Duncanville

Duncanville's early school and its fight to stay independent fill in the plaque's account. The Handbook of Texas credits Crawford Trees, who arrived from Illinois in 1845, with donating land in 1855 for the Little Bethel Male and Female School, which doubled as a church until 1881. A fire in 1884 destroyed most of the commercial buildings. Fearing annexation by neighboring Dallas, residents incorporated a 225-acre city on August 2, 1947, and adopted a home-rule charter in 1962 when the population reached 5,000.

What the plaque says

Duncanville This area was first settled in the 1840s and 1850s by pioneer farmers and ranchers. In 1881 the Chicago, Texas & Mexican Central Railroad extended a line here and constructed a switching station. John Duncan, who lived in the vicinity, was instrumental in securing railroad right-of-way. As a result, the area became known as Duncan Switch. Charles P. Nance and Chris Horne opened the first business in the area, a store at this site. Nance applied for a post office for Duncan but was denied because there was already a Duncan, Texas. He then changed the name to Duncanville. On Oct. 12, 1882, the post office was approved and opened in the store. Acquired by the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad in 1883, the rail line through this area allowed local goods to be shipped to distant markets. Duncanville's growth was gradual, however, and by the 1930s only about 300 people lived here. Incorporated in 1947 with D. L. Hopkins, Jr. as the first mayor, the town began to experience Rapid Growth in the 1950s and 1960s as a result of nearby urban development. Today, Duncanville serves as the center of a major commercial area. Its continued development as one of the fastest growing towns in Texas reflects its rich heritage and community pride. 1982

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Cedar Ridge Preserve — 3.5 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.
• The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza — 10 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 — 11 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.
• Dallas Museum of Art — 11 mi
  A city art museum that began as the Dallas Art Association in 1903, grew up in Fair Park, and has stood in the Arts District since 1984 under a forty-foot barrel vault.

More markers nearby

• First United Methodist Church of Duncanville — 0.4 mi
• City of Cedar Hill — 5.0 mi
• Dallas Zoo — 8.0 mi
• Colonel William G. Cooke — 8.2 mi