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Richardson, Texas

Everything Richardson is known for

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Music in Richardson

Songs About Richardson

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Artists From Richardson

J
Jessica Simpson
pop
R
R.W. Hampton
country
J
Jake Blocker
country

Rivers & Roads in Song near Richardson

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

Interstate 45 8 songs Trinity River 11 songs Interstate 20 13 songs Interstate 35 45 songs Texas State Highway 199 8 songs Sabine River 13 songs

History of Richardson

The Richardson Antennas That Carried the First Voices From Space RoadyGoat

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 off ECHO I, a passive balloon satellite NASA had inflated in orbit. On one pass Collins became the first to establish two-way voice contact via satellite between the two stations, and days later relayed an image of President Eisenhower the same way, early proof that you could talk and send pictures off a thing floating in space. Collins's edge was single-sideband technology, built around precision mechanical filters that squeezed clear voice out of weak, noisy radio links. That expertise made Collins NASA's pick for spacecraft communications: its equipment and the pioneering Unified S-Band system carried the voices, telemetry, and television for Mercury, Gemini, and every Apollo mission. When astronauts spoke from the Moon, the words rode hardware whose lineage runs straight back to engineers working along this Richardson freeway. (Source: The Arthur Collins Story; Collins Radio history.)

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How a Cotton-Field Suburb Became the Telecom Corridor RoadyGoat

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 in 1956, and in 1957 Collins Radio, a famous radio-engineering firm out of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, broke ground on what would grow into a multi-building, roughly 400-acre campus near Central Expressway and Arapaho Road. Those two anchors pulled engineering talent into a town that, in 1952, had barely 1,300 residents. By 1960 the population had jumped past 16,000. Rockwell bought Collins in 1971, and the next year MCI opened an engineering facility here, partly to buy microwave gear from Collins as it built a network to challenge AT&T's long-distance monopoly. Through the 1980s and 1990s the firms stacked up along the freeway, Nortel, Ericsson, Alcatel, Samsung, and dozens more, until this corridor held one of the densest clusters of telecom companies on the planet. The cotton fields became fiber-optic country. (Source: Handbook of Texas; City of Richardson.)

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The Town the Railroad Pulled Off the Prairie RoadyGoat

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, and inn, established around 1858 and named for U.S. Vice President John C. Breckenridge. When the Houston and Texas Central Railroad pushed its line north through Dallas County, it bypassed Breckenridge, and the people did what frontier Texans always did: they picked up and moved to the rails. Two landowners, William J. Wheeler and Bernard Reilly, sold a combined 101 acres for a new townsite in April 1873, and trustees dedicated the right-of-way that June. The town took the name Richardson, in honor of a man connected to the H&TC. Sources differ on exactly which Richardson got the honor, often citing railroad secretary Alfred Stephen Richardson, sometimes a contractor by the same surname. The post office opened in 1874, and the old Breckenridge faded into memory, its name now surviving mostly on a few street signs south of where you are. (Source: Handbook of Texas.)

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Demonstration of the First Working Integrated Circuit

1958

The twentieth-century age of electronics can trace its roots to the 1906 invention of the triode vacuum tube, which marked the birth of modern radio. The invention of the transistor after World War II ushered in a new era of solid-state electronics. As engineers designed increasingly complex equipment, the difficulty of interconnecting large numbers of individual transistors and other components to form electronic circuits was a barrier to further progress. The need arose for a reliable, cost-effective way to produce and interconnect the components. Technical research groups in the United States and abroad began work on the problem. In 1958, Jack St. Clair Kilby, an engineer at Texas Instruments (TI) in Dallas, designed and built an integrated circuit with all the components formed in a single piece of semiconductor material. On September 12, 1958, he demonstrated this first working integrated circuit to TI personnel in the semiconductor building on this site. This conceptual breakthrough and work elsewhere led to development of the microchips that are at the core of modern electronic products, including a broad range of consumer electronics, digital computers, defense systems, and global communications networks.

Historical Marker →

Hamilton Park Community

1953

Located ten miles north of downtown Dallas, the African American community of Hamilton Park began as the White Rock Farming Settlement. In the 1940s and 1950s, racial violence in the South Dallas community of Queen City and the discriminatory displacement of African American residents for the new Love Field Municipal Airport resulted in the need for many of these families to move outside of the downtown area. In response, Jerome Crossman, a local oilman, compelled the Dallas Citizens' Interracial Association (DCIA) to locate land in North Dallas for the project and consulted philanthropist Karl S.J. Hoblitzelle for funding. On February 13, 1953, the Hoblitzelle Foundation lent DCIA funds to purchase acreage to address the housing shortage of African Americans. Named for Dr. Richard Theodore Hamilton, an influential voice in the African American Equality movement in Dallas, the Hamilton Park Community was the first African American suburban development in Dallas. Intentionally planned in two phases with the segregated twelve-grade school at the center and each street named for prominent African American individuals and institutions, the community officially opened in 1954. By 1958, many homes built near the school were complete and middle-class families began to move in with the community complete by 1961 with 741 single-family homes. In addition to the school, the community included three churches, a shopping center, and park, complete with a swimming pool, tennis court, basketball court, pavilion and playground. Since the 1950s, the Hamilton Park Civic League has served the community residents, connecting them with City of Dallas resources, encouraging voter registration and turnout, and planning community events. This sense of community and pride among residents helps preserve the Heritage and Legacy of the original homeowners. (2016)

Historical Marker →

Anderson Bonner

1839

(c. 1839-c. 1920)

Born into a life of slavery in Alabama in the 1830s, Anderson Bonner was brought to Texas in the 1850s along with his family, including his wife, Eliza, and their four children. After Emancipation in 1865, Bonner worked to support his growing family by tending livestock, farming, and selling cotton, corn and other produce. In 1874, he and his brother, Lewis Bonner, purchased land along the White Rock Creek basin, which led the family to settle in the northwest part of Dallas.

Although he never learned to read or write, Bonner excelled by leasing land and farm equipment to sharecroppers and using proceeds to purchase additional land. By the 1920s, Bonner acquired many acres of land in the areas of Dallas, Richardson and Farmers Branch. According to oral tradition, Bonner rented land to African American families, which helped create a supportive community. Bonner and Eliza had ten children and contributed to the growth and development of North Dallas and the area's African American community. The exact date of Bonner's death is unknown; he is buried next to Eliza in the White Rock Garden of Memories.

The legacy of Anderson Bonner continued when one of the first African American schools in North Texas was named in his honor. Bonner's descendants worked to establish a scholarship endowment in his name for graduates in Richardson. In 1976, the City of Dallas established Anderson Bonner Park on land that once was the original Bonner farm, which had become a popular destination for African American family gatherings. As a prominent businessman in Dallas, Anderson Bonner transformed his life after slavery by becoming a landowner and an inspiring entrepreneur. (2020)

Historical Marker → · 3.4 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

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Buckingham, TX

1958

Buckingham was located in northern Dallas County near the Collin county line and was completely surrounded by the city of Richardson. The community was incorporated around 1958 and, as Richardson grew up around it, remained a small (159 acres) semi-rural enclave with about 150–200 inhabitants. In 1983 developers began purchasing the homes of the sixty-four families that lived in Buckingham, intending to convert the area to apartments, condos, and businesses. By 1985 most of the property in the community belonged to the Buckingham Development Venture. Before the residents moved away they cooperated with the developers to pass a liquor ordinance that made Buckingham a wet community in the middle of dry Richardson. Initial attempts to develop the town were squashed by the real estate crisis of the mid-1980s, and the Buckingham Development Venture went bankrupt in 1987. There were 102 residents in the community in 1990. In the mid-1990s development of Buckingham as an apartment and business district was finally underway, with several apartment buildings, liquor stores, a supermarket, and strip malls. These developments were contested by residents in the surrounding neighborhoods who were concerned about the commercial zoning given to Buckingham and the nature of some of the businesses located in the town. The city of Richardson annexed Buckingham in April 1996.

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Gary, John

1960

Singer and stage and television star John Gary was born John Gary Strader in Watertown, New York, on November 29, 1932, the son of Harold Strader and Merle Dawson Harrington. Gary became a popular stage and television star during the 1960s because of his soulful, heartfelt singing style and three-octave range. His signature song, "Danny Boy," revealed his love for Irish tunes, but his singing repertoire included show tunes, country hits, and romantic ballads. He began singing at age five with his older sister Shirley at amateur talent shows. At age nine he won a three-year scholarship as a boy soprano to the Cathedral School of St. John the Divine in New York. At age ten he won two "Pins of Distinction" from the American Theater Wing and the Merchant Seaman's Club for the Stage Door Canteen. By Gary's twelfth birthday his parents had divorced. After he toured the Southern states with Macon Conservatory pianist Frank Pursley he went to live with his mother and three siblings in California. He attended North Hollywood Junior and Senior High and enrolled in Hollywood Professional School while performing as a regular staff member on CBS/KNX radio. He also sang for tips as he worked as a waiter, doorman, and usher at various restaurants, hotels, and theaters. His stepfather, Bob Yale, became Gary's agent and manager and promoted his early career in Hollywood. As a teenager, Gary made stage and radio appearances with Lionel Barrymore, Paul Whiteman's Orchestra, Billy Wardell, Martha Tilton, Marie Wilson, Jack Cooper, George Jessel, Ken Murray's Blackouts, and others. When he was seventeen his voice finally began to crack and change, and he decided his singing career was over. He joined the United States Marine Corps, in which he served as a military policeman and chaplain's assistant. But he began singing in military chapel services and found his voice had matured to a brilliant tenor with rich baritone flexibility. After being discharged from the service at age twenty Gary met Bob McGimsey, who became his mentor and manager. Gary made "demo" recordings for songwriters such as Harry Ruby, Sammy Fain, Jimmy McHugh, Hoagy Carmichael, Johnny Mercer, Victor Young, and Henry Mancini. He performed regularly on Don McNeill's popular network radio show, "Breakfast Club," and then began a steady career making television and stage appearances across America. About 1962 he signed with the RCA label. During Gary's affiliation with RCA he recorded more than twenty albums; the first was Catch a Rising Star . He also recorded about twenty-five albums for various independent labels. He performed on "The Tonight Show," "The Ed Sullivan Show," "The Bell Telephone Hour," Dick Clark's "American Bandstand," and "The Danny Kaye Show." In the early 1970s a summer-replacement program for Danny Kaye's CBS television show evolved into Gary's own syndicated television variety show, "The John Gary Show," which ran for three years. Gary also sang in stage productions–– The Student Prince and Camelot , for instance––at venues such as the Kansas City Starlight Theater, the Dallas Theater in the Round, and the Dallas Crystal Palace. Gary's popularity continued well into the 1990s, and he sang with numerous symphonies and at various concert halls, conventions, and special events around the world. In 1971 he moved to Richardson, Texas, and married Lee Wilson. Gary also had children from previous relationships with Muriel Stafford Getz and Lois Reidy McDonnell. His family included four sons, two adopted sons, and seven stepchildren. Although Gary's singing talents made him famous, he excelled at many other interests throughout his life, such as boxing, archery, and underwater diving. Among his achievements are two published books of poetry and numerous published songs, including "Possum Song," "I'll Say It All Again," "One Red Rose," and "I'll Never Fall in Love Again." He received many honors and awards, including the National Association of Recording Arts and Scien

Tsha Handbook →

Things to Do in Richardson

historical 12.5 mi away
The Sixth Floor Museum

Where Lee Harvey Oswald fired from. The JFK assassination site at Dealey Plaza.
historical 12.5 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 11.8 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 8.8 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…
spooky 9.2 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…
historical 10.1 mi away
Southfork Ranch

The filming location of TV's Dallas. JR Ewing lived here.
food 11.8 mi away
Pecan Lodge

Dallas' best BBQ. The beef rib alone is worth the drive.

Sports in Richardson

⭐ HOMETOWN LEGENDS Class 6A · Football

Berkner Rams — Berkner — a college & pro athletic pipeline

8 alumni who reached major-college or pro sports

Berkner High School in Richardson has a proud tradition of athletes who have gone on to compete at the highest levels. The Rams' athletic program has helped shape numerous individuals who achieved success in major college and professional sports. Among these accomplished alumni are Everson Walls, an NFL defensive back, and Aundra Thompson, an NFL wide receiver. The school's legacy also includes Toddrick McIntosh, a former NFL defensive lineman, and Kevin Murphy, a former NFL linebacker, showcasing the depth of talent that has emerged from Berkner.

The reach of Berkner's athletic alumni extends beyond football. Laurie Flachmeier Corbelli is a former Olympic volleyball player and current college volleyball head coach. In basketball, Keenan Evans played college basketball for Texas Tech and is a professional basketball player in the Israeli Basketball Premier League. Melissa Henderson is a former professional soccer player, and Keilahn Harris is an NFL wide receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers, further highlighting the diverse athletic achievements of Berkner graduates.

Pro/D1 alumni
8
Class
6A
Founded
1969
Key Players
  • Laurie Flachmeier Corbelli — , former Olympic volleyball player and current college volleyball head coach
  • Keenan Evans — (born 1996), college basketball player for Texas Tech, professional basketball player in t
  • Keilahn Harris — , NFL wide receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers
  • Melissa Henderson — , former professional soccer player
  • Toddrick McIntosh — , former NFL defensive lineman
  • Kevin Murphy — , former NFL linebacker
The moment

Everson Walls was an NFL defensive back.

Sources: Wikipedia · SI High School (ScoreBook Live)
⭐ HOMETOWN LEGENDS Class 6A · Football

Pearce Mustangs — Pearce — a college & pro athletic pipeline

3 alumni who reached major-college or pro sports

Richardson's Pearce High School, a Class 6A institution, has a history of producing athletes who have gone on to compete at significant levels. These alumni represent various sports, showcasing the diverse athletic programs at Pearce. Their journeys from high school competition to professional arenas reflect their dedication and skill.

Among those who have made their mark are Ray Childress, a defensive lineman in the NFL, and Anthony Dorsett, a defensive back for the Tennessee Titans and Oakland Raiders. Also from Pearce is Alejandro Moreno, a professional soccer player who played internationally with Venezuela. These individuals illustrate the athletic talent cultivated within the Pearce High School community.

Pro/D1 alumni
3
Class
6A
Founded
1967
Key Players
  • Ray Childress — (b. 1962), class of 1981, NFL Pro Bowl defensive lineman
  • Anthony Dorsett — (b. 1973), class of 1992, former defensive back for the Tennessee Titans and Oakland Raide
  • Alejandro Moreno — (b. 1979), professional soccer player who won three MLS Cups with three different teams, w
The moment

Anthony Dorsett played defensive back for the Tennessee Titans and Oakland Raiders.

Sources: Wikipedia · SI High School (ScoreBook Live)

Everything Near Richardson

1871 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the nearest 200 are listed here — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

  • The Richardson Antennas That Carried the First Voices From Space

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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…

  • First Presbyterian Church of Richardson · 0.3 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…

  • Wheeler School · 0.3 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…

  • McKamy Spring · 0.5 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…

  • First United Methodist Church Richardson · 0.6 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…

  • Richardson · 0.8 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…

  • First Baptist Church of Richardson · 1.0 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…

  • Blewett Cemetery · 1.1 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…

Show all 200 nearby places
  • Officer David Sherrard Memorial Highway · 1.4 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 Chip That Changed the World · 1.5 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 · 1.5 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 · 1.5 mi

    Richardson is home to the Telecom Corridor, with a high concentration of telecommunications companies. More than 5,000 businesses operate within the city, including major players like AT&T, Verizon, Cisco Systems,…

  • The End of a Dry Era · 1.5 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…

  • Floyd Pioneer Cemetery · 1.7 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…

  • Demonstration of the First Working Integrated Circuit · 1.8 mi · Historical Marker

    The twentieth-century age of electronics can trace its roots to the 1906 invention of the triode vacuum tube, which marked the birth of modern radio. The invention of the transistor after World War II ushered in a new…

  • The Summer One Sliver of Germanium Changed Everything · 1.8 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,…

  • Why It's Called an Integrated Circuit · 1.8 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 · 1.8 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 · 1.8 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…

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Richardson (Richardson) · 1.9 mi

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

  • Richardson, TX · 2.1 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…

  • Officer David Sherrard Memorial Highway · 2.1 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…

  • Buckingham, TX · 2.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Buckingham was located in northern Dallas County near the Collin county line and was completely surrounded by the city of Richardson. The community was incorporated around 1958 and, as Richardson grew up around it,…

  • Gary, John · 2.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Singer and stage and television star John Gary was born John Gary Strader in Watertown, New York, on November 29, 1932, the son of Harold Strader and Merle Dawson Harrington. Gary became a popular stage and television…

  • University of Texas at Dallas · 2.1 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…

  • Berkner High School (Aqib Talib) · 2.3 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…

  • Virgin Forest Hiding Beside the Freeway · 2.5 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…

  • J.J. Pearce High School (Ray Childress) · 2.7 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…

  • A Preacher's Daughter From J.J. Pearce High · 2.7 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…

  • The University Three Engineers Built From a Cotton Field · 2.8 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,…

  • Hamilton Park Community · 2.8 mi · Historical Marker

    Located ten miles north of downtown Dallas, the African American community of Hamilton Park began as the White Rock Farming Settlement. In the 1940s and 1950s, racial violence in the South Dallas community of Queen City…

  • A Performing-Arts Hall in the Heart of the Tech Corridor · 2.8 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…

  • The Sausage Farm With Hayrides on the Edge of Town · 3.1 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…

  • Mount Calvary Cemetery · 3.2 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…

  • Routh Cemetery · 3.3 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…

  • Anderson Bonner · 3.4 mi · Historical Marker

    (c. 1839-c. 1920)

Born into a life of slavery in Alabama in the 1830s, Anderson Bonner was brought to Texas in the 1850s along with his family, including his wife, Eliza, and their four children.…

  • Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church · 3.5 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 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…

  • Mount Pisgah Missionary Baptist Church · 4.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising through Dallas County, heading past the site of Mount Pisgah Missionary Baptist Church, also known as 'The Rock.' Established way back in 1864, this is the oldest African American church in the entire…

  • Henry Keller and Keller Springs Road · 4.5 mi

    White Rock Cemetery Garden of Memories in Far North Dallas, Texas, is the resting place of Henry Keller (1817-1911), one of Dallas County's earliest and most influential African American pioneers. Keller was born into…

  • A Swimming Pool Shaped Like Texas · 4.5 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…

  • First Baptist Church of Renner · 4.6 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…

  • McCree Cemetery · 4.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Dallas, passing McCree Cemetery. This wasn't just any burial ground; it started with a land grant in 1866 from Mahulda Bonner McCree. But look closely at the dates: at least two people, John Henry…

  • White Rock Chapel · 4.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of White Rock Chapel, a testament to resilience and faith. Formed by former slaves in the Upper White Rock community in 1884, this Methodist church started in a log building near White Rock…

  • The Aircraft-Engine Plant That Became a Food Factory · 4.8 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.…

  • The Day the World Changed in Dealey Plaza · 4.9 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 · 4.9 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 · 4.9 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 · 4.9 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 · 4.9 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 · 4.9 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 · 4.9 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 · 4.9 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 · 4.9 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 · 4.9 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 · 4.9 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 · 4.9 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 · 4.9 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 · 4.9 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 · 4.9 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 · 4.9 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 · 4.9 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…

  • Plano Cemetery · 4.9 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…

  • The Ammie Wilson House · 4.9 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…

  • When the Affluent Suburb Made National News for Heroin · 5.0 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 · 5.0 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 · 5.0 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 · 5.0 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 · 5.0 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 · 5.0 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 · 5.0 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 · 5.0 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…

  • Shiloh Baptist Church · 5.0 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…

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Conrad (Dallas) · 5.1 mi

    Conrad (Dallas, TX) placed on the 4A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Edgar Chourio (0.500 avg, 1 HR).

  • Lake Highlands Elementary School · 5.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Dallas, past the site of Lake Highlands Elementary School. Opened in 1955, this school was a product of post-war suburban boom and Richardson ISD's rapid growth. But it wasn't just another…

  • Highland Oaks Church of Christ · 5.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Dallas, past the history of Highland Oaks Church of Christ. It began way back on August 6, 1855, as a Christian Church congregation formed by Dallas pioneers like John Higgs Cole and Harvey…

  • Burned to a Tent City, Then Burned Again · 5.2 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…

  • The Trolley Stop That Became a Museum · 5.2 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…

  • Plano National Bank/I.O.O.F. Lodge Building · 5.2 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…

  • Texas Electric Railway Station · 5.2 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…

  • Fred Schimelpfenig Building · 5.2 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 · 5.2 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 · 5.2 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…

  • First Christian Church of Plano · 5.2 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…

  • Saigling House · 5.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Plano, where the arrival of the railroad in the 1870s spurred growth. In 1881, Charles and Celestine Saigling moved here from Houston, drawn by business opportunities. C.F. Saigling became a civic…

  • Plano High School and Gymnasium · 5.3 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.…

  • First Baptist Church of Plano · 5.3 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…

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: North Garland (Garland) · 5.4 mi

    North Garland (Garland, TX) placed on the 6A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Raul Puente (0.532 avg, 2 HR).

  • Aldridge House · 5.4 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…

  • Dinner Served by a Costumed Time Traveler · 5.5 mi

    If a server dressed as a superhero, a princess, or a cowboy slides your prime rib onto the table, you've found Addison's most gleefully weird restaurant. The Magic Time Machine at 5003 Belt Line Road has been doing…

  • Jesuit College Prep, Dallas (Jordan Spieth) · 5.6 mi

    Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas is where Jordan Spieth won multiple state golf titles and, like Tiger Woods, two U.S. Junior Amateur championships. He played at the University of Texas and went on to win…

  • Travis College Hill Addition · 5.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Garland, and right here is the Travis College Hill Addition. Back between 1910 and 1920, Garland was booming, nearly doubling its population. Plans were in the works for an interurban trolley line…

  • Building a Downtown From an Empty Field · 5.7 mi

    For most of its life Addison had a problem unusual for a town: it had no real center, just airport, offices, highways, and restaurants spread along the roads. In the early 1990s town officials decided to build one from…

  • Public Education in Garland · 5.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Garland, and right here is where public education took root. It started humbly, as the Duck Creek School, soon after this community was founded in 1887. Temporary spaces served students until the…

  • The Wet Oasis of North Dallas · 5.8 mi

    In the 1970s, if you wanted to order a cocktail with dinner in the suburbs north of Dallas, you were mostly out of luck. The region was a patchwork of 'dry' laws, a remnant of Prohibition. But the leaders of tiny…

  • How Garland Became the Cowboy Hat Capital of Texas · 5.8 mi

    The city you're rolling through makes more cowboy hats than just about anywhere on earth, and it started with two Dallas hatmakers. In 1927, E.R. Byer and Harry Rolnick founded Byer-Rolnick and chose the name Resistol,…

  • The Hall of Fame Swing Born on Garland Hardpan · 5.8 mi

    One of golf's all-time greats came into the world right here. Lee Buck Trevino was born in Garland on December 1, 1939, into hard poverty, raised by his mother and a grandfather who dug graves, in a small house that had…

  • The Night a Tornado Crossed the I-30 Interchange · 5.8 mi

    On the evening of December 26, 2015, the day after Christmas, a violent EF4 tornado tore across the southeastern edge of Garland and into neighboring Rowlett. It touched down near Sunnyvale at 6:46 p.m. and stayed on…

  • One of the Biggest Fireworks Shows in America · 5.8 mi

    Every year on the third of July, this little town throws one of the biggest fireworks shows in the country. Kaboom Town has run since 1985, draws more than four hundred thousand spectators, and has been named one of the…

  • The Busiest Little Airport · 5.8 mi

    As you pass through Addison, you're near one of the most important pieces of infrastructure in North Texas: Addison Airport. It opened in 1957, and it's not an airport for commercial airlines like DFW. This is a…

  • Engineering a Downtown from Scratch · 5.8 mi

    By the 1990s, Addison was a classic American suburb: a collection of office parks, strip malls, and apartments all connected by wide, fast roads. It had places to work and places to live, but no central, walkable heart.…

  • Garland, TX · 5.8 mi

    Garland's history is marked by pivotal moments that shaped its destiny. The city was born out of a rivalry between two communities, Embree and Duck Creek, which eventually merged to form Garland in 1891. A devastating…

  • Addison, TX · 5.8 mi

    Addison was settled as early as 1846 when Preston Witt built a house near White Rock Creek. The Witt family opened a gristmill in 1849. In 1880, Sidney Smith Noell purchased a large tract of land south of what is now…

  • The Materials Science Hidden Inside a Cowboy Hat · 5.8 mi

    There's a surprising amount of materials engineering riding on a Garland-made cowboy hat. A fur-felt hat isn't woven or stitched from cloth; it's matted. Tiny barbed fibers of beaver and rabbit underfur are bombarded…

  • Fifteen Seconds at the Culwell Center · 5.8 mi

    The Curtis Culwell Center in Garland is an events hall owned by the school district. On May third, two thousand fifteen, it hosted a contest of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, put on by the American Freedom Defense…

  • One Kick, Three Titles: Garland's Owls · 5.8 mi

    Garland High's nineteen fifty six football state championship came down to one kick, and it came one year after a heartbreak at home. In the nineteen fifty five Class Three-A state final, played in Garland, the Owls led…

  • Blueprints in the Roundabout · 5.8 mi

    In the late 1990s Addison tried an experiment that planners still cite: it grew a dense, walkable town center, called Addison Circle, out of eighty acres of vacant land, a deliberate break from typical suburban sprawl.…

  • The 1927 Cyclone and the Library Born From It · 5.8 mi

    Decades before the I-30 disaster, Garland was scarred by another twister. Early on Sunday, May 9, 1927, a powerful tornado, remembered locally as the Garland Cyclone, dropped south of town, skipped, and came down again,…

  • The Smiley Grave and a Legend the Cyclone Built · 5.8 mi

    In the dark at Mills Cemetery, near Commerce Street and Centerville Road, sits a single headstone that has fueled one of Garland's most persistent ghost stories. The Smiley marker lists a whole family who all died on…

  • The Voices That Grew Up in Garland · 5.8 mi

    Garland has been a launchpad for a striking number of voices. LeAnn Rimes, the country-pop prodigy who exploded onto the charts as a teenager with the song Blue and became one of the youngest artists ever to win major…

  • Garland's First Fallen Officer · 5.8 mi

    In Garland, the corner of Saturn Road and Lexington Drive is where the city's police department lost the first officer it ever lost in the line of duty. His name was Gerald Walker. He was forty-eight years old and wore…

  • The Bank Window on Centerville Road · 5.8 mi

    On February fifteenth, nineteen ninety seven, an employee at a Bank One branch on West Centerville Road in Garland called police about a suspicious man standing in a teller's line. Several employees had recognized him…

  • Bobby Boyd, Garland's Greatest Athlete · 5.8 mi

    Homer Johnson worked in Garland schools for sixty-eight years, and he ranked Bobby Boyd as Garland's greatest athlete ever. At Garland High, Boyd ran, kicked, passed, returned kicks and played defensive back. He called…

  • Drive-In, Space-Age Twin, Then Hypermart · 5.8 mi

    One spot on South Garland Avenue in Garland has had three very different lives. The Garland Road Drive-In opened there on April seventh, nineteen fifty, with searchlights, a circus calliope band wagon, and the movie Oh,…

  • Garland's Zombieland Zinger · 5.8 mi

    Garland got a name check in a Hollywood zombie comedy, and it was not exactly a compliment. Early in the two thousand nine movie Zombieland, Jesse Eisenberg's character is at a service station running from zombies, and…

  • Little Egypt · 5.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Little Egypt, a Black community founded by former slave Jeff Hill in 1883. For decades, it held onto its rural character, even with a church and schoolhouse. But in 1962, the whole…

  • How a Water-Pump Spat Built Garland's Own Power Grid · 5.8 mi

    Most of the lights in Garland answer to the city itself, and the reason traces to a fight over a single water pump. In the early 1920s the private utility serving the area wouldn't give Garland a fair commercial rate to…

  • Addison State Bank · 5.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the old Addison State Bank building, completed in 1913. It was founded just the year before to serve this brand-new railroad community. After the bank closed its doors in 1926, this sturdy brick…

  • Santa Fe Railroad Depot · 5.8 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…

  • St. Mark's School of Texas · 5.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising through Dallas, and right here is the site of St. Mark's School of Texas. Its story starts way back in 1906 with the Terrill School, a place known for strict discipline and academic rigor, attracting the…

  • First Presbyterian Church of Garland · 5.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Garland, and right here you're passing the site of the First Presbyterian Church. This congregation got its start way back on April 22, 1888, when Reverend Benjamin Spencer and twenty-five members…

  • The Python on Apache Drive · 5.8 mi

    Garland animal control got a call on a Friday night in June two thousand twenty five from a resident near Apache Drive and Broadway Boulevard. A large snake was circling the front yard. It was a fifteen-foot reticulated…

  • Garland Softball's Four-Year Run · 5.8 mi

    Garland High softball once had a four-year run that included two state championships. The Garland team made the UIL state tournament in Class Five-A four years in a row, two thousand five through two thousand eight. It…

  • First Methodist Church of Garland · 5.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Garland, and right here, you're passing the site of the First Methodist Church. This congregation started way back in 1855 with just 18 members. For years, traveling preachers rode circuits,…

  • First Christian Church of Garland · 5.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Garland, a town that really took shape after the Civil War. Back in 1875, Reverend W. B. Cole organized the First Christian Church with just 21 members. They met in the local schoolhouse for…

  • First Baptist Church of Garland · 5.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Garland's first church, the First Baptist Church. Baptists were meeting in this pioneer community as early as the 1850s. Then, on March 8, 1868, sixteen members formally organized Antioch…

  • Five Springs of Garland Tennis Titles · 5.8 mi

    For five straight springs, Garland High tennis players brought home state titles. In nineteen forty nine Rod Williams of Garland won the UIL boys singles championship in Class One-A. In nineteen fifty a Garland girl won…

  • Kaboom Town: A Town That Detonates Every July 3 · 5.9 mi

    Most of the country lights its fireworks on the Fourth. Addison goes a day early, on purpose, and turns the whole town into a fireworks arena. Addison Kaboom Town started in 1985 and grew into one of the most acclaimed…

  • How Noell Junction Became Addison · 5.9 mi

    The town you're rolling into began as farmland along White Rock Creek, where Preston Witt put up a house in 1846 on land tied to Peters Colony, the empresario grant that seeded much of North Texas. By 1849 the Witt…

  • The Warbird Museum That Flew Away · 5.9 mi

    For three decades, one of the best places in North Texas to stand under a real World War II fighter was a hangar at Addison Airport. The Cavanaugh Flight Museum, founded by businessman Jim Cavanaugh, filled its space…

  • The Twenty-Foot Hat Watching Over the Square · 5.9 mi

    Look up near the Downtown Square at 420 Main Street and you'll see Garland's cheekiest monument to itself: a cream-colored cowboy hat about 20 feet long, 16 feet wide, and lifted some 15 feet into the air, billed as the…

  • The Neon-Ringed Plaza on the Square · 5.9 mi

    On the Downtown Square at 521 West State Street stands the Plaza Theatre, the most eye-catching building on the block and a survivor twice over. The site started as a 1918 hardware store that burned, and was rebuilt as…

  • Flag Pole Hill Park · 5.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Flag Pole Hill Park, a place that's been a community gathering spot for generations. This land was once owned by Church Goforth, a prominent cotton farmer, who sold it to the city in 1909 to create…

  • Garland · 5.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising past the site of Garland, Texas, a town born from two struggling communities. Back in the 1840s, settlers called this area Duck Creek, and by 1846, they had a log cabin serving as their church, school,…

  • Bankhead Highway in Garland · 5.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past a piece of American history right here in Garland! This section of road was once part of the Bankhead Highway, America's second transcontinental route, stretching from Washington D.C. to San Diego.…

  • Plano Mutual Cemetery · 5.9 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…

  • More Restaurants Than Almost Anywhere · 6.0 mi

    Addison packs close to two hundred restaurants into roughly four square miles, and the town proudly claims it has more restaurants per person than any city in the country. Its Restaurant Row along Belt Line Road is a…

  • A. J. Head Service Station · 6.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the A.J. Head Service Station, a place that was once a vital hub for travelers on America's second transcontinental highway, the Bankhead Highway. Opened in 1947 by A.J. Head, this wasn't…

  • The Town That Couldn't Keep Its First Name · 6.1 mi

    Addison started in the 1840s when Peters Colony settlers built an ox-powered gristmill on White Rock Creek. In 1888, landowners donated railroad right of way for a coaling station called Noell Junction. But when the…

  • Pioneer Cemetery · 6.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Pioneer Cemetery, the final resting place for many Dallas County pioneers. It began in the churchyard of Duck Creek Methodist Church, organized way back in the <say-as interpret-as="date"…

  • Frankford Cemetery · 6.1 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 · 6.1 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…

  • Addison, TX · 6.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Addison, a town that owes its start to the railroad. Back in the 1840s, settlers like Preston and Pleasant Witt were already here, building mills. But it was in 1888 that W. W. Julian and others…

  • Frankford Church · 6.1 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…

  • John Goodwin Tower · 6.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the birthplace of John Tower, a name that echoes through Texas and national politics. Born in 1925, Tower was a World War II veteran and a professor before making his mark. In 1960, he shattered…

  • The Day After Christmas Storm · 6.3 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…

  • An Airport That Fills an Eighth of the Town · 6.3 mi

    In 1956 a 28-year-old Dallas businessman named Bill Overton announced he would build an airport, on private money, and it opened in October 1957. The Town of Addison bought it in 1976. Today Addison Airport is one of…

  • Autumn Sound Studios (now Audio Dallas) · 6.3 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 · 6.3 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 · 6.3 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 · 6.3 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 · 6.3 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 · 6.3 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;…

  • Governor W. Lee O'Daniel · 6.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Dallas neighborhood where "Pappy" O'Daniel spent his final years. Born in Ohio, he landed in Fort Worth in 1925, not as a politician, but as a flour company sales manager. He quickly became a…

  • Garland, TX · 6.3 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…

  • Hill, Anita Dorcas Carraway · 6.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Garland, Texas, a place once home to Anita Dorcas Carraway Hill. She wasn't just a resident; she was a trailblazer in the Texas Legislature. Hill served for over fifteen years, championing causes…

  • Duck Creek, TX · 6.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Garland, but this area used to be known as Duck Creek. It started as a Peters Colony settlement, drawn by the springs, and quickly grew into a bustling community. By the late 1800s, it boasted…

  • Garland, TX · 6.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Garland, a city born from a rivalry! Right here, in the late 1880s, two communities, Duck Creek and Embree, were locked in a fierce legal battle over incorporation. The conflict was so intense…

  • Beat Lyndon B. Johnson for the Senate · 6.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the birthplace of a Texas governor who started life in Ohio! Wilbert Lee O'Daniel moved to Texas in 1925, becoming a flour mill executive and a pioneer in radio advertising. His popular country music…

  • Amberton University · 6.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Garland, Texas, near the intersection of I-635 and Northwest Highway. Right here, in 1971, a college began as a branch of Abilene Christian College. It was called ACC Metrocenter, and its early…

  • Bethel, George Emmett · 6.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Garland, Texas, the birthplace of Dr. George Emmett Bethel. Born in 1894, Bethel wasn't just any doctor; he rose through the ranks to become the dean of the University of Texas medical school. He…

  • Garland Lodge No. 441, A.F. & A.M. · 6.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving by Garland, Texas, where the Masons have been building community for a long time. Back in 1873, the Grand Lodge of Texas gave the green light for a lodge in the pioneer town of Duck Creek, which would…

  • The Road That Runs Under a Live Runway · 6.4 mi

    Addison Airport's single runway sat squarely in the way of north-south traffic, so instead of detouring cars miles around it, the town dug a road straight underneath the active runway. The Addison Airport Toll Tunnel…

  • The Private Airfield Built for Jets · 6.4 mi

    On the northeast edge of town sits one of the busiest little airports in America. Addison Airport broke ground on March 16, 1957, and opened that October, financed entirely with private money by a group of Dallas…

  • Seventeen Seconds: The 2019 King Air Crash · 6.4 mi

    On the morning of June 30, 2019, a twin-engine Beechcraft King Air 350i lifted off from Addison Airport carrying two pilots and eight passengers bound for Florida. About 17 seconds after leaving the ground, the airplane…

  • The Busiest Single-Runway Airport in America · 6.4 mi

    Here's an engineering riddle Addison lives with every day: how do you run one of the busiest airports in the country on a single strip of pavement? Addison Airport has just one runway, 16/34, about 7,200 feet of…

  • From a Golden Shack to Preston Road · 6.4 mi

    In Dallas, Preston Road between Northwest Highway and Royal Lane has a second name. It is the Harold C. Simmons Memorial Highway, and when TxDOT added the markers in mid January, twenty eighteen, it did not take down a…

  • Nate's: Cajun Roots on Midway Road · 6.4 mi

    Of all the restaurants crammed into Addison, Nate's Seafood and Steakhouse at 14951 Midway Road is one of the genuine old-timers. Nathan Peck opened it in 1988 after cutting his teeth in Houston kitchens, including…

  • Hockaday School · 6.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Hockaday School, a Dallas institution that started with a bold vision for girls' education. In 1913, Ela Hockaday, a seasoned educator with degrees from Columbia and Chicago, took…

  • Caruth Pioneer Cemetery · 6.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Caruth Pioneer Cemetery, established in the early 1860s by William and Mattie Worthington Caruth. Across the road was the old Caruth Chapel, where circuit preachers held services for plantation…

  • Dr. Marcellus Clayton Cooper · 6.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Dallas, and right here is a marker for Dr. Marcellus Clayton Cooper. Born enslaved, he became the first licensed African American dentist in the entire state of Texas in 1896. Beyond his dental…

  • Seven Years in the Hanoi Hilton · 6.7 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…

  • Parish Episcopal - 2025 Texas TAPPS Division I state football champion · 6.7 mi · Sports News

    You're near Parish Episcopal High School in Dallas. Last December, they took down Plano Prestonwood fourteen to seven to win the Texas TAPPS Division I state football championship. They wear that crown until this…

  • St. Paul's Evangelical and Reformed Church · 6.8 mi · Historical Marker

    Look to your right, you're passing the site of St. Paul's Evangelical and Reformed Church. This congregation started in 1889 with just five members, all German immigrants. For years, services were held entirely in…

  • The Smallest Town With the Most Restaurants · 6.9 mi

    Addison loves to claim it has more restaurants per capita than any city in the country, and the math actually backs the boast up. Packed into roughly 4.4 square miles, with a population around 16,000, sit something like…

  • The Machine That Froze the Margarita · 6.9 mi

    In nineteen seventy Texas let cities and counties vote to allow liquor by the drink. Shortly after Dallas voted yes, Mariano Martinez opened Mariano's Mexican Cuisine in the Old Town shopping center, at Greenville…

  • Zion Lutheran Church · 6.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Dallas, where German Lutherans began gathering for worship in 1874. In 1879, they organized the German Evangelical Lutheran Zions Congregation, building a structure that housed a sanctuary,…

  • Plano Means Flat · 7.1 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 · 7.1 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 · 7.1 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 · 7.1 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 · 7.1 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. · 7.2 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through North Texas, not far from where a true Texas hero made his home. Samuel Robert Johnson, Jr. was a decorated Air Force pilot, flying missions in both Korea and Vietnam. But in 1966, his plane was…

  • Harrington, Gladys Haggard Bishop · 7.2 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Plano, the city Gladys Harrington Public Library now serves. But back in the 1950s, Plano had no public library. Gladys Harrington, a civic leader and one of the first licensed female drivers in…

  • Plano, TX · 7.2 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…

  • Ursuline Academy · 7.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Dallas, where a piece of the city's educational history is unfolding right now. Back in 1874, Bishop Claude Marie Dubuis brought six Ursuline nuns here with a mission: to start a Catholic school.…

  • Klepper, Frank Earl · 7.2 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 · 7.2 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 · 7.2 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. · 7.2 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…

  • Bowman Cemetery · 7.2 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • Collinsworth Cemetery · 7.2 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • The Great Corporate Migration · 7.4 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 · 7.4 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 · 7.4 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 · 7.4 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…

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