City of Cedar Hill

Cedar Hill got its post office in 1852, and its name has had a stutter. In 1897 it was changed to Cedarhill, but by 1900 residents had gone back to two words. The Handbook of Texas notes that a branch of the Chisholm Trail once passed through the area, joining the main trail near Fort Worth. The tornado of 1856 killed nine people. The town was still small in 1890, with about 500 residents, and grew dramatically in the 1980s, especially after Joe Pool Lake opened nearby in 1989.

What the plaque says

City of Cedar Hill City of Cedar Hill Prospective settlers who traveled to this area during the 19th century were attracted to its high prairie hill and established a community here known as Cedar Hill in the late 1840s. Its early economy was based on providing support services for the surrounding farm communities. Cedar Hill was struck by a disastrous tornado in 1856, which slowed growth until the railroad came through in 1882. The town experienced a transition from rural to urban development during the late 20th century. It remains one of Dallas County's oldest settlements. (1985)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Cedar Ridge Preserve — 3.2 mi
  A 633-acre Audubon Dallas preserve at the western edge of Dallas County, with about nine miles of trails through prairie, woodland and escarpment hills.
• Ellis County Courthouse — 15 mi
  J. Riely Gordon's courthouse of 1897 in Pecos red sandstone and pink granite, with twenty-one carved stone faces and two cornerstones left by a quarrel over its building.
• The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza — 15 mi
  A plow-company warehouse of 1903, identified by the Warren Commission as the building Oswald fired from, now a museum on its sixth and seventh floors above Dealey Plaza.
• Dallas Heritage Village at Old City Park — 16 mi
  Dallas's first city park, laid out around Browder's Spring in 1876, now a museum of historic buildings moved here from across North Texas, among them Millermore, a cotton planter's mansion.

More markers nearby

• First United Methodist Church of Duncanville — 4.6 mi
• Duncanville — 5.0 mi
• First Baptist Church of Ovilla — 5.7 mi
• Ovilla — 5.7 mi