Downtown filled with the families who ran it. The Heard brothers kept an 1880s mercantile and opera house on the square; Stephen Heard's restored Victorian mansion is now the Heard-Craig Center for the Arts, and John Heard's daughter Bessie turned her love of wildlife into the Heard Natural Science Museum and Wildlife Sanctuary, with trails and live animals on the edge of town. The 1911 post office is now the Collin County History Museum.
The courthouse is the heart of the square. Built in 1875 by the architect Charles Wheelock in the French Second Empire style — a steep mansard roof, twin towers, decorative cut stone — it was said at completion to be the tallest building in Texas north of San Antonio. It was drastically remodeled in 1927, vacated in 1979, and then carefully restored: in 2006 it reopened as the McKinney Performing Arts Center, with the old courtroom, judge's bench and jury box intact, now a stage. When it first opened in 1876, a thousand locals came for a buffet dinner and a dance that ran past dawn.
Why People Visit McKinney
Visitors choose McKinney for its handsome square, approachable museums, and easy walkability. It balances small-city heritage with everyday outdoor spaces, from the courthouse and Chestnut Square to the Heard sanctuary and the park trails. Families and day-trippers find a friendly layout and an unhurried pace, with year-round appeal in its parks, paths, and public spaces — and the historic square always at the center of it.
