Grapevine

Grapevine's civic life began with its Masons. Grapevine Masonic Lodge No. 288 was chartered in 1866, and in 1869 the Grapevine Independent School District opened its first school, the Grapevine Masonic Institute, built by the lodge. The Handbook of Texas says the state directory for 1884-85 listed three gristmills and cotton gins, four physicians, a hotel and an art gallery, with daily stages to Dallas and Fort Worth. A local newspaper, the Grapevine Sun, ran from 1895 to 1977, and the first library opened on March 3, 1923, as part of the Tarrant County Free Library.

What the plaque says

Grapevine Wild mustang grapes growing profusely in this area inspired the name "Grapevine" for this community. Ambrose Foster (1794?-1847) and his wife Susannah Medlin (1796-1876) were among the first settlers in 1845, from Platte County, Missouri. The Fosters, their daughters and sons-in-law acquired land that became the heart of Grapevine. Within the first year worship services and school classes were conducted. Cattle raising was the major enterprise prior to the Civil War. Beef cattle were sold to Camp Worth (present Fort Worth) by Archibald Leonard, Fosters' son-in-law, who owned a mercantile store. In 1858 a Federal Post Office was established and run by Solon Dunn. During the 1870s the village was also known as "Dunnville". In 1914 the name became "Grapevine". After the Cotton Belt Railroad line opened in 1888, the town thrived as a shipping center for cotton, grain, truck crops and dairy products. In 1907 Grapevine incorporated. By 1934 two major paved roads leading to Dallas and Fort Worth were constructed. A dam built in 1942 on Denton Creek formed Lake Grapevine. It serves as a water supply, flood control measure, and a recreational area. In 1974 the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport opened within the city limits. (1979)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Worth Stockyards — 19 mi
  The brick-street cattle market where Armour and Swift built packing plants in 1902, now a National Register district with a Coliseum, a museum and a longhorn drive twice a day.
• The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza — 19 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 Museum of Art — 19 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.
• Denton County Courthouse-on-the-Square — 19 mi
  An 1896 courthouse by W. C. Dodson in Denton limestone, pink granite and two sandstones, restored in 2004, now a free county museum on a lawn holding the grave of John B. Denton.

More markers nearby

• First Baptist Church of Grapevine — steps away
• Grapevine Cemetery — 0.8 mi
• Thomas Easter Cemetery — 1.6 mi
• Missouri Colony — 3.4 mi