The twentieth century turned the farm town into an industrial one. Manufacturing put down roots — Resistol, the famous Western hat maker, among the plants that made Garland a byword for Texas industry — and the city diversified into electronics, food processing, chemicals, and instruments, building one of the larger industrial bases in North Texas. The Plaza Theatre rose on the downtown square in 1941 and still anchors it, restored and busy; the postwar Metroplex boom did the rest, carrying Garland from a courthouse-square cotton town to one of the largest cities in Texas.
Two towns that could not share a post office became one city that shares everything — a square, a lake, a hundred languages, and a name borrowed from a man who never saw the place. From the Blackland cotton rows to the Plaza's neon to the sails on Lake Ray Hubbard, the whole story still fits on one square. Garland, Texas — one town made from two, since 1887. Wear a little of it wherever the road takes you.
Why People Visit Garland Texas
- Stroll the historic downtown square and the restored Plaza Theatre (1941).
- Get out on Lake Ray Hubbard for boating, sailing, and shoreline parks.
- Walk the old-growth bottomland of Spring Creek Forest Preserve.
- Ride the wooded singletrack at Rowlett Creek Preserve.
- Shop and gather on the historic downtown square, with the Plaza Theatre marquee glowing over it.
