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.
The land came first, and it was extraordinary land — the Blackland Prairie, a belt of deep black waxy soil that made some of the finest cotton country in America. Settlers of the Peters Colony began arriving around 1850, and by 1854 the little community of Duck Creek, named for the stream that still runs through the city, had its own post office. The village that grew up in the 1870s was pure Blackland Texas: cotton gins, gristmills, churches, and farm families working ground so rich it turned the region into the cotton heart of North Texas.
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.
