City of Mesquite

Duane's take

The official marker for the City of Mesquite is what I'm bringin' you now; my tellin' of it, straight from the record. Picture May of 1873. The Texas and Pacific Railroad is pushing its iron rails across North Texas, and one of its engineers, a man named A.R.

Alcott, puts pen to paper and platts a brand new depot town. He calls it Mesquite. Just like that: a town is born on a map before most folks even knew there was a map to be made.

The post office opened the very next year. Businesses started sprouting up, and they all did what made sense at the time; they faced Front Street. Naturally.

That's where the action was, that's where the trains and the commerce flowed. Front Street was the heartbeat of early Mesquite. But here's where it gets interesting.

Towns have a way of growing opinions about themselves. As Mesquite filled out and the business owners took stock of what they had, they made a collective decision: turn the front doors around. Face Main Street instead.

Build something that looked like a Town Square. It's a small thing, maybe (the direction a door swings), but it says everything about a community deciding what it wants to become. By 1887, the voters made it official and incorporated the city.

Then, in 1903, a legal challenge arose; the marker doesn't spell out the particulars, but the upshot was this: Mesquite re-incorporated, this time with new boundaries. Sometimes you have to redraw the lines before you can move forward. Mesquite started out with an agrarian economy; farm country, working land.

But in the second half of the twentieth century, something shifted. Dallas kept growing, and Mesquite grew right along with it as a suburb. The school district, established back in 1901, became a genuine draw for new residents; families looking for a place to put down roots.

A.R. Alcott platted a depot town in the spring of 1873. One hundred and thirty years later, it's still growing.

Not bad for a dot on a railroad map.

What the marker says

In May 1873, Texas & Pacific Railroad engineer A.R. Alcott platted a new depot town named Mesquite. The post office opened the following year. The community developed along the rail line, with businesses initially facing Front Street. As the town grew, business owners turned their front doors to Main Street in an effort to create a Town Square. Voters incorporated Mesquite in 1887. In 1903, following a legal challenge, the city re-incorporated with new boundaries. Mesquite, which began with an Agrarian economy, grew rapidly in the second half of the 20th century as a Dallas suburb. The school district, established in 1901, is a draw for new residents, and the city continues to grow. (2004)