The heart of Denton is the Courthouse-on-the-Square, a grand Romanesque-Revival pile of pink granite and limestone finished in 1896, set squarely in the middle of a classic Texas town square. It is the picture on every postcard: the clock tower, the lawn, and the ring of two- and three-story brick storefronts around it, today full of restaurants, bars, record shops, and live-music rooms. The county long ago outgrew it and built a newer courthouse, but the old one stayed on as the Courthouse-on-the-Square Museum — and the square around it stayed the center of town, just as it was laid out in 1857.
What changed it were the schools. In 1890 the Texas Normal College — today the University of North Texas, one of the largest universities in the state — opened its doors, and in 1901 the Girls' Industrial College, now Texas Woman's University, followed. Two universities in a town this size set the tempo: tens of thousands of students, a year-round calendar of concerts and games and festivals, and a downtown that has been a college town's downtown for well over a century. UNT's music school alone grew into one of the largest in the nation.
Why People Visit Denton
Denton offers the energy of a music town and the ease of a small Texas city — a beautiful courthouse square, a deep live-music calendar, two universities, and a creative streak that earned it the nickname “Little Austin.” It's walkable, friendly, and unmistakably North Texas.
