Grand Prairie is on U.S. highways 80 and 303, Interstate highways 20 and 30,
and Farm Road 1382, thirteen miles west of downtown Dallas in western Dallas and
eastern Tarrant counties. The townsite comprises seventy-three square miles
enclosed by Dallas, Arlington, Irving, and Cedar Hill. Mountain Creek Lake is on
the east, a portion of Joe Pool Lake is in southern Grand Prairie, and Kirby,
Cottonwood, and Fish creeks flow through the community.
PHYSICAL
BACKGROUND AND EARLY SETTLEMENT: A few years after Texas
won its independence from Mexico, a section of the state known as the Black
Prairie Region received brave and ambitious citizens from Arkansas, Illinois,
Indiana, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi. This region had its
western boundary at about the western limits of 1953 Dallas County, its eastern
boundary at the northwest corner of Kaufman County and extended north northeast
to the Red River and south southwest to a few miles below Waco. A few of these
pioneers had settled in the vicinity of the western section of Dallas County,
near the west fork of the Trinity River and Mountain Creek which was eventually
to be known as Grand Prairie.
Historically, Dallas County includes level to rolling terrain, middle
temperate to slightly above subtropical climate, an average annual rainfall of
about 36 inches, with an elevation from 450 feet to 750 feet. The growing season
was 250 days. The mean temperature was 65° with a January average of 45° and a
July average of 84°. The area was well drained by the Trinity Ricer and its
tributaries with the main river transversing from northwest to southeast.
The fertileness of the soil was evidenced by the tall native grass, wild
fruits and berries, and many trees such as bois d’arc, hackberry, mesquite,
post oak, cottonwood, pecan, and walnut. Wild fruits and berries which grew
abundantly in the area were blackberries, dewberries, grapes, plums and
persimmons.
By 1846, the buffalo had migrated from this part of Texas, but there remained
a supply of bear, deer, wild turkey, prairie chicken, quail, squirrel, and honey
bees. In addition, there were great flocks of geese and ducks in the winter
months. Undesirable animals of this period included wildcats, prairie dogs,
panthers, wolves, and rattlesnakes.
During the period of the Republic of Texas, the area that is now Grand
Prairie was largely one of wilderness. Most of the Indians had receded westward
but he people in Grand Prairie were still being harassed by frequent Indian
raids on their cattle and crops. In the fall of 1846, a Captain Mounts organized
a company of men and followed the Indians into Wise County (Texas) and whipped
them in a pitched battle. This fight brought an end to the troubles between the
Indians and settlers of the area.
Before the Civil War, this area was without any form of local government. The
pioneers, like the early settlers in other frontier developments, governed
themselves informally and, of course, collectively if they were suffering from a
common cause. All legal documents and transactions were executed in Dallas, the
county seat. Additionally, no formal schooling was available for the children of
Grand Prairie and they boarded in Dallas during the school term, returning to
their homes each weekend to be with their families. Mail service did not begin
until 1846 when it was transported on horseback at weekly and semi-weekly
intervals, depending upon the amount of mail accumulated in Dallas.
civil
war to 1880: There is no evidence documenting the number
of residents of the western portion of Dallas County (designated Precinct #9 in
1862) participated in the War, nor were there any battles fought in the area.
Immediately following the War, the community was bothered by bush whackers.
During this period, the area was still open range with such an abundance of
native grass that sometimes it was difficult for a person to see cattle grazing
on the prairie. Immigrants to Dallas County were few during the War, and those
who came immediately after did so because of the chaos within the states from
which they migrated. Until the railroad between Dallas and Fort Worth was
completed in 1876, the population of Dallas County remained rather static. By
1876, there were approximately 42 families residing in or near Grand Prairie.
The first known settler in the area was Alexander McRae Dechman who was born
in Halifax, Nova Scotia around 1830. From his home in Birdville, Texas,
Dechman learned he could trade his oxen and wagons for land in Dallas County.
On his way to survey the area, his wagon breaks down near the present site
of Grand Prairie. He traded the broken wagon, an ox team, and two hundred
dollars of Confederate money for a 239.5 acre tract of land on the east side of
the Trinity River and 100 acres of timber land on the west side. He tried
to establish a home on the property, but ran into difficulties, so returned his
family to Birdville before joining the Civil War in 1861. In 1863 he filed a
town plat consisting of 50 acres with Dallas County. After the war, he
returned to Birdville for two years before selling that farm in 1867 and moving
to Houston, where Yellow Fever broke out causing the family to settle in Bryan.
The community became officially known as Dechman or Deckman when it received
a post office in 1874. W. M. Haskett was the first postmaster, and the post
office was on land donated by Dechman. By that time a daily stage ran through
Deckman on its way from Dallas to Fort Worth, and in 1875 a stage was robbed
right outside the community. The Valley Church, built by 1875, was the first
church in the area. This log building served as both a nondenominational church
and a school.
In 1876 Deckman grew when the Texas and Pacific Railway was built to the site
from Eagle Ford, just east of Dallas. When Dechman surveyed and platted the
townsite, he gave the railroad alternating lots in blocks A, B, C, and D, in
exchange for the operation of a depot. The post office continued to call the
community Deckman until 1877, when it changed the name to Grand Prairie to agree
with the railroad, which had called the town Grand Prairie since 1873. The
community was supposedly so named because a woman stepped off the train and
said, "What a grand prairie!" By 1890 the town had a population of
300, two churches, a public school, a steam gristmill-cotton gin, a broom
factory, a wagon factory, and general stores.
1880
TO 1915: During the 35 years immediately preceding WWI,
Grand Prairie grew from a hamlet of no particular importance to an incorporated
municipality with definite aims and objectives. Western Union made its
appearance in 1876, but the first telephones were not installed until 1900. When
the area was incorporated on March 20, 1909, there was a bustling community of
three blocks square and a population of over 1000 (The Federal Census of 1910
only counted 994)! The biggest problem was the removal of houses from the middle
of streets and alleys to afford a ploy upon which the town could be built.
In that decade rural free delivery was implemented, Grand Prairie received its
own school district, and several newspapers were published. These included the
Grand Prairie Enterprise, the Texan, and the Graphic. The
North Texas Traction Company, better known as the Interurban, began service to
Grand Prairie. Grand Prairie incorporated in 1902 with S. R. Lively as mayor. By
1907 the Dallas-Fort Worth Pike, later U.S. Highway 80, was gravelled, and good
bridges were built, making travel easier between the cities. The automobile made
its appearance in Grand Prairie in 1910. Natural gas service was established in
1913 with a sewer system in 1914. A volunteer "bucket brigade" had
been organized in 1904, but it took two major fires that almost destroyed the
town in 1917 to convince the citizens to establish a Volunteer Fire Department.
The school system had been established in 1902, but, because of insufficient
school tax revenue, tuition was charged until the 1910-11 school year.
1915
to 1941: An electrical plant and volunteer fire department
were established before 1920, when Grand Prairie had four churches, two cotton
gins, a bank, a furniture factory, a planing mill, and several cottonseed-oil
mills. The railroad shipped cotton, grain, and livestock.
In the latter part of 1919, the Little Motor Kar Company was organized. The
company was successful in obtaining the financial support of the community and
their product was to be called the "Texmobile", a 27 horsepower
vehicle which would sell for $350. The company erected two production building
units, each about 500 feet long. This enterprise was too short lived to aid the
economic welfare of the community, because, in August 1920, the company passed
into the hands of receivership. About 1920, an "Airdrome" was the town’s
first movie establishment. Since it had no roof, it resembled a
"drive-in" theater with seats. The Theater was in operation three
nights a week with serial movies being shown on Thursday nights. The shows were
advertised by the owner walking the streets blowing a horn to attract the
attention of potential customers. Also, the city streets were paved, and
Highway 80 was macadamized. The Airdrome, Grand Prairie's first movie theater,
opened. In 1921 the first Grand Prairie Stock and Poultry Show was held; it
continued every year until the 1940s. (Grand Prairie's McFalls Park,
formerly Cottonwood Park, features the Goodwin log cabin, a hideout of Bonnie
and Clyde Parker's.)
The bureaucracy of Grand Prairie consisted of five elected officials and
three city employees in 1921. And one, the motor patrolman, made his salary from
the fines he collected. On a once a month basis, garbage "pickup"
began in 1923, but by the end of the 1930’s, a pickup truck pulling a trailer
gathered garbage once a week. On September 9, 1924, the citizens celebrated the
completion of a decorative lighting system along Main Street which was composed
of incandescent lights on ornamental poles. It was believed that Denver, CO was
the only other city in the United States with such a system of lighting, a fact
which was quite a distinction for Grand Prairie.
The future of the community was changed when Dallas built Hensley Field (see
NAVAL AIR STATION, DALLAS) on 300 acres two miles east of Grand Prairie's city
limits in 1928. The field, named for William H. Hensley of San Antonio, became
the site for all army operations in Dallas, which were moved from Love Field.
The army rented Hensley Field from Dallas for a dollar a year. Improvements to
the field as well as school construction in Grand Prairie took place under the
Public Works Administration in the 1930s. Mountain Creek Lakeqv was
completed just east of the city limits in 1931. The Curtis-Wright Airport of
Fort Worth-Dallas was built to the west of Grand Prairie in 1929. After failing
as a flight school operated by the Curtis Flying Service Corporation, it served
as the Grand Prairie municipal airport from 1930 until 1940, when it was
purchased by the Lou Foote Flying School. During World War IIqv the
field was used as a training school for the navy. Because it was too small for
jets, it was bought by the city and turned into an industrial park.
1941
- 1990: The population of Grand Prairie had increased from
1,263 in 1925 to 1,595 by World War II. The first wartime-era addition was the
Naval Reserve Aviation Base, built in 1940 on thirty acres of Hensley Field to
be used by the army and navy for flight training. After Pearl Harbor was bombed
a $1.5 expansion was implemented. The area just east of Grand Prairie was chosen
as the site for a federally operated defense plant, North American Aviation,
Incorporated. By 1941 the plant had 5,000 employees. This led to a severe
housing shortage in Grand Prairie and the formation of the Grand Prairie Housing
Authority. The city rushed to provide services and expanded utilities, built new
schools, increased fire protection, and implemented city mail service. At its
peak production the airplane plant employed 38,500 workers. Between 1940 and the
end of the war the population of Grand Prairie grew from 1,595 to 18,000. On
August 14, 1945, there was a complete shutdown of the airplane plant, and the
remaining 15,000 employees lost their jobs. Grand Prairie feared a collapse of
its economy, but it was able to recover by encouraging the development of such
businesses as furniture, boat, and chemical manufacturing. At that time there
were 2,400 dwellings and twenty-one businesses in Grand Prairie.
In October 1945, the Ted Koplen family consisting of Ted,
Ann, Debra and dog, Judi, arrived in a 20' trailer to take up residence
in Grand Prairie. Their first house was located at 609 SE 14th
Street.
The town had another setback in 1947, when the city of Dallas annexed the
industrial area to the east of Grand Prairie, including the aircraft plants,
Hensley Field, and Mountain Creek Lake. In 1948, however, United Aircraft
Corporation moved to the site of the old aircraft plant with 1,500 employees.
Many of them lived in Grand Prairie, and the town provided city services without
receiving the industrial taxes. In 1948 Grand Prairie began annexing land around
it in order to keep Dallas from taking it. To facilitate annexation Grand
Prairie voted in a new home-rule city charter with a city manager. Over the
years communities near Grand Prairie had been annexed, including Dalworth Park
in 1943 and, by the 1980s, Burbank Gardens, Florence Hill, Freetown, Idlewild-Mountain
Creek, and Shady Grove. By 1960 the population of Grand Prairie was 30,000. In
1955 the city unsuccessfully attempted to persuade Dallas to disannex the strip
with the factories.
1990
- Today: Through the next several decades Grand Prairie
continued to grow, and by 1990 the population was 99,616. Of this number, 81,527
lived in Dallas County, 18,086 in Tarrant County, and the rest in Ellis County.
In 1980, 84 percent of the population was white and 7 percent black; Hispanics
made up only 1 percent. Industries produced aircraft and aircraft parts,
plastics, machine parts, and mobile homes.
Tourism became another important business because of the city's proximity to
such attractions as Six Flags Over Texas. Grand Prairie had its own tourist
attractions. Traders Village, a market, was open on weekends, and special events
included Cinco de Mayo (one of the fiestas patriasqv), the Prairie Dog
Chili Cookoff, the National Championship Indian Pow-wow, the Oktoberfest, and
the Western Days Rodeo. Nearby Joe Pool Lake and Mountain Creek Lake provided
water recreation. Grand Prairie features Joe Pool Lake, Trader's Village,
Ripley's Believe It or Not!, the GPX Skate Park, the Palace of Wax, Lone Star
Park at Grand Prairie, the NextStage performance theater, the internationally
regarded Greenhouse spa, and the city's Tangle Ridge Golf Course which ranked
12th best course in Texas by Golf Digest, and the popular Prairie Lakes Golf
Course. The city is run by a council-manager form of government and has
181 police officers, 137 paid firemen, ten banks, a library, and churches of
fourteen communions. The Grand Prairie Independent School District had seventeen
elementary, six junior high, and two high schools.
Today, Grand Prairie is 80 square miles and is ideally located between Dallas
and Fort Worth. An estimated 127,000 people call Grand Prairie home. The average
age of residents is 32 and the average price of a new home is $94,900.
With 35 percent of Grand Prairie available for development and its prime
location in the Metroplex, Grand Prairie has become a hotbed of economic
development. Recent efforts have attracted more than 3,000 jobs and $150 million
in investments.
