Parked in Plano

Plano is just north of Dallas in southwestern Collin County. We moved to

Former residence

this growing community in about 1990 and lived there for 20 years. When we arrived, our neighborhood was bordered by a wheat field and a blimp airport. By the time we left, the airport was replaced by houses and an elementary school took over the fields. This growth has continued until on a recent visit I nearly didn’t recognize the area. Plano wasn’t always a hotbed of growth. It has some of the same mundane roots as other towns in Texas.



As late as 1844, Indians called this part of North Texas home, but a year later settlers from the Peters colony group began moving into the area. The actual town of Plano was surveyed Kentucky farmer William Forman who purchased Sanford Beck's survey in 1851. Forman built a general

Interurban Museum

store along with several businesses that formed the core of the sparsely settled community. A post office was opened in his home in1852. Eventually the postal authorities approved naming the community Plano, which is Spanish for ‘flat’. Incorporation was completed in 1873 with the election of a mayor and board of aldermen. About 20 years later the public school system replaced the series of private schools that had been serving the community. Plumbing and stove plants, a garment factory, and an electric-wire factory produced goods for the area farmers, allowing the community to continue to grow. In 1872, the Houston and Texas Central Railway connected the community to nearby Dallas, providing a method for getting cattle to market and supporting the ranching industry. Fire destroyed fifty-two buildings in 1881, reducing Plano to a tent city. However, seven years later the St. Louis, Arkansas and Texas Railway Company intersected the Houston and Texas Central, making Plano a retail outlet for farmers and ranchers. The population was 1,200 by 1890, with two railroads, one black and five white churches, two steam gristmill-cotton gins, three schools, and two newspapers. In 1908 Plano became an interurban stop on the Texas Electric Railroad. There is now a museum that tells about what the locals call the Interurban Railway.

By 1970 the population was 17,872; it doubled five years, then doubled

Heritage Museum

again by 1980. More than half of these residents were from outside of Texas. This growth was predicated by large corporations, such as J. C. Penney and Frito-Lay, moved their headquarters to the city. By 1990 Plano covered seventy-two square miles and had a population of 128,713. The Heritage Museum (Farrell-Wilson Farmstead Museum), a former sheep ranch, is the only evidence that Plano was once a small rural farming community. Plano was once home to three colleges: the University of Texas at Dallas (formerly the Graduate Research Center of the Southwest), the University of Plano (long closed), and a branch of the Collin County Community College system. The community profile began to change in 1991 when Chinese professionals began to settle Plano. It didn’t take long for the ethnic Chinese restaurants in the DFW Metroplex to become centered in Plano and Richardson along with the DFW-area Chinese cultural organizations. By 2018, the population has grown to 286,057 and is the ninth largest city in the state by population. Surrounded by other municipalities Plano cannot expand since there is little undeveloped land remaining in the city limits.

My latest visit to Plano took me to the same area I once lived. Eight years ago there was one little Asian restaurant near our house. Now there are several eateries and I got to sample one of them. For information about my rating system, see Reading the Reviews.

Two and one-half carrots

Angelo and Vito’s (7000 Independence Pkwy # 144, Plano, TX 75025, 972-208-4205) is a ‘Neighborhood Italian cafe turning out a range of 

Top: Salad
Bottom: Garlic pizza

specialty pizzas, plus pasta and sandwiches.’ A small group of us met here for a lunch meeting and it is quite enough to be able to talk without interruption. You walk up to a counter to order; the workers bring the food to your table. There are quite a number of selections, including a ‘slice’ of pizza that is about the size of a personal pie. I could actually get a slice of garlic pizza, so I ordered that and a side salad. The price was very reasonable but I was disappointed in the slice. The salad was nice enough and seemed fresh although not ‘made from scratch’. The pizza was salty, limp, and without enough garlic. When I go to the next meeting there, I’ll try something else.

Kinetic sculpture in the rain

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