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RICHARDSON,
TEXAS
Dallas & Collin
Counties, North
Central Texas
Highway 75
10 Miles N of Downtown Dallas
South of Plano
West of Garland
Population: 91, 802 (2000)
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"This
is about all that remains of old downtown Richardson." -
Mike
Price, January 2008 |
History in
a Pecan Shell
Settled as part of the Peters colony in the late 1840s, a town named
Breckinridge had formed. In 1873 when the arriving Houston and Texas
Central Railroad bypassed the town, a new community formed, drawing
off Breckinridge’s population.
The railroad has a right-of-way and townsite donated and the following
year a post office was granted.
Richardson is thought to be named after E. H. Richardson, a railroad
contractor. The 1904 population of Richardson was only 147 residents
although it it had grown to 400 by the mid 1920s.
Richardson was included on the route of the Sherman
to Dallas Interurban. The
town was struck by a tornado in 1924 which destroyed residences but
spared the commercial district. The “Red Brick Road” was paved in
1924 – later to be called Greenville Avenue. Richardson and Addison
High schools were consolidated in the late 1920s. From a population
of 720 in the early 1940s, it had increased to 1,288 by the early
1950s. But ten years later it had swelled to 16,810.
When Highway 75 was built in the 1950s, Richardson became a Dallas
suburb. The city expanded by annexation and encouraging industry
to relocate there. The population in 1970 had climbed to 43,900 and
has since grown to the current 91,802. |
Richardson,
Texas Today
Photos courtesy
Mike
Price, January 1008 |
Photographer's
Note:
Subject: Old downtown Richardson.
"There has been a lot of rebuilding in that area such that most
everything old has been torn down, or so remodeled that it's impossible
to recognize the old buildings. Richardson for some reason has attracted
large blocks of ethnic groups over the years. First it was the Vietnamese.
Now it appears to be a mixture of Arabic and Indians. The signs in
that part of town are frequently a mixture of English and the native
language of the [newly arrived] group." |
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"This building,
before it was turned into this featureless nightmare, was a red brick
building with the raised area being the main entrance to what was
the first building in what is now know as Telecom Corridor in Richardson.
(I'm ignoring the Texas Instrument complex to the south as I believe
it is in the Dallas city limits.) The building was the first building
of Collins Radio Company in Richardson. The complex that grew around
it comprised about 10-12 buildings that at one time employed around
7000 people. They eventually set up a second complex about 3-4 miles
northeast of this one. I'm reasonably sure these were two initial
anchors of the electronics businesses in Richardson.
I threw this in as I spent 35 years working in those complexes. Twelve
years in this building, before they destroyed it's personality."
- Mike
Price, January 2008 |
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