlands a city, 16,431 to 7,932 on Proposition A in the unofficial count (Community Impact). Law enforcement and roads stay with Montgomery and Harris counties. Utility districts handle water, sewer and drainage.
Do all houses in one Woodlands village pay the same tax rate?
Not always. Several villages are split among two to four utility districts, and the district is the rate that changes from section to section inside a Montgomery County village. For tax year 2025, the shared units there came to $1.6513 per $100 of value. District rates on top ran from $0.0424 in MUD 36 to $0.24 in MUD 39.
So neither a village's name nor its opening year settles a lot's rate. Read the list of taxing units on the parcel's appraisal district account, which shows every unit that taxes the house. Woodlands Water's online map will also place an address in one of its districts. Its own note says the boundaries are approximate and should be confirmed with the district.
Which school district serves each village of The Woodlands?
Conroe ISD serves every part of The Woodlands except two areas, according to the footnotes on the developer's 2025 tax sheet. Creekside Park, the village in Harris County, is in Tomball ISD. May Valley, an area the sheet lists on its own rather than as a village, is in Magnolia ISD.
Each district sets its own campus attendance zones and can change them. Confirm the campuses for one address with the district itself, since a mailing address or ZIP code does not settle the district. With a fixed start date, make that check before you write the offer. The option period in a Texas resale contract lets a buyer end the contract for any reason after paying the option fee.
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