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Plano, Texas

Everything Plano is known for

7 songs mention this city 22 artists from here

RoadyGoat plays music like this when you drive through Plano. It's free on iPhone, and full songs play through Apple Music.

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Plano, Texas, a principal suburb of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, is home to a diverse array of musical talent. While not exclusively known as a music city, it has nurtured 22 artists across various genres. For instance, the metal band Polyphia and country artist Casey James both hail from Plano.

The city's connection to music is also captured in song, with six tracks mentioning Plano. Among these are "Plano Texas Girl" by Houston Marchman & The Contraband and "Plano" by sandy crow. Plano also has a thriving arts and culture scene, with venues like the Courtyard Theater and McCall Plaza regularly hosting live music events.

Music in Plano

Songs About Plano

Plano Texas Girl
Houston Marchman & The Contraband
81%
"TITLE"
Plano Texas Girl
Steve Wariner
81%
"TITLE"
Plano
Daddy Longhead
80%
"Song about Plano"
Plano
The Shortlist
80%
"TITLE"
Plano
sandy crow
80%
"Song about Plano"
glorieta
Matt Hillyer
9%
In the A
Big Boi
4%
"I go for broke like T.O."

Artists From Plano

P
Polyphia
metal
A
Absu
metal
T
Tim Henson
metal
C
Casey James
country
K
Kevin McHale
pop
Q
Quindon Tarver
pop
A
Ace Aura
electronic
A
Anson Funderburgh
blues
K
Kenton Duty
other
M
Morbid Scream
metal
D
Divine Eve
metal
M
Mark David Manders
country
M
Marsai Martin
other
X
X Opus
other
J
Jason Jobst
country
C
Chaz Marie
country
P
Proscriptor
metal
V
Voot Cha Index
other
O
Ossuarist
metal
O
OnceBefore
other

Showing top 20 of 22 artists · Hear more in the free iPhone app

Rivers & Roads in Song near Plano

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Plano.

Interstate 45 8 songs Trinity River 11 songs Interstate 20 13 songs Interstate 35 45 songs Sulphur River 2 songs Sabine River 13 songs

History of Plano

Burned to a Tent City, Then Burned Again RoadyGoat

Twice in fourteen years, fire nearly erased downtown Plano. On August 27, 1881, flames tore through the business district along what was then Mechanic Street, destroying around fifty-two buildings and leaving the town a tent city while merchants started over from ash. Plano rebuilt in brick and prospered through the 1880s, but the prairie wasn't done. In 1895 a second great fire swept the same district and took out about fifty-one businesses, including the dry-goods store Frederick Schimelpfenig had opened in December 1886, which had grown into the town's most successful mercantile. That brick mercantile building, built in the mid-1880s and standing today at 1017 East 15th Street, is one of the very few structures to survive the 1895 blaze, which makes it a rare physical link to the Plano that existed before the corporate boom. Schimelpfenig later served as the town's mayor. Walk the old downtown and you're walking ground that was reduced to cinders and rebuilt, twice. (Source: Handbook of Texas; Plano Heritage research.)

RoadyGoat →

The Trolley Stop That Became a Museum RoadyGoat

At 901 East 15th Street, beside Haggard Park, sits a modest brick building that was once Plano's window on the wider world. Built in 1908 for the Texas Traction Company, it served as the passenger depot and electrical substation for the Texas Electric Railway, an interurban line that ran self-propelled electric trolley cars from Denison south through Dallas to Waco. From here, on the hour from early morning to midnight, Plano residents could catch a car and ride across the Blackland Prairie to the big city without owning an automobile. The interurban era lasted until the line shut down in 1948, beaten by paved highways and the private car. The old depot then drifted into use as a bicycle and lawnmower repair shop until the City of Plano rescued and restored it, reopening it in 1991 as the Interurban Railway Museum. Today the Plano Conservancy runs it as a free museum, with exhibits on electricity, the railway, and the town it once connected to everywhere else. (Source: Interurban Railway Museum; Plano Conservancy.)

RoadyGoat →

When the Affluent Suburb Made National News for Heroin RoadyGoat

In the mid-1990s Plano was the picture of suburban success, an affluent, fast-growing town near the top of every best-place-to-live list. Then its teenagers started dying. A cheap, unusually pure black-tar heroin from competing Mexican and Colombian sources arrived in the area, marketed to local kids under the Spanish nickname chiva and sold for as little as ten or twenty dollars a hit. Because the drug was potent enough to snort rather than inject, it spread through a crowd that thought of itself as far from skid row: popular, athletic, middle-class students. Plano recorded its first heroin overdose death in 1995, and over the next few years roughly nineteen young people, mostly in their teens and early twenties, died. The wave drew national news precisely because of where it happened, and a federal crackdown on the trafficking ring ended in dozens of convictions and multiple life sentences. The crisis became a sober national lesson that addiction respects no zip code. (Source: WFAA; Texas Monthly; Dallas Observer.)

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Johnson, Samuel Robert, Jr.

1966

Samuel Robert Johnson, Jr. United States Air Force pilot, veteran of the Korean War, prisoner of war during the Vietnam War, and U. S. representative for Texas's Third Congressional District, was born on October 11, 1930, to Samuel Robert Johnson, Sr., and Mima (Nabors) Johnson in San Antonio, Texas. Johnson grew up in Dallas, Texas, and graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in 1947. After high school he attended Southern Methodist University (SMU), where he joined the Alpha Kappa Psi business fraternity and the Delta Chi social fraternity. Johnson married Shirley Lee Melton on September 1, 1950. The following year, in 1951, he graduated with a bachelor's degree in business administration. While at SMU, Johnson enlisted in the military. He served in the United States Air Force for twenty-nine years and flew sixty-two combat missions as a fighter pilot in the Korean War and twenty-five in the Vietnam War. While in training Johnson met future astronaut Buzz Aldrin. The two flew together in Korea and were lifelong friends. Aldrin later wore a silver POW bracelet engraved with Johnson's name during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969. Following his time in Korea, Johnson served as a flight instructor, training officer, and as director of the Air Force Fighter Weapons School in Nevada. He also flew with the Thunderbirds Aerial Demonstration Team in 1957 and 1958. While flying a bombing mission over North Vietnam in 1966, Johnson was wounded when the North Vietnamese army struck down his plane and captured him. He was taken to the Hỏa Lò Prison, nicknamed the "Hanoi Hilton." Johnson was one of eleven U. S. military prisoners, known as the Alcatraz Gang, that were separated from other prisoners because they were seen as leaders of prisoner resistance. They were held about a mile away at a special facility dubbed "Alcatraz" by the Americans. He was held as a prisoner of war for nearly seven years, forty-two months of it in solitary confinement at Alcatraz. Johnson was repeatedly starved and tortured, and the injuries that he sustained during his capture, including a broken right arm and back, were never properly treated. By the time of his release, on February 12, 1973, during Operation Homecoming, he weighed only 120 pounds, his right hand was disabled, and he walked with a permanent limp. Johnson remained in the U. S. Air Force, and in 1974 he earned a masters degree in industrial administration from George Washington University through an off-campus program for military officers. He subsequently served as the deputy commander for operations for the 4th Tactical Fighter Wing at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina, as wing commander of the 31st Tactical Fighter Wing at Homestead Air Force Base in Florida, and as air division commander at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, before retiring as a colonel in 1979. Johnson co-authored an air-tactics manual that was still in use at the time of his death. He recounted the details of his POW experience in his autobiography, Captive Warriors: A Vietnam POW's Story (1992). Following his retirement from the military, Johnson returned to Plano, Texas, and established a home construction business. In 1984 he ran for a seat in the Texas legislature. He narrowly defeated his Republican primary opponent, Brian McCall, by 267 votes in a runoff election. Johnson represented House District 60 from 1985 to 1991. He gave up his seat to run in the special election to fill the unexpired term of U. S. Representative Steve Bartlett, who resigned to run for Dallas mayor. One of twelve candidates, Johnson defeated Tom Pauken in a runoff to win his seat as representative for Texas's Third Congressional District. Taking his seat in Congress on May 8, 1991, Johnson soon earned a reputation as a one of the most conservative members of the U. S. House. A fiscal conservative who supported a strict construction of the U. S. Constitution, he championed lower taxes and small government. Johnson opp

Tsha Handbook → · 3.6 mi away

Harrington, Gladys Haggard Bishop

1950

Gladys Haggard Bishop Harrington, Plano civic leader, was born in Paris, Texas, on May 29, 1901, to Nannie Elizabeth (Haggard) Bishop, the daughter of early Plano settler Clinton Shepherd Haggard, and Thomas C. Bishop. She moved to Plano with her mother, sister Mary Elizabeth, and brother Clinton Conner after the death of her father in 1912 to be closer to relatives. Gladys Bishop married Fredrick Joseph Harrington on October 8, 1919, shortly after graduating from Plano High School. The couple lived on a farm located northeast of present-day Parker and Preston roads in Plano until the death of Fred Harrington in 1948. Gladys Harrington became one of the first female licensed drivers in Collin County after learning to drive the family's DeSoto automobile to attend church and club meetings in Plano. She made do with one summer dress and one winter dress throughout the Great Depression . Harrington moved into town in the early 1950s and designed her house on Avenue H near downtown Plano. About that time she began traveling widely and eventually visited every continent except Africa and Antarctica. Though she never attended college, Harrington is credited with creating the first public library to serve Plano and the surrounding communities. She became president of the Plano Federation of Church Women in 1953 and, with $60 and ninety-seven books, led the group in organizing a community free reading service. The federation ceased to exist in 1955, and Harrington spent the next several years working to sustain the book service and advocating the establishment of a permanent library in Plano. She persuaded individuals and groups to donate books, building space, and lumber; to build shelves; and to act as librarians for the start-up institution. Harrington taught herself the basics of library science and how to submit grant applications for funding. The city of Plano assumed financial responsibility of the library in 1965. On June 2, 1969, after a successful bond election, the city of Plano opened its first library building. It was appropriately named the Gladys Harrington Public Library. Harrington continued in her role as an education and literacy advocate throughout her life. She was a frequent visitor to area public school classrooms, where she encouraged children to explore the world through books. Harrington told hundreds of school children that they would never be lonely if they learned to read. In 2003 she was awarded an honorary associate of arts degree and named the first Living Legends recipient by the Collin County Community College District in recognition of her work launching the library. Harrington was an active supporter of the Republican party in Texas. Each election year during her more than thirty years as a Republican precinct chair, she personally visited every registered voter in Collin County's Precinct 23. Her son Fred Conner Harington was a founder of the Collin County Republican Men's Club and briefly served as mayor of Plano before his death in 1970. The following year Harrington organized a Collin County Republican women's club, named the Conner Harrington Republican Women's Club in her son's honor. She served as president of the club and was also president of the Plano Republican Women's Club. Harrington was also an active member of Plano's First Christian Church, where she served as a deaconess and Sunday school teacher. Harrington was a founding board member of the Plano Symphony Orchestra Association and an underwriter of the orchestra's Collin County Young Artist Competition. She was a founding member of the Plano Heritage Association and the Thompson Book Review Club. She was active in the Plano Chamber of Commerce, the Fine Arts League of Plano, the Plano chapter of the P.E.O. Sisterhood, the Daughters of the American Revolution , and the United Daughters of the Confederacy . She was also an honorary member of the Collin County Genealogical Society, the Plano Jaycee-ettes, and Beta Sigma Phi. Gladys H

Tsha Handbook → · 3.6 mi away

Saigling House

1881

The Houston & Texas Central Railroad brought access to agricultural markets and growth to Plano in the 1870s. Celestine (Pillot) (1854-1932) and Charles Frederick (C.F.) (1840-1906) Saigling moved from Houston to Plano in 1881 to pursue business opportunities in Plano and north Texas. C.F. Saigling was an active community and civic leader during his time in Plano. He established the C.F. Saigling Lumber Company, C.F. Saigling Planing Mill and the Saigling Milling Company. Saigling also served on the Plano city council (1884-1885), the first Plano school board and other organizations. Saigling Elementary School was named in his honor. Celestine Saigling was a longtime member of First Christian Church of Plano. In 1918, Celestine Saigling built this Craftsman style house designed by the Dallas architecture firm of Lang and Witchell. The notable firm designed high-rise office buildings, schools, department stores, courthouses, residences and other buildings in Texas in the early 20th century. The Saigling House is a two-story brick residence with a side-gabled roof. A full-width L-shaped porch supported by large square columns, removed sometime between 1935 and 1945 but later reconstructed, fronts the house. The design was among the first brick veneer houses in Plano. Celestine Saigling owned the house until her death in 1932. Her estate sold the property in 1935. Later notable resident included Dr. Oliver T. Mitchell and Fred Miers, a three-term mayor of Plano. Home to several prominent citizens, the Saigling House played a significant role in Plano's history and showcases one of the most popular early 20th century architectural styles. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2018

Historical Marker →

Muncey Massacre

1844

McBain Jameson and Jeremiah Muncey settled in this vicinity in 1840 and 1842. While hunting in late 1844, William Rice and Leonard Searcy came to Muncey's hut and found the savagely slain bodies of Jameson, Muncey, Mrs. Muncey, and a small child, and recognized signs of an Indian raid. The men sped out to their own sons, who were hunting nearby. Young Searcy was found safe, but Rice had been killed. Two Muncey boys disappeared, never to be found. Another was at Throckmorton settlement. That was the last tragic Indian raid in Collin county. (1976) Supplemental plaque added 1998: Historical marker relocated to this site in 1998. The site of the Muncey home and graves of the victims are approximately one mile northwest of this site.

Historical Marker →

Officer David Sherrard Memorial Highway

2018

Honors Richardson PD SWAT Officer David Sherrard, first Richardson PD line-of-duty death in the department's 63-year history, killed February 7, 2018, at the Breckinridge Point Apartments. Honorary segment on US-75 through Richardson.

Historical Marker → · 3.2 mi away

Richardson, TX

1858

Richardson, one of the largest small cities in Texas, is located about fourteen miles north of downtown Dallas on Central Expressway (U.S. Highway 75). The Red Line of the DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) light rail system parallels the highway. The majority of Richardson is located in northern Dallas County with a smaller portion in southern Collin County. Encompassing slightly more than twenty-eight-square-miles, Richardson has an irregular shape, bounded on the west, northwest, and south by Dallas, by Garland on the east and south, by Plano and Murphy on the north, and Sachse on the east. Several small streams, most notably Prairie, Spring, Duck, and Cottonwood creeks, flow through the city. Between 1841 and 1853 the land that makes up Richardson was part of the Peters Colony . In 1858 a small forerunner settlement, called Breckinridge in honor of U. S. vice president John C. Breckinridge, was established on land belonging to settler John B. Floyd, between present-day Richland College and Restland Memorial Park. Breckinridge, which consisted of a U. S. post office, a general store, a blacksmith shop, and an inn, was served by a Sawyer, Risher, and Hall stagecoach line ( see RISHER AND HALL STAGE LINES ). The settlement lasted until just after 1873, when the Houston and Texas Central (H&TC) Railroad bypassed it in favor of a new town, named in honor of H&TC secretary Alfred Stephen Richardson. For nominal sums, two local landowners, William J. Wheeler and Bernard Reilly, sold a combined 101 acres of land for the townsite in April 1873, but due to a deed record error, the first and subsequent maps of the town showed its size as 121 acres. Some sources have claimed that Wheeler refused to allow the town to be named for him, but this story is apocryphal. On June 23, 1873, the railroad trustees who purchased the townsite on the railroad's behalf dedicated a right-of-way through Richardson to the H&TC. The following year they sold the townsite to the railroad for the same price they had paid for the land. Soon after, the first town lot was sold. That same year, a school called the Patrons Institute, also known as the Wheeler School, was built just outside the town limits. During its first quarter century, Richardson grew slowly. Its business district consisted of one block adjacent to the railroad tracks and one block of Smith Street, the town's principal thoroughfare, now known as East Main Street. Richardson received a post office in 1874. In 1901, when drugstore operator Sam P. Harben launched the town's third and longest-running newspaper, the Richardson Echo , replacing the short-lived Richardson Register , there were only six businesses. Two were housed in brick buildings; the remainder in wood frame structures. The population at that time was under 150 people. Most of the Echo's first subscribers were area farmers who, following the Civil War , favored the cultivation of cotton over wheat, which before the war had been the area's principal crop. After the turn of the twentieth century, the town began to experience a much faster rate of growth, especially after 1908, when the Texas Traction Company's electric interurban railway , which connected Richardson to Dallas, Denison, and other points in North Texas, arrived. Its tracks ran parallel to those of the H&TC. Richardson had a population of 147 in 1904, but by 1925 it had more than doubled to 400. In 1900 the Richardson Independent School District (RISD) was established and built a new school to replace a previous structure that burned earlier that year, and in 1914 a larger, red brick schoolhouse, which subsequently served as the RISD's administration building, was constructed. In 1901 the Richardson Telephone Company was incorporated, and in 1904 the Citizens State Bank, the town's first financial institution, was opened. About 1907 a hotel was built, and in 1909, the same year in which the streets were graveled, developers began selling lots in the town's first additio

Tsha Handbook → · 3.3 mi away

Things to Do in Plano

historical 17.8 mi away
The Sixth Floor Museum

Where Lee Harvey Oswald fired from. The JFK assassination site at Dealey Plaza.
historical 17.8 mi away
Dealey Plaza

On November 22 1963 President John F Kennedy rode through Dealey Plaza in an open Lincoln convertible and was shot from the sixth floor window of the Texas…
quirky 17.0 mi away
Big Tex at the State Fair

A fifty-five-foot cowboy named Big Tex has welcomed visitors to the State Fair of Texas in Fair Park Dallas every fall since 1952. He booms howdy folks over a…
quirky 4.5 mi away
Southfork Ranch

The Ewing family TV mansion from the Dallas soap opera sits on two hundred acres in Parker Texas and is open for tours every day. JRs bedroom is there. The…
historical 7.4 mi away
Southfork Ranch

The filming location of TV's Dallas. JR Ewing lived here.
spooky 14.2 mi away
Lady of White Rock Lake

Since the 1930s drivers along White Rock Lake report picking up a soaking-wet woman in a white dress. She asks for a ride home then vanishes leaving the seat…
food 17.1 mi away
Pecan Lodge

Dallas' best BBQ. The beef rib alone is worth the drive.
day trip
Day Trip to Plano 🐎 FULL EPISODE (S15 E7) - Bison Burgers, Southfork Ranch, and "Fowling"

Featured on The Daytripper — a full-episode local travel guide.

Sports in Plano

⭐ HOMETOWN LEGENDS Class 3A · Baseball

Academy — Academy — a college & pro athletic pipeline

5 alumni who reached major-college or pro sports

Plano, Texas – Academy High School, a 3A powerhouse, has a proud tradition of developing athletes who excel beyond the high school level. Our hometown spotlight shines on several notable alumni who have gone on to compete in major college and professional sports. These former Academy Eagles have represented our community on national and international stages, demonstrating dedication and skill in their respective fields.

Among these accomplished individuals are Julius Randle, a basketball player for the Minnesota Timberwolves; J. R. Reed, an American football safety; and Cameron Rupp, an American professional baseball catcher in the Oakland Athletics organization. We also celebrate Matt Constant, a Soccer Center Back for Michigan Stars FC, and Xavier Mitchell, an American professional baseball pitcher in the Los Angeles Angels organization. Their journeys inspire current and future Academy athletes.

Pro/D1 alumni
5
Class
3A
Founded
1997
Key Players
  • Julius Randle — basketball player for the Minnesota Timberwolves
  • J. R. Reed — American football safety
  • Cameron Rupp — American professional baseball catcher in the Oakland Athletics organization
  • Matt Constant — Soccer Center Back for Michigan Stars FC
  • Xavier Mitchell — American professional baseball pitcher in the Los Angeles Angels organization.
The moment

Julius Randle is a basketball player for the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Sources: Wikipedia
🏆 STATE CHAMPIONS Class 6A · Boys Basketball · 2024

Plano East Sr — 2024 UIL 6A Boys Basketball State Champions

Most recent: 2024 6A

Plano East Senior High School, representing Plano, Texas, in Class 6A boys basketball, has established itself among the state's elite. The Panthers proudly claimed a UIL State Championship in 2024. This achievement reflects consistent effort and a strong program within one of the state's most competitive classifications.

The community in Plano has a deep appreciation for high school sports, and the success of Plano East's basketball program adds to that rich tradition. While specific notable alumni who went professional or to major colleges are not listed, the program's state title speaks volumes about the quality of basketball played on their home court.

State titles
2024
Most recent
2024
Class
6A
The moment

The 2024 6A UIL State Championship stands as a high point for Plano East boys basketball.

Sources: UIL State Championship Archives · SI High School (ScoreBook Live)
🏆 STATE CHAMPIONS Class 6A · Girls Basketball · 2018

Plano Sr Wolfs — 2018 UIL 6A Girls Basketball State Champions

Most recent: 2018 6A

Plano Sr High School, a Class 6A powerhouse in girls' basketball, stands as a testament to consistent athletic excellence in the heart of Texas. The Wildcats have established a strong presence within the competitive UIL landscape, showcasing dedication and skill on the court.

The Plano community rallies behind its teams, fostering an environment where young athletes can thrive. While no specific alumni are listed as having gone pro or to major colleges from this program, the focus remains on the collective achievements and the spirit of high school sports in Plano.

State titles
2018
Most recent
2018
Class
6A
The moment

The Plano Sr High School girls' basketball team secured a significant victory by claiming the 6A State Championship in 2018.

Sources: Wikipedia · UIL State Championship Archives

Everything Near Plano

1896 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the nearest 200 are listed here — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

  • Burned to a Tent City, Then Burned Again · 0.1 mi

    Twice in fourteen years, fire nearly erased downtown Plano. On August 27, 1881, flames tore through the business district along what was then Mechanic Street, destroying around fifty-two buildings and leaving the town a…

  • Plano National Bank/I.O.O.F. Lodge Building · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the historic heart of Plano, folks! Back in 1895, a fire wiped out the shared building of the Plano National Bank and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Lodge. But these folks were resilient! They…

  • Fred Schimelpfenig Building · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the old Fred Schimelpfenig Building, a Plano landmark since 1884. Built by the Sanger Brothers, it became the town's most prosperous dry goods store under Frederick Schimelpfenig himself. Though he…

  • W. D. McFarlin Building · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the W.D. McFarlin Building, one of Plano's oldest brick structures. Though it burned in 1895, W.D. McFarlin rebuilt it and it served as a hub for businesses like drug stores and grocery stores for 65…

  • Mathews General Store · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Mathews General Store. This was one of several brick buildings erected on Mechanic Street after an October 1895 fire. S. J. And Nancy Mathews came to Plano in 1893 and opened a store across the…

  • The Trolley Stop That Became a Museum · 0.2 mi

    At 901 East 15th Street, beside Haggard Park, sits a modest brick building that was once Plano's window on the wider world. Built in 1908 for the Texas Traction Company, it served as the passenger depot and electrical…

  • Saigling House · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker

    The Houston & Texas Central Railroad brought access to agricultural markets and growth to Plano in the 1870s. Celestine (Pillot) (1854-1932) and Charles Frederick (C.F.) (1840-1906) Saigling moved from Houston to Plano…

  • Texas Electric Railway Station · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past what's left of Plano's early 20th-century transportation hub. Built in 1908 as the Texas Traction Company station, this building saw passengers and freight come and go on the North Texas electric…

  • First Baptist Church of Plano · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the First Baptist Church of Plano, a congregation that started way back in 1852 as the Spring Creek Baptist Church. They built their first sanctuary a couple of miles south of here. When the railroad…

  • First Christian Church of Plano · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Plano's first Christian Church, established in the mid-1850s. It started on the Barnett farm, with a small building that served as both a school and a place of worship. Imagine, traveling…

  • Aldridge House · 0.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Aldridge House, built in 1918 in Plano's first residential neighborhood. It was home to C.C. Aldridge, an innovator in cotton seed strains who also served on the city council. This Prairie-style…

  • Plano High School and Gymnasium · 0.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Plano High School and Gymnasium. The Plano Institute opened on this site in 1882 before a public school system existed in Plano. In 1891, city officials bought the school and took over operations.…

Show all 200 nearby places
  • Shiloh Baptist Church · 0.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Shiloh Baptist Church in Plano. This congregation started way back in 1884 as the Mt. Zion Colored Baptist Church. Led by Reverend Z.T. Stuart, the founding members were Ammon and Lula…

  • Plano Cemetery · 0.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Plano Cemetery, a resting place with a history as layered as the town itself. It began as part of the Peters Colony land grant for Joseph Klepper, who arrived here from Illinois around 1845. This…

  • When the Affluent Suburb Made National News for Heroin · 0.6 mi

    In the mid-1990s Plano was the picture of suburban success, an affluent, fast-growing town near the top of every best-place-to-live list. Then its teenagers started dying. A cheap, unusually pure black-tar heroin from…

  • The Town They Almost Named Fillmore · 0.6 mi

    You're rolling across the flattest, blackest farmland in North Texas, and that's exactly how this place got its name. The first settlers arrived here in 1845 with the Peters Colony, the same land-grant scheme that…

  • The Railroad That Turned a Crossroads Into a Town · 0.6 mi

    Before the rails came through, this was just a stop on the Shawnee Trail, the cattle route that carried Texas longhorns north across western Collin County. Then in 1872 the Houston and Texas Central Railway laid track…

  • Plano's First Brick House, Now a Place for Art · 0.6 mi

    When Celestine Saigling built her home in 1918, it was unlike anything else in this prairie town. She hired the prominent Dallas architecture firm Lang and Witchell, and what they delivered was reportedly Plano's first…

  • The Oldest House in Plano, Moved to Save It · 0.6 mi

    Plano's oldest surviving house began as a log cabin on the lonely prairie where Fox Creek meets White Rock Creek. In the late 1850s and early 1860s the Fox brothers, Julian and Charles Meredith Fox, enlarged it into a…

  • The Plano Gym That Made Two Olympic Champions · 0.6 mi

    In 1994 two former Soviet gymnastics stars, Olympic champion Valeri Liukin and world champion Yevgeny Marchenko, opened the World Olympic Gymnastics Academy, WOGA, in a Plano gym on West Parker Road. What came out of…

  • Hot Air Balloons Over the Old Cotton Fields · 0.6 mi

    Every September the flat Plano sky fills with dozens of hot-air balloons rising over Oak Point Park and Nature Preserve, and for a weekend the suburb leans into being the self-styled hot air balloon capital of Texas.…

  • The Black Clay That Built Plano and Cracks Its Houses · 0.6 mi

    The ground under Plano is one of the reasons the town exists, and one of the reasons its foundations crack. This is the Blackland Prairie, a belt of dark, fertile clay soils laid down from the chalk and marl of an…

  • Plano Mutual Cemetery · 0.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Plano Mutual Cemetery, one of Collin County's earliest graveyards. It began in 1852 with the burial of Dr. Lillie on his uncle William Forman's land. Over time, it grew, incorporating pioneer…

  • A Swimming Pool Shaped Like Texas · 1.4 mi

    At 901 Springbrook Drive, in the old Dallas North Estates neighborhood, is a swimming pool built in the exact outline of the state of Texas, Panhandle, Big Bend, Gulf coast and all. It was envisioned by Texas oil tycoon…

  • Seven Years in the Hanoi Hilton · 1.6 mi

    U.S. Highway Seventy Five in Collin County, from the President George Bush Highway up to U.S. Highway Three Eighty, is the Sam Johnson Highway. The Legislature named it in twenty thirteen, setting aside its usual rule…

  • The Ammie Wilson House · 1.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Ammie Wilson House, a beautiful Victorian home built way back in 1891 by Hunter and Mary Farrell. It was a classic example of the sturdy houses in this farming town back then. Fast forward to…

  • Routh Cemetery · 2.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Routh Cemetery, a final resting place for some of the earliest settlers in this area. Brothers Jacob and George Washington Routh, along with their sister Elizabeth Thomas, were instrumental in…

  • Bowman Cemetery · 2.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Bowman Cemetery, established in 1868. It was recognized as a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2008.

  • The Sausage Farm With Hayrides on the Edge of Town · 2.4 mi

    On the corner of Plano Road and Lookout Drive sat one of Richardson's most beloved oddities: a working sausage company that doubled as a country tourist attraction. Owens Country Sausage traces back to 1928, when…

  • A Performing-Arts Hall in the Heart of the Tech Corridor · 2.4 mi

    Set in the Galatyn Park Urban Center at 2351 Performance Drive, the Charles W. Eisemann Center is Richardson's answer to the idea that a tech suburb has no soul. The center opened in September 2002 in the middle of the…

  • First Methodist Church of Plano · 2.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Plano's First Methodist Church. This congregation started way back in 1846 or 1847, meeting in the home of Joseph and Elizabeth Russell. Thirteen people gathered there, with help from a…

  • Muncey Massacre · 2.5 mi · Historical Marker

    McBain Jameson and Jeremiah Muncey settled in this vicinity in 1840 and 1842. While hunting in late 1844, William Rice and Leonard Searcy came to Muncey's hut and found the savagely slain bodies of Jameson, Muncey, Mrs.…

  • The Muncey Massacre: Collin County's Last Fatal Raid · 2.9 mi

    In the fall of 1844, Jeremiah Muncey and his family were killed in an Indian raid at their homestead on the south bank of Rowlett Creek in what is now north Plano, between present-day Plano Road and Jupiter Road. Muncey…

  • Officer David Sherrard Memorial Highway · 3.2 mi · Historical Marker

    Honors Richardson PD SWAT Officer David Sherrard, first Richardson PD line-of-duty death in the department's 63-year history, killed February 7, 2018, at the Breckinridge Point Apartments. Honorary segment on US-75…

  • The Great Corporate Migration · 3.3 mi

    As you drive through Plano, especially along the Dallas North Tollway, you’re in the heart of a massive economic shift that redefined this city. In the early 1980s, Plano was a fast-growing but typical suburb, and Ross…

  • How a Tiny Chip Built a Giant City · 3.3 mi

    As you drive along U.S. Highway 75, you’re on the main artery of North Texas’s 'Silicon Prairie,' an ecosystem that transformed Plano. The story begins just south of here, in Dallas, in 1958. That’s when an engineer at…

  • The Ghost of the Interurban · 3.3 mi

    You might be navigating Plano by car, but for forty years an electric train was the modern way to get here. From 1908 to 1948 the Texas Electric Railway — everyone called it the Interurban — ran Plano south to Dallas…

  • The Shadow in the Suburbs · 3.3 mi

    In the late 1990s, Plano became famous for a reason no city wants. It was known as safe, affluent, and successful, which is exactly what made the heroin deaths among its teenagers so shocking. Nineteen young people died…

  • Plano, TX · 3.3 mi

    Plano is home to the headquarters of several major corporations, including Frito-Lay, JCPenney, Pizza Hut, and Toyota Motor North America. These companies have made Plano an important hub of the Dallas economy.

  • The Colorful Canvas of the Sky · 3.3 mi

    Every September, the skies over Plano fill with a spectacle of color and light. This is the Plano Balloon Festival, an event that has become a beloved symbol of the city since it began in 1980. It started as a small…

  • Richardson, TX · 3.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Richardson, one of the largest small cities in Texas, is located about fourteen miles north of downtown Dallas on Central Expressway (U.S. Highway 75). The Red Line of the DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) light rail…

  • Gary, John · 3.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Dallas, and right here is where a star once called home. John Gary, born John Gary Strader in New York, became a household name in the 1960s. His soulful voice and three-octave range made hits…

  • Buckingham, TX · 3.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what used to be Buckingham, right here in Dallas County, completely surrounded by the city of Richardson. Incorporated around 1958, this small, semi-rural enclave held onto its identity for…

  • University of Texas at Dallas · 3.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    In 1959-60 the founders of Texas Instruments, John Erik Jonsson, Eugene McDermott , and Cecil Green, with the help of Lloyd Berkner, president of Associated University, established the Graduate Research Center of the…

  • Plano Means Flat · 3.6 mi

    You're in Plano, Texas, so here's the plains and flat-land tangent behind the name: when the post office was named in eighteen fifty two, Dr. Henry Dye suggested Plano because he understood the Spanish word to mean flat…

  • How a Plain Gets Flat · 3.6 mi

    You're in Plano, Texas, so here's the plains and flat-land tangent behind the name: plains can form when sediment fills basins, rivers spread deposits, seas lay down nearly horizontal layers, lava covers older relief,…

  • Why Farms, Rails, and Suburbs Like Flat Ground · 3.6 mi

    You're in Plano, Texas, so here's the plains and flat-land tangent behind the name: level land makes cultivation, surveying, road grades, railroad construction, utilities, and rectangular development easier and often…

  • Roots, Fire, and Buffalo · 3.6 mi

    You're in Plano, Texas, so here's the plains and flat-land tangent behind the name: prairie grasses invest heavily underground. Dense roots reach water, store energy, hold soil, and let plants regrow after grazing,…

  • Tornadoes Need Storms, Not Flatness · 3.6 mi

    You're in Plano, Texas, so here's the plains and flat-land tangent behind the name: tornadoes are associated with open plains because the central United States often combines Gulf moisture, dry western air, strong wind…

  • Johnson, Samuel Robert, Jr. · 3.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Samuel Robert Johnson, Jr. United States Air Force pilot, veteran of the Korean War, prisoner of war during the Vietnam War, and U. S. representative for Texas's Third Congressional District, was born on October 11,…

  • Harrington, Gladys Haggard Bishop · 3.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Gladys Haggard Bishop Harrington, Plano civic leader, was born in Paris, Texas, on May 29, 1901, to Nannie Elizabeth (Haggard) Bishop, the daughter of early Plano settler Clinton Shepherd Haggard, and Thomas C. Bishop.…

  • Plano, TX · 3.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving north of Dallas, right through Plano. This town's story starts back in 1844, when early settlers Jameson and Muncey were killed by Native Americans. But don't let that be the whole story. Just a year…

  • Klepper, Frank Earl · 3.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Plano, Texas, the birthplace of Frank Earl Klepper, a Texas artist who dreamed of painting from the young age of fourteen. His journey wasn't easy; financial struggles delayed his formal training,…

  • Vance, James George Washington · 3.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Collin County, not far from Plano, where James George Washington Vance made his home. Vance was a veteran of the Mexican War, serving with Texas Rangers, though he spent much of that time…

  • Meroney, William Penn · 3.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Plano, Texas, the birthplace of William Penn Meroney, born here back in 1881. Meroney was a Baptist minister who later found his calling in academia. After earning multiple degrees, he returned to…

  • Weaver, William M. · 3.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving near Plano, Texas, home to William M. Weaver. He wasn't just a farmer, but a Confederate officer during the Civil War. Weaver enlisted as a captain in 1862, eventually becoming a lieutenant colonel. He…

  • The University Three Engineers Built From a Cotton Field · 3.8 mi

    The sprawling campus at 800 West Campbell Road began as a recruiting problem. By the late 1950s, Texas Instruments was hiring so many scientists and engineers that it had to import most of them from other states,…

  • Officer David Sherrard Memorial Highway · 3.8 mi · Historical Marker

    U S Highway Seventy Five through Richardson, between the President George Bush Turnpike and the Lyndon B. Johnson Freeway, is the Officer David Sherrard Memorial Highway. David Sherrard served the Richardson Police…

  • The Pilot Who Was Pulled From the Pacific · 4.0 mi

    The President George Bush Highway, through Dallas, Collin and Denton counties, is named for the forty first president. Long before politics, George Bush was a Navy pilot. He volunteered at eighteen, just after…

  • Blewett Cemetery · 4.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Blewett Cemetery, established way back in 1855. It started when Reverend George Blewett buried his daughter Ann here. Blewett, a Cumberland Presbyterian minister, had arrived from Kentucky just…

  • First Baptist Church of Richardson · 4.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Richardson's first church, a Baptist congregation that started way back in 1865. Originally called Mt. Calvary Baptist, they met in a schoolhouse before getting their own building in 1868…

  • Southfork Ranch · 4.5 mi · Things to Do

    The Ewing family TV mansion from the Dallas soap opera sits on two hundred acres in Parker Texas and is open for tours every day. JRs bedroom is there. The…

  • Richardson · 4.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Richardson, a town that started life as Breckenridge back in the 1840s. But when the Houston and Texas Central Railroad came through in 1873, the folks here packed up and moved north to be near…

  • The Chip That Changed the World · 4.6 mi

    Right at the southern edge of Richardson, where US 75 meets I-635, the sprawling Texas Instruments campus spills across the city line into Dallas—and it was there, on TI's Dallas ground, that a piece of the modern world…

  • DFW Chinatown · 4.6 mi

    As you travel through Richardson, you're in the heart of North Texas's Asian cultural scene. The landmark is DFW Chinatown, on Greenville Avenue just north of Main. The building itself is older than most people assume —…

  • Richardson, TX · 4.6 mi

    In the 1840s, emigrants from Kentucky and Tennessee settled near what is now Richardson. A small settlement called Breckenridge emerged before the Civil War. In 1873, the Houston and Texas Central Railway built a depot…

  • The End of a Dry Era · 4.6 mi

    For most of its history Richardson was a dry city. You could not buy alcohol here — no beer in the grocery store, no bottle of wine at the corner market — and for decades residents simply drove across the city line to…

  • First United Methodist Church Richardson · 4.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the First United Methodist Church in Richardson. Organized way back in 1886 as the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, this congregation started out meeting in another church building for its first…

  • Engineering a Suburb from Scratch · 5.0 mi

    The Murphy you’re driving through is a marvel of modern civil engineering, built at incredible speed. In the 1990s, this was mostly open farmland with a few houses on wells and septic systems. Transforming it into a…

  • Murphy, TX · 5.0 mi

    In 2006, the Murphy Police Department collaborated with 'Dateline' to conduct stings targeting alleged internet sexual predators. The operation ended tragically when one of the alleged offenders, Louis Conradt, an…

  • The Town That Wore Three Names Before 1888 · 5.0 mi

    The suburb you're rolling through spent forty years trying to settle on a name. The first families arrived here in 1846, drawn by Peters Colony land grants, and the original townsite sat on land owned by Comfort Allen…

  • When Murphy Was a Whistle-Stop Built on Cotton, Corn, and Onions · 5.0 mi

    For most of its life Murphy was a freight stop, not a suburb. From the late 1880s into the 1950s the Cotton Belt depot here turned the town into a shipping point for the surrounding Blackland Prairie farms, loading out…

  • Onions Rolled Out of Here Toward the Onion Capital of the World · 5.0 mi

    Of all the crops Murphy's depot shipped, the strangest legacy is onions. The black-soil farms along Maxwell Creek grew them by the wagonload, and the Cotton Belt cars hauled them out alongside the cotton and corn.…

  • The Depression-Era Schoolhouse That Became the Whole City Government · 5.0 mi

    The old brick building at 205 North Murphy Road has done more jobs than most people. The federal Works Progress Administration, the New Deal agency that put the unemployed to work building public structures, raised…

  • Three Acres, Three Hundred Graves, and Most of Them Nameless · 5.0 mi

    Behind Murphy Middle School lies the oldest and largest piece of the town's memory, the Decatur, Maxwell, Murphy Cemetery, named for the three identities the community wore. James Maxwell deeded the three acres for the…

  • The Church They Picked Up and Carried Across Town · 5.0 mi

    Murphy's First Baptist congregation began in a living room. In 1900, twelve years after the town took its name, a local woman named Mrs. May Cockrell gathered neighbors at her home to organize a Baptist church, and that…

  • A 42-Acre Wild Strip Down the Middle of the Suburb · 5.0 mi

    Tucked behind Kimbrough Stadium at 670 North Murphy Road, the Preserve at Maxwell Creek is the wildest thing left in a city of subdivisions. It is a 42-acre greenbelt that follows the floodplain of Maxwell Creek, the…

  • From 136 People to a City, in Barely One Lifetime · 5.0 mi

    Almost everything around you in Murphy is younger than its grandparents. As recently as 1970 the old depot town had dwindled to just 136 residents, a near-dead farm community the railroad and the cotton gins had…

  • The Town That Onions Built · 5.0 mi

    In the early 20th century Murphy was a farm town that lived by its depot. The St. Louis Southwestern — the Cotton Belt — came through in 1888 after William Murphy donated the land for the tracks and the station, and…

  • Murphy School · 5.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the old Murphy School, built by the WPA in 1939. This building served as a beacon of education for just over a decade, closing its doors in 1950 due to consolidation. But its story didn't…

  • First Presbyterian Church of Richardson · 5.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising through Richardson, and right here is the site of the First Presbyterian Church. It all started way back on August 21st, 1870, by Reverend George L. Blewett and twenty charter members. They called…

  • Parker, TX · 5.1 mi

    You are now entering the most famous small town in the world—or at least, it was for a while. Parker, Texas is home to Southfork Ranch, the setting for the blockbuster TV show 'Dallas.' From 1978 to 1991, the iconic…

  • The House the World Watched · 5.1 mi

    If you were watching TV in the 1980s, you know this place, even if you've never been here. Just down the road in Parker is Southfork Ranch, the home of the fictional Ewing family from the TV show 'Dallas.' But the story…

  • J.J. Pearce High School (Ray Childress) · 5.1 mi

    J.J. Pearce High School in Richardson, Texas (1600 North Coit Road) is where Ray Childress was an all-state defensive lineman. He starred at Texas A&M, was the third overall pick of the 1985 NFL Draft, and became a…

  • Virgin Forest Hiding Beside the Freeway · 5.1 mi

    At the southeast corner of US-75 and Renner Road, a few steps off one of the busiest freeways in Texas, the pavement gives way to something that almost shouldn't exist this deep in the suburbs: a stand of old-growth…

  • A Preacher's Daughter From J.J. Pearce High · 5.1 mi

    The pop superstar Jessica Simpson started life right here, born in Richardson on July 10, 1980, the daughter of a Baptist minister and a homemaker. As a kid she sang in her church choir, and the family story goes that…

  • Corinth Presbyterian Church · 5.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Corinth Presbyterian Church, a congregation that's been serving this community for over 150 years. It all started on August 2, 1846, when pioneer C.A. McMillen established the Corinth Society Church.…

  • First Baptist Church of Murphy · 5.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Murphy, a town founded just twelve years before this story begins. In 1900, a local woman named May Cockrell saw a need for a Baptist church. She gathered friends and a preacher in her own home to…

  • Murphy Community · 5.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising through Murphy, a town that was once the heart of Texas agriculture. From 1880 to 1970, this land thrived thanks to its rich black soil and ample rain, drawing settlers from across the nation. It…

  • Parker, TX (Johnson County) · 5.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Parker, Texas, a community that started with a post office named Nathan back in 1887. By 1904, the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway came through, and residents wanted to name their town Kennard,…

  • The Man Who Arrived on New Year's Day and Outlived His Town's First Century · 5.2 mi

    The high school named McMillen, which opened in Murphy in 2011, carries the name of the man who started the whole place. Comfort Allen McMillen was born in 1818 in Washington County, Arkansas, married Lydia Maxwell, and…

  • The Richardson Antennas That Carried the First Voices From Space · 5.3 mi

    Some of the most important radio engineering of the Space Age happened right here. In 1960 Collins Radio built a large satellite ground station at its Richardson campus and a twin in Cedar Rapids, then bounced signals…

  • How a Cotton-Field Suburb Became the Telecom Corridor · 5.3 mi

    The stretch of US-75 you're driving once carried a nickname known worldwide in the tech industry: the Telecom Corridor. It started with electronics. Texas Instruments planted a campus just south of the Richardson line…

  • The Town the Railroad Pulled Off the Prairie · 5.3 mi

    You're rolling into a town that exists because a railroad refused to stop where people already lived. Before 1873 the settlement here was Breckenridge, a small prairie community with a post office, store, blacksmith,…

  • The Art Festival That Began on Park Blankets · 5.3 mi

    Twice a year, the lawns of Cottonwood Park fill with white tents and tens of thousands of visitors for the Cottonwood Art Festival, one of the most respected outdoor fine-art shows in the country. It started humbly. In…

  • Where the Whole Town Started: Old Main Street · 5.3 mi

    Walk the 100 block of East Main Street and you're standing on Richardson's original reason for being. When the Houston and Texas Central built its line through here in 1873, it raised a depot near where the DART…

  • Murphy, TX (Collin County) · 5.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Murphy, Texas, a town that owes its very name to a generous landowner. Back in 1846, settlers were drawn to this area by land grants. The community was first known as Old Decator, then Maxwell's…

  • Collinsworth Cemetery · 5.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Collinsworth Cemetery, established in 1895. It was designated a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2002.

  • First Methodist Church of Allen · 5.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Allen, and right here is the site of the very first Methodist Church. Methodists were some of the first settlers in this county, gathering way back in 1847 at a pioneer's log cabin. Services were…

  • Murphy Family Cemetery · 5.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Murphy Family Cemetery, also known as the William Andrew Murphy Cemetery or Mouldon Cemetery. William A. Murphy set aside this land in 1872 for a private family burial ground. The last burial…

  • McMillen Cemetery · 5.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Murphy, in Collin County. Look for the McMillen Cemetery, established in 1901. It was recognized as a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2010.

  • Wheeler School · 5.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Richardson, where William J. Wheeler, known as 'Uncle Billy,' deeded land for this townsite back in 1870. He then provided a public school for local children just northwest of here in 1880. After…

  • The Day the World Changed in Dealey Plaza · 5.6 mi

    On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy’s motorcade made a slow left turn into Dealey Plaza, right in front of the Texas School Book Depository. The crowds were cheering, the sun was out, and then shots rang…

  • The Quiet Summer That Invented the Modern World · 5.6 mi

    The digital age has a birthplace, and it’s a laboratory in Dallas. In the summer of 1958, a newly hired engineer at Texas Instruments named Jack Kilby found himself with no vacation time while most of his colleagues…

  • How the Cowboys Saved Dallas's Reputation · 5.6 mi

    After the Kennedy assassination in 1963, Dallas was known nationally as the 'City of Hate.' The city carried that burden for years. Then came a football team. In the late 1960s and 70s, the Dallas Cowboys, under coach…

  • Bonnie and Clyde: Dallas's Outlaw Legends · 5.6 mi

    Long before they were movie stars, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were just two kids from the impoverished outskirts of Dallas. Clyde grew up in a West Dallas slum called 'the Devil’s Back Porch,' and Bonnie was a…

  • Big Tex at the State Fair of Texas · 5.6 mi

    Fifty-five feet tall, a ninety-five-gallon hat, size ninety-six Lucchese boots — Big Tex has waved over the State Fair of Texas every two minutes for about as long as Dallas can remember. But he didn't start as a…

  • Deep Ellum Community Center · 5.6 mi

    The new Deep Ellum Community Center in Dallas sits inside an 1892 building that once ran as the City Hotel — and it opened the very day after the neighborhood unveiled its historical marker, on the twenty-ninth of…

  • Deep Ellum's 150th anniversary · 5.6 mi

    Deep Ellum turns a hundred and fifty this year, and it started the way a lot of Texas started — with a railroad. In 1873, two lines crossed just east of downtown Dallas, and people came to the junction looking for work.…

  • Kalita Humphreys Theater · 5.6 mi

    Frank Lloyd Wright built exactly four buildings in Texas, and only one of them you can walk into. It's in Dallas, in Oak Lawn, right up against Turtle Creek — the Kalita Humphreys Theater. Wright first drew this design…

  • Kessler Theater · 5.6 mi

    Oak Cliff, southwest Dallas — the Kessler has taken its hits. A tornado tore through in 1957, fire followed in 1962, and for a long stretch the old art deco house just sat there. Then developer Edwin Cabaniss bought it…

  • Texas big hair and the Dallas salon trade · 5.6 mi

    You want to understand Texas? Start at the top — the hair. In Dallas, a cut and color with real big-hair styling can run you up to six hundred dollars, and stylist Kevin Ozowski's salon burns through ten cans of…

  • The Chicks · 5.6 mi

    Two sisters from Dallas — Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer — started this as a bluegrass group. Then they pulled in a lead singer out of Lubbock named Natalie Maines, and in 1997 the whole thing broke wide open out of…

  • Neiman Marcus and the Invention of Dallas Style · 5.6 mi

    In 1907, when Dallas was still a dusty cotton town, Herbert Marcus, his sister Carrie, and her husband Al Neiman, made a choice. They had just sold a successful business idea and could either invest in the new…

  • Freedman's Town: The Lost Neighborhood Beneath the Expressway · 5.6 mi

    If you drive up the Central Expressway just north of downtown, you're passing through the heart of one of the most significant Freedman's Towns in the country. After the Civil War, thousands of newly freed African…

  • The Flood That Built the Levees · 5.6 mi

    Look at the Trinity down there — calm, contained, mostly forgotten by drivers on the overpasses. In May 1908 it wasn't contained at all. Three days of heavy rain up in the watershed sent the river over its banks, and on…

  • Dallas, TX · 5.6 mi

    Dallas, Texas, has a rich history that dates back to its founding in 1841 by John Neely Bryan. The city's name is believed to have originated from Vice President George M. Dallas, although this is disputed. Dallas'…

  • Blind Lemon Jefferson on Elm and Central · 5.6 mi

    Before the records, before the fame, Blind Lemon Jefferson played Deep Ellum's street corners for whatever fell into the tin cup tied to his guitar. The Handbook of Texas says he played almost every day at the corner of…

  • La Réunion: The French Utopia on the Trinity · 5.6 mi

    Imagine, in 1855, a group of 200 French, Swiss, and Belgian socialists arriving on the banks of the Trinity River, just across from the rough little village of Dallas. They were followers of philosopher Victor…

  • When You Could Ride the Trolley All the Way to Dallas · 5.7 mi

    For forty years Allen had something the modern suburb would envy: a fast electric rail line that ran straight through town. In 1908 the Texas Traction Company strung up an interurban, an electric trolley system, that…

  • Berkner High School (Aqib Talib) · 5.8 mi

    L.V. Berkner High School in Richardson, Texas (1600 East Spring Valley Road) is where Aqib Talib lettered in football, basketball, and track and was named the area's defensive back of the year. He became a unanimous…

  • McKamy Spring · 5.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past McKamy Spring, a vital water source for centuries. Native American tribes likely camped here long before settlers arrived, and later, the community of Breckenridge relied on it. Even the construction…

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Richardson (Richardson) · 5.9 mi

    Richardson (Richardson, TX) placed on the 6A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Marcus Bond (3 HR).

  • Allen Station of the Texas Electric Railway · 5.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Allen's original electric railway depot. Imagine this: it's 1908, and the Texas Traction Company's interurban line is bringing a surge of growth to this town. Hourly passenger cars ran…

  • Allen Cemetery · 5.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Allen Cemetery, a place established not by families, but by a fraternal order – the International Order of Odd Fellows, back in 1884. Look for the grave of Rebecca Hamilton, who died in 1883, the…

  • The First Train Robbery in Texas · 6.0 mi

    On a February night in 1878, the outlaw Sam Bass and his gang held up a railroad train as it sat at the Allen depot, in what is widely remembered as the first train robbery in Texas. They put a pistol on the engineer,…

  • Texas's First Train Robbery · 6.0 mi

    Right here in Allen, on February 22, 1878, Texas saw its first-ever successful train robbery. The man behind it was the notorious outlaw Sam Bass. Bass and his gang had been robbing stagecoaches, but they decided to aim…

  • The $60 Million Stadium That Cracked, and the Forensic Fix · 6.0 mi

    When Allen opened its 18,000-seat Eagle Stadium on August 31, 2012, the roughly $60 million high school football palace made national news for its scale and its giant video board. Eighteen months later it made news for…

  • The Dry-Stacked Dam That Watered the Locomotives · 6.0 mi

    Down along Cottonwood Creek sits one of the oddest little engineering relics in Collin County, the Old Stone Dam, built in 1874 by the Houston and Texas Central Railway. Steam locomotives of the era had to take on water…

  • Kyler Murray and the Undefeated Eagles · 6.0 mi

    The same Eagle Stadium that became famous for cracked concrete was also the home field for one of the greatest high school football runs Texas has ever seen. Quarterback Kyler Murray took over as Allen's starter and…

  • The $60 Million Football Palace · 6.0 mi

    If you want to understand modern Allen, you have to understand Eagle Stadium. Opened in 2012, this isn't just a high school football field; it's an 18,000-seat monument to the power of Texas high school football. The…

  • The Science of a Stadium Failure · 6.0 mi

    Allen’s Eagle Stadium is a Texas-sized landmark, but its most fascinating story is one of structural engineering and materials science. Just two years after its celebrated $60 million opening, the stadium was shut down.…

  • Allen, TX · 6.0 mi

    Allen's history is deeply intertwined with the railroad. The town was established by the Houston and Texas Central Railway in 1872 and named after Ebenezer Allen, a state politician and railroad promoter. The railroad…

  • Old-School Barbecue on Main Street · 6.0 mi

    In a city full of new outlet malls and chain restaurants, the food a traveler should hunt for is the old-school kind. On Main Street in Allen's original downtown sits Big Ray's BBQ, in a big red building, an independent…

  • The Town the Railroad Built and a Lawyer's Name · 6.0 mi

    The suburb spreading out around you owes both its existence and its name to a railroad and a lawyer who never lived here. As the Houston and Texas Central Railway pushed its line north toward Denison in the early 1870s,…

  • The Forgotten Interurban · 6.0 mi

    Everyone knows Allen was a railroad town, but it was actually served by two different railroads. Besides the big steam trains of the Houston and Texas Central, Allen was also a key stop on the Texas Electric Railway.…

  • Named for a Man Who Never Stayed · 6.0 mi

    When the Houston and Texas Central Railway pushed north in the early 1870s, it laid out a town and named it Allen, after Ebenezer Allen, a former Texas attorney general and railroad promoter who helped drive the line…

  • Outlet Bargains at the Stacy Road Exit · 6.0 mi

    The sprawling shopping village just off US 75 at Stacy Road is Allen Premium Outlets, and it is a big part of why people from all over North Texas exit here. It opened in 2000 under Chelsea Property Group, later folded…

  • Texas's First Green-Certified Shopping Village · 6.0 mi

    Watters Creek at Montgomery Farm looks like just another handsome mixed-use shopping district, with a creek winding through a 52-acre layout of shops, restaurants, apartments, and a grassy village green dotted with…

  • The Odd Fellows' Three-Acre Resting Ground · 6.0 mi

    On April 5, 1884, the local Odd Fellows lodge, IOOF No. 249, bought a little under three acres from John W. and his wife and laid out what became the Allen Cemetery. Fraternal orders like the Independent Order of Odd…

  • The 1913 Depot and a Village of Saved Buildings · 6.0 mi

    Allen grew up around its railroad depot, and a depot built in 1913 still survives as the centerpiece of Allen Heritage Village, a cluster of preserved historic buildings near the old downtown. The original frame depot…

  • First Baptist Church of Renner · 6.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through what used to be Renner, a community that organized its Baptist congregation way back in 1890. For eight years, they met in the local schoolhouse, with a list of founding families longer than your…

  • The Mortarless Dam That Started the Town · 6.2 mi

    Allen exists because steam locomotives get thirsty. Around 1874 the railroad built a stone dam, a pump house, and an elevated water tank on Cottonwood Creek, so engines could refill, since a steam train needed water…

  • Why a Brand-New Stadium Cracked · 6.4 mi

    Allen's famous high school football stadium opened in 2012, and less than two years later it had to close when cracks appeared in the concrete concourse. The science of why is a useful lesson. Fresh concrete is full of…

  • Allen, TX · 6.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Allen is on U.S. Highway 75 eight miles southwest of McKinney in southwestern Collin County. The town was established in 1870 by a purchasing agent for the Houston and Texas Central Railway and named in 1872 for…

  • Leach, John Sayles · 6.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving near Allen, Texas, the birthplace of John Sayles Leach. He wasn't just born here, he rose to become president of Texaco, Incorporated. Leach started his career right here in Texas with the Texas Company…

  • A Town That Incorporated Just to Get a Drink of Water · 6.7 mi

    This unassuming spot on Fifth Street holds the reason Sachse became a city at all, and it's pure infrastructure. Lake Lavon had been built in 1948 and the North Texas Municipal Water District formed in 1951, so treated…

  • Prestonwood Christian Academy, Plano (Julius Randle) · 6.7 mi

    Prestonwood Christian Academy in Plano, Texas is where Julius Randle won three state titles and averaged 32.5 points and 22.5 rebounds as a senior, overcoming a fractured foot. He played one season at Kentucky, was the…

  • The Town the Railroad Misspelled · 6.7 mi

    The town you're rolling into is named for a Prussian immigrant who got here first and gave up his land to get a train. William Sachse left Herford, Prussia, landed in New York in 1840, and reached North Texas in 1845,…

  • The First Cotton Mill in the County, Powered by Oxen · 6.7 mi

    Before there was a town here, there was a mill. William Sachse built what local histories call the first combined cotton mill and gin in the county, and the power source was about as frontier as it gets: oxen and horses…

  • The Caboose That Became a City Office · 6.7 mi

    Parked off Fifth Street sits a bright railroad caboose that has had a stranger second career than most retired rolling stock. It started as Union Pacific car number 25613, taken out of service when the railroad retired…

  • Where the Founder Lies in the Ground He Gave Away · 6.7 mi

    Off Sixth Street near State Highway 78 lies the William Sachse Cemetery, two acres the founder set aside for a church and burial ground in the 1890s, just before he needed it himself. When William Sachse died in…

  • 185 Acres of Bottomland That Never Got Bulldozed · 6.7 mi

    Right where the subdivisions thin out along Pleasant Valley Road, the pavement gives way to Muddy Creek Preserve, a 185-acre survivor of mature hardwood bottomland that the suburb grew up around instead of over. Dallas…

  • William Sachse Cemetery · 6.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the William Sachse Cemetery, a final resting place tied to the growth of North Texas. William Sachse arrived from Prussia in 1845, becoming a successful businessman and rancher. He owned over 5,000…

  • Sachse Cemetery · 6.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Sachse Cemetery, established in 1899. It's recognized as a Historic Texas Cemetery.

  • Demonstration of the First Working Integrated Circuit · 6.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the birthplace of the microchip! Back in 1958, an engineer named Jack Kilby, working right here at Texas Instruments in Dallas, faced a huge problem. Building complex electronics meant connecting…

  • The Summer One Sliver of Germanium Changed Everything · 6.8 mi

    Right here in Dallas, on September 12, 1958, a brand-new Texas Instruments engineer named Jack Kilby switched on the first working integrated circuit. It was a tiny sliver of germanium, about the size of a fingernail,…

  • Allen · 6.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Allen, Texas, a town that sprung up thanks to the railroad. But this quiet spot has a wild west connection. On February 22nd, 1878, the infamous outlaw Sam Bass and his gang reportedly hit the…

  • Why It's Called an Integrated Circuit · 6.8 mi

    Here is a question worth slowing down for: what is an integrated circuit, really? Think about an old-fashioned circuit first. It was a pile of separate parts. Transistors, resistors, capacitors, each one its own little…

  • Billions of Tiny Switches · 6.8 mi

    Open up any chip and the building block you find, over and over, is the transistor. A transistor is just a tiny switch. It turns on or off depending on a small voltage, and it can amplify too, but the switch is the…

  • The Rule That Predicted Sixty Years of Shrinking · 6.8 mi

    Once you can print a circuit instead of soldering it, something wild becomes possible: you can keep printing the parts smaller, and pack more of them in. In 1965, an engineer named Gordon Moore noticed the pattern and…

  • The History Museum Inside the Old Jail · 6.8 mi

    The Sachse Historical Society Museum at 3033 6th Street has a fitting home: it's housed in the city's original jailhouse, the small lockup that once held whoever this farm town needed to hold. The society formed in…

  • Eagle Stadium · 6.9 mi

    Eagle Stadium in Allen, Texas, opened in 2012 at a cost of about $59.6 million for Allen ISD and seats 18,000 — the largest of the five priciest Texas high school stadiums. It is widely credited with starting the Texas…

  • Allen High School (Kyler Murray) · 6.9 mi

    Allen High School and its 18,000-seat Eagle Stadium (155 Rivercrest Blvd., Allen, TX) are where Kyler Murray went a perfect 42-0 as a starting quarterback. During his tenure Allen won three straight Texas state…

  • 2017 UIL 6A Division 1 Football State Champions · 6.9 mi

    Allen High School (Allen, TX): Most recent: 35-33 over Austin Lake Travis · 2017 6A Division 1 final.

  • Kyler Murray at Allen High School · 6.9 mi · Sports Alumni

    At Allen High School, Kyler Murray simply did not lose. He went forty-two and zero as a starter, never dropping a single game he began, and led the Eagles to three consecutive Texas Class Five-A state championships from…

  • Liberty Baptist Church · 6.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Plano, and right here is the site of Liberty Baptist Church, the oldest continuously serving Baptist congregation in Collin County. It all started back in 1850, with settlers gathering for worship…

  • The Deal that Built the Town · 7.0 mi

    The railroad tracks that cut through Sachse are the reason this town is on the map. In the 1880s, when the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway was expanding, towns lived or died by their ability to attract a depot.…

  • Sachse, TX · 7.0 mi

    Sachse's history began with its founder, William Sachse, a European immigrant from Herford, Prussia, who established the town in 1845. Sachse played a pivotal role in the region's development by erecting the first…

  • Allen Water Station · 7.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Collin County, near the site of the Allen Water Station. In <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1874</say-as>, the Houston & Texas Central Railway built this station to supply its steam…

  • The Founder's Final Resting Place · 7.0 mi

    Just off Sachse Road, surrounded by modern development, is a small, quiet cemetery that holds the origin story of this town. This is the Sachse Cemetery, the resting place of William Sachse and his family. Sachse was…

  • Sachse · 7.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Sachse, a town that owes its very name to a railroad deal. Back in 1886, William Sachse donated land to the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad. In return, they agreed to lay tracks, build a…

  • Floyd Pioneer Cemetery · 7.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Richardson, near the site of the Floyd Pioneer Cemetery. In 1855, John B. Floyd settled here and later set aside this acre for family burials. Early graves included children who died of diphtheria…

  • Young Cemetery · 7.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Young Cemetery, established in 1847 when Patience Cornell Young died. Her husband, Sam Young, brought his family here from Illinois in 1842, founding this burial ground on land he bought from the…

  • Rowlett Creek Cemetery · 7.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Rowlett Creek Baptist Church, a pioneer institution in Collin County. It all started in 1848 when seven members organized the Wilson Creek Church of United Baptists. By 1852, it was…

  • Southfork Ranch · 7.4 mi · Things to Do

    The filming location of TV's Dallas. JR Ewing lived here.

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Wylie (Wylie) · 7.5 mi

    Wylie (Wylie, TX) placed on the 6A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Noah Smith (0.430 avg).

  • Texas HS Baseball Playoff Leaders 2026: Lovejoy (Lucas) · 7.5 mi

    Lovejoy (Lucas) put 4 players on the statewide leaderboards of the 2026 Texas high school baseball playoffs. Tyler Scarborough had 46 strikeouts (5th in the state). Logan Corley had 43 strikeouts (8th in the state), and…

  • Texas HS Baseball Playoff Hits 2026: Lovejoy (Lucas) · 7.5 mi

    Lovejoy (Lucas), TX placed on the Texas high school baseball PLAYOFF HITS leaderboard for the 2026 postseason: Lucas Smith (18 hits, #6 in TX); Brady Sommers (17 hits, #8 in TX).

  • Wylie Methodist Church · 7.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Wylie Methodist Church, a congregation with roots stretching all the way back to the 1850s. Imagine early Methodist families gathering in homes, like the Spurgin home, which became…

  • Frankford Cemetery · 7.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through what used to be the community of Frankford, a stop for cattle drives and travelers on the old Preston Road. This cemetery here served as a final resting place for pioneers as early as 1862, with…

  • Frankford · 7.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Frankford, a town that grew around Indian Springs after the W.C. McKamy family settled here in 1852. At its peak, Frankford boasted a steam mill, cotton gin, and blacksmith shop. The town…

  • Frankford Church · 7.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Frankford, Texas, where this unassuming building has seen a lot of history. Back in 1885, a group of Methodists organized here, part of a traveling circuit. By the 1890s, Captain William McKamy…

  • The Fastest Man to Come Out of Sachse High · 7.7 mi

    The Mustangs play here, and the school's most famous graduate is one of the fastest people the state of Texas has ever timed. Devin Duvernay was born in Sachse in 1997 and grew up a two-sport terror at Sachse High…

  • Sachse, Elizabeth McCullough Straily · 7.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Sachse, a town named for a pioneer woman who faced hardship and helped build this community. Elizabeth McCullough Straily Sachse arrived in Texas in 1845 as part of the Peters Colony settlers. She…

  • Sachse, TX · 7.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Sachse, a town that owes its very name to a generous land donation. It all started back in 1846 when Elizabeth Straly received a land grant. She later married William C. Sachse, a native of…

  • Hamilton Park Community · 7.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Hamilton Park, a community with a powerful story. Back in the 1950s, racial violence and displacement in Dallas forced many African American families to find new homes. Philanthropist Karl…

  • Mount Calvary Cemetery · 7.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Dallas, and just off to your right is Mount Calvary Cemetery. This burial ground has been serving settlers since the 1840s. The oldest marked grave here belongs to Amanda L. Houx, who died way…

  • Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church · 7.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church. Facing unrest in Greece, hundreds of thousands of Greeks came to America. In Dallas, the need for an Orthodox church was recognized, and in 1915, the…

  • The Day After Christmas Storm · 8.0 mi

    On December 26th, 2015, the day after Christmas, the unthinkable happened. An unusually powerful, late-season tornado outbreak struck North Texas, and an EF4 twister, with winds around 180 miles per hour, carved a…

  • Autumn Sound Studios (now Audio Dallas) · 8.0 mi

    There's a squat beige brick building in an industrial park in Garland, northeast of Dallas, that had been open all of three months when Willie Nelson walked in during January of 1975. It had the first twenty-four track…

  • Red Headed Stranger 50th anniversary event, downtown Garland · 8.0 mi

    Fifty years after Willie Nelson cut "Red Headed Stranger" in a Garland studio, the city finally threw the record the party it never got. Here's the kicker: when organizer Jeff Ryan started calling around, he found that…

  • Red Headed Stranger' by Willie Nelson, recorded at Autumn Sound in Garland · 8.0 mi

    Everybody wants to give Willie Nelson's outlaw masterpiece to Nashville, or to Austin. Truth is, "Red Headed Stranger" got cut in Garland, Texas — a Dallas suburb — at a room called Autumn Sound. Five days. Four…

  • The Hatfields of Garland · 8.0 mi

    For nearly ninety years, if you wanted a real cowboy hat, chances are it came from Garland. Resistol started in Dallas in 1927 — E. R. Byer and hatmaker Harry Rolnick, the name meaning a hat that would 'resist all'…

  • The City That Owned the Night · 8.0 mi

    During the Cold War, some of the nation’s most sensitive military technology was being developed right here in Garland. You’re driving through a city that was a quiet powerhouse in the defense industry, thanks to a…

  • Engineering the Night: Varo's Vision · 8.0 mi

    Here in Garland, a local company essentially solved the problem of darkness. The company was Varo, and the technology was night vision. How did it work? It's a brilliant piece of physics. The scopes didn't create light;…

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Sachse (Sachse) · 8.0 mi

    Sachse (Sachse, TX) placed on the 6A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Julian Moreno (0.431 avg, 2 HR).

  • The Aircraft-Engine Plant That Became a Food Factory · 8.0 mi

    The sprawling food plant off Forest Lane has a war story baked into its walls. During World War II, the Garland area hosted aircraft manufacturing, and this site ran as a Continental Motors plant turning out engines.…

  • Garland, TX · 8.0 mi

    The city of Garland was named after U.S. Attorney General Augustus Hill Garland, as a result of a dispute between two communities, Embree and Duck Creek, over which town should have the local post office. The new…

  • Santa Fe Railroad Depot · 8.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Santa Fe Railroad Depot in Garland. Built in 1901 by the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad, this depot replaced an earlier one from the city's founding year of 1888. Designed by a railroad…

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