Plano, Texas

Everything Plano is known for

7 songs mention this city 23 artists from here

Plano, Texas, a principal suburb of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, is home to a diverse array of musical talent. While not exclusively known as a music city, it has nurtured 22 artists across various genres. For instance, the metal band Polyphia and country artist Casey James both hail from Plano.

The city's connection to music is also captured in song, with six tracks mentioning Plano. Among these are "Plano Texas Girl" by Houston Marchman & The Contraband and "Plano" by sandy crow. Plano also has a thriving arts and culture scene, with venues like the Courtyard Theater and McCall Plaza regularly hosting live music events.

Music in Plano

Songs About Plano

Plano Texas Girl
Houston Marchman & The Contraband
81%
"TITLE"
Plano Texas Girl
Steve Wariner
81%
"TITLE"
Plano
Daddy Longhead
80%
"Song about Plano"
Plano
The Shortlist
80%
"TITLE"
Plano
sandy crow
80%
"Song about Plano"
glorieta
Matt Hillyer
9%
In the A
Big Boi
4%
"I go for broke like T.O."

Artists From Plano

P
Polyphia
metal
A
Absu
metal
C
Casey James
country
M
Magus
metal
K
Kevin McHale
r-n-b
A
Ace Aura
electronic
A
Anson Funderburgh
blues
T
Tim Henson
metal
Q
Quindon Tarver
pop
K
Kenton Duty
other
M
Mark David Manders
country
M
Morbid Scream
metal
D
Divine Eve
metal
C
Chaz Marie
country
P
Proscriptor
metal
X
X Opus
other
V
Voot Cha Index
other
O
Ossuarist
metal
O
OnceBefore
other
M
Marsai Martin
other

Showing top 20 of 23 artists

Rivers & Roads in Song near Plano

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Plano.

Interstate 45 8 songs Trinity River 11 songs Interstate 20 13 songs Interstate 35 43 songs Sulphur River 2 songs Sabine River 13 songs

History of Plano

Burned to a Tent City, Then Burned Again RoadyGoat

Twice in fourteen years, fire nearly erased downtown Plano. On August 27, 1881, flames tore through the business district along what was then Mechanic Street, destroying around fifty-two buildings and leaving the town a tent city while merchants started over from ash. Plano rebuilt in brick and prospered through the 1880s, but the prairie wasn't done. In 1895 a second great fire swept the same district and took out about fifty-one businesses, including the dry-goods store Frederick Schimelpfenig had opened in December 1886, which had grown into the town's most successful mercantile. That brick mercantile building, built in the mid-1880s and standing today at 1017 East 15th Street, is one of the very few structures to survive the 1895 blaze, which makes it a rare physical link to the Plano that existed before the corporate boom. Schimelpfenig later served as the town's mayor. Walk the old downtown and you're walking ground that was reduced to cinders and rebuilt, twice. (Source: Handbook of Texas; Plano Heritage research.)

RoadyGoat →

The Trolley Stop That Became a Museum RoadyGoat

At 901 East 15th Street, beside Haggard Park, sits a modest brick building that was once Plano's window on the wider world. Built in 1908 for the Texas Traction Company, it served as the passenger depot and electrical substation for the Texas Electric Railway, an interurban line that ran self-propelled electric trolley cars from Denison south through Dallas to Waco. From here, on the hour from early morning to midnight, Plano residents could catch a car and ride across the Blackland Prairie to the big city without owning an automobile. The interurban era lasted until the line shut down in 1948, beaten by paved highways and the private car. The old depot then drifted into use as a bicycle and lawnmower repair shop until the City of Plano rescued and restored it, reopening it in 1991 as the Interurban Railway Museum. Today the Plano Conservancy runs it as a free museum, with exhibits on electricity, the railway, and the town it once connected to everywhere else. (Source: Interurban Railway Museum; Plano Conservancy.)

RoadyGoat →

When the Affluent Suburb Made National News for Heroin RoadyGoat

In the mid-1990s Plano was the picture of suburban success, an affluent, fast-growing town near the top of every best-place-to-live list. Then its teenagers started dying. A cheap, unusually pure black-tar heroin from competing Mexican and Colombian sources arrived in the area, marketed to local kids under the Spanish nickname chiva and sold for as little as ten or twenty dollars a hit. Because the drug was potent enough to snort rather than inject, it spread through a crowd that thought of itself as far from skid row: popular, athletic, middle-class students. Plano recorded its first heroin overdose death in 1995, and over the next few years roughly nineteen young people, mostly in their teens and early twenties, died. The wave drew national news precisely because of where it happened, and a federal crackdown on the trafficking ring ended in dozens of convictions and multiple life sentences. The crisis became a sober national lesson that addiction respects no zip code. (Source: WFAA; Texas Monthly; Dallas Observer.)

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Johnson, Samuel Robert, Jr.

1966

Samuel Robert Johnson, Jr. United States Air Force pilot, veteran of the Korean War, prisoner of war during the Vietnam War, and U. S. representative for Texas's Third Congressional District, was born on October 11, 1930, to Samuel Robert Johnson, Sr., and Mima (Nabors) Johnson in San Antonio, Texas. Johnson grew up in Dallas, Texas, and graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in 1947. After high school he attended Southern Methodist University (SMU), where he joined the Alpha Kappa Psi business fraternity and the Delta Chi social fraternity. Johnson married Shirley Lee Melton on September 1, 1950. The following year, in 1951, he graduated with a bachelor's degree in business administration. While at SMU, Johnson enlisted in the military. He served in the United States Air Force for twenty-nine years and flew sixty-two combat missions as a fighter pilot in the Korean War and twenty-five in the Vietnam War. While in training Johnson met future astronaut Buzz Aldrin. The two flew together in Korea and were lifelong friends. Aldrin later wore a silver POW bracelet engraved with Johnson's name during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969. Following his time in Korea, Johnson served as a flight instructor, training officer, and as director of the Air Force Fighter Weapons School in Nevada. He also flew with the Thunderbirds Aerial Demonstration Team in 1957 and 1958. While flying a bombing mission over North Vietnam in 1966, Johnson was wounded when the North Vietnamese army struck down his plane and captured him. He was taken to the Hỏa Lò Prison, nicknamed the "Hanoi Hilton." Johnson was one of eleven U. S. military prisoners, known as the Alcatraz Gang, that were separated from other prisoners because they were seen as leaders of prisoner resistance. They were held about a mile away at a special facility dubbed "Alcatraz" by the Americans. He was held as a prisoner of war for nearly seven years, forty-two months of it in solitary confinement at Alcatraz. Johnson was repeatedly starved and tortured, and the injuries that he sustained during his capture, including a broken right arm and back, were never properly treated. By the time of his release, on February 12, 1973, during Operation Homecoming, he weighed only 120 pounds, his right hand was disabled, and he walked with a permanent limp. Johnson remained in the U. S. Air Force, and in 1974 he earned a masters degree in industrial administration from George Washington University through an off-campus program for military officers. He subsequently served as the deputy commander for operations for the 4th Tactical Fighter Wing at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina, as wing commander of the 31st Tactical Fighter Wing at Homestead Air Force Base in Florida, and as air division commander at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, before retiring as a colonel in 1979. Johnson co-authored an air-tactics manual that was still in use at the time of his death. He recounted the details of his POW experience in his autobiography, Captive Warriors: A Vietnam POW's Story (1992). Following his retirement from the military, Johnson returned to Plano, Texas, and established a home construction business. In 1984 he ran for a seat in the Texas legislature. He narrowly defeated his Republican primary opponent, Brian McCall, by 267 votes in a runoff election. Johnson represented House District 60 from 1985 to 1991. He gave up his seat to run in the special election to fill the unexpired term of U. S. Representative Steve Bartlett, who resigned to run for Dallas mayor. One of twelve candidates, Johnson defeated Tom Pauken in a runoff to win his seat as representative for Texas's Third Congressional District. Taking his seat in Congress on May 8, 1991, Johnson soon earned a reputation as a one of the most conservative members of the U. S. House. A fiscal conservative who supported a strict construction of the U. S. Constitution, he championed lower taxes and small government. Johnson opp

Tsha Handbook → · 3.6 mi away

Harrington, Gladys Haggard Bishop

1950

Gladys Haggard Bishop Harrington, Plano civic leader, was born in Paris, Texas, on May 29, 1901, to Nannie Elizabeth (Haggard) Bishop, the daughter of early Plano settler Clinton Shepherd Haggard, and Thomas C. Bishop. She moved to Plano with her mother, sister Mary Elizabeth, and brother Clinton Conner after the death of her father in 1912 to be closer to relatives. Gladys Bishop married Fredrick Joseph Harrington on October 8, 1919, shortly after graduating from Plano High School. The couple lived on a farm located northeast of present-day Parker and Preston roads in Plano until the death of Fred Harrington in 1948. Gladys Harrington became one of the first female licensed drivers in Collin County after learning to drive the family's DeSoto automobile to attend church and club meetings in Plano. She made do with one summer dress and one winter dress throughout the Great Depression . Harrington moved into town in the early 1950s and designed her house on Avenue H near downtown Plano. About that time she began traveling widely and eventually visited every continent except Africa and Antarctica. Though she never attended college, Harrington is credited with creating the first public library to serve Plano and the surrounding communities. She became president of the Plano Federation of Church Women in 1953 and, with $60 and ninety-seven books, led the group in organizing a community free reading service. The federation ceased to exist in 1955, and Harrington spent the next several years working to sustain the book service and advocating the establishment of a permanent library in Plano. She persuaded individuals and groups to donate books, building space, and lumber; to build shelves; and to act as librarians for the start-up institution. Harrington taught herself the basics of library science and how to submit grant applications for funding. The city of Plano assumed financial responsibility of the library in 1965. On June 2, 1969, after a successful bond election, the city of Plano opened its first library building. It was appropriately named the Gladys Harrington Public Library. Harrington continued in her role as an education and literacy advocate throughout her life. She was a frequent visitor to area public school classrooms, where she encouraged children to explore the world through books. Harrington told hundreds of school children that they would never be lonely if they learned to read. In 2003 she was awarded an honorary associate of arts degree and named the first Living Legends recipient by the Collin County Community College District in recognition of her work launching the library. Harrington was an active supporter of the Republican party in Texas. Each election year during her more than thirty years as a Republican precinct chair, she personally visited every registered voter in Collin County's Precinct 23. Her son Fred Conner Harington was a founder of the Collin County Republican Men's Club and briefly served as mayor of Plano before his death in 1970. The following year Harrington organized a Collin County Republican women's club, named the Conner Harrington Republican Women's Club in her son's honor. She served as president of the club and was also president of the Plano Republican Women's Club. Harrington was also an active member of Plano's First Christian Church, where she served as a deaconess and Sunday school teacher. Harrington was a founding board member of the Plano Symphony Orchestra Association and an underwriter of the orchestra's Collin County Young Artist Competition. She was a founding member of the Plano Heritage Association and the Thompson Book Review Club. She was active in the Plano Chamber of Commerce, the Fine Arts League of Plano, the Plano chapter of the P.E.O. Sisterhood, the Daughters of the American Revolution , and the United Daughters of the Confederacy . She was also an honorary member of the Collin County Genealogical Society, the Plano Jaycee-ettes, and Beta Sigma Phi. Gladys H

Tsha Handbook → · 3.6 mi away

Saigling House

1881

The Houston & Texas Central Railroad brought access to agricultural markets and growth to Plano in the 1870s. Celestine (Pillot) (1854-1932) and Charles Frederick (C.F.) (1840-1906) Saigling moved from Houston to Plano in 1881 to pursue business opportunities in Plano and north Texas. C.F. Saigling was an active community and civic leader during his time in Plano. He established the C.F. Saigling Lumber Company, C.F. Saigling Planing Mill and the Saigling Milling Company. Saigling also served on the Plano city council (1884-1885), the first Plano school board and other organizations. Saigling Elementary School was named in his honor. Celestine Saigling was a longtime member of First Christian Church of Plano. In 1918, Celestine Saigling built this Craftsman style house designed by the Dallas architecture firm of Lang and Witchell. The notable firm designed high-rise office buildings, schools, department stores, courthouses, residences and other buildings in Texas in the early 20th century. The Saigling House is a two-story brick residence with a side-gabled roof. A full-width L-shaped porch supported by large square columns, removed sometime between 1935 and 1945 but later reconstructed, fronts the house. The design was among the first brick veneer houses in Plano. Celestine Saigling owned the house until her death in 1932. Her estate sold the property in 1935. Later notable resident included Dr. Oliver T. Mitchell and Fred Miers, a three-term mayor of Plano. Home to several prominent citizens, the Saigling House played a significant role in Plano's history and showcases one of the most popular early 20th century architectural styles. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2018

Historical Marker →

Muncey Massacre

1844

McBain Jameson and Jeremiah Muncey settled in this vicinity in 1840 and 1842. While hunting in late 1844, William Rice and Leonard Searcy came to Muncey's hut and found the savagely slain bodies of Jameson, Muncey, Mrs. Muncey, and a small child, and recognized signs of an Indian raid. The men sped out to their own sons, who were hunting nearby. Young Searcy was found safe, but Rice had been killed. Two Muncey boys disappeared, never to be found. Another was at Throckmorton settlement. That was the last tragic Indian raid in Collin county. (1976) Supplemental plaque added 1998: Historical marker relocated to this site in 1998. The site of the Muncey home and graves of the victims are approximately one mile northwest of this site.

Historical Marker →

Officer David Sherrard Memorial Highway

2018

Honors Richardson PD SWAT Officer David Sherrard, first Richardson PD line-of-duty death in the department's 63-year history, killed February 7, 2018, at the Breckinridge Point Apartments. Honorary segment on US-75 through Richardson.

Historical Marker → · 3.2 mi away

Richardson, TX

1858

Richardson, one of the largest small cities in Texas, is located about fourteen miles north of downtown Dallas on Central Expressway (U.S. Highway 75). The Red Line of the DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) light rail system parallels the highway. The majority of Richardson is located in northern Dallas County with a smaller portion in southern Collin County. Encompassing slightly more than twenty-eight-square-miles, Richardson has an irregular shape, bounded on the west, northwest, and south by Dallas, by Garland on the east and south, by Plano and Murphy on the north, and Sachse on the east. Several small streams, most notably Prairie, Spring, Duck, and Cottonwood creeks, flow through the city. Between 1841 and 1853 the land that makes up Richardson was part of the Peters Colony . In 1858 a small forerunner settlement, called Breckinridge in honor of U. S. vice president John C. Breckinridge, was established on land belonging to settler John B. Floyd, between present-day Richland College and Restland Memorial Park. Breckinridge, which consisted of a U. S. post office, a general store, a blacksmith shop, and an inn, was served by a Sawyer, Risher, and Hall stagecoach line ( see RISHER AND HALL STAGE LINES ). The settlement lasted until just after 1873, when the Houston and Texas Central (H&TC) Railroad bypassed it in favor of a new town, named in honor of H&TC secretary Alfred Stephen Richardson. For nominal sums, two local landowners, William J. Wheeler and Bernard Reilly, sold a combined 101 acres of land for the townsite in April 1873, but due to a deed record error, the first and subsequent maps of the town showed its size as 121 acres. Some sources have claimed that Wheeler refused to allow the town to be named for him, but this story is apocryphal. On June 23, 1873, the railroad trustees who purchased the townsite on the railroad's behalf dedicated a right-of-way through Richardson to the H&TC. The following year they sold the townsite to the railroad for the same price they had paid for the land. Soon after, the first town lot was sold. That same year, a school called the Patrons Institute, also known as the Wheeler School, was built just outside the town limits. During its first quarter century, Richardson grew slowly. Its business district consisted of one block adjacent to the railroad tracks and one block of Smith Street, the town's principal thoroughfare, now known as East Main Street. Richardson received a post office in 1874. In 1901, when drugstore operator Sam P. Harben launched the town's third and longest-running newspaper, the Richardson Echo , replacing the short-lived Richardson Register , there were only six businesses. Two were housed in brick buildings; the remainder in wood frame structures. The population at that time was under 150 people. Most of the Echo's first subscribers were area farmers who, following the Civil War , favored the cultivation of cotton over wheat, which before the war had been the area's principal crop. After the turn of the twentieth century, the town began to experience a much faster rate of growth, especially after 1908, when the Texas Traction Company's electric interurban railway , which connected Richardson to Dallas, Denison, and other points in North Texas, arrived. Its tracks ran parallel to those of the H&TC. Richardson had a population of 147 in 1904, but by 1925 it had more than doubled to 400. In 1900 the Richardson Independent School District (RISD) was established and built a new school to replace a previous structure that burned earlier that year, and in 1914 a larger, red brick schoolhouse, which subsequently served as the RISD's administration building, was constructed. In 1901 the Richardson Telephone Company was incorporated, and in 1904 the Citizens State Bank, the town's first financial institution, was opened. About 1907 a hotel was built, and in 1909, the same year in which the streets were graveled, developers began selling lots in the town's first additio

Tsha Handbook → · 3.3 mi away

Things to Do in Plano

historical 17.8 mi away
The Sixth Floor Museum

Where Lee Harvey Oswald fired from. The JFK assassination site at Dealey Plaza.
historical 17.8 mi away
Dealey Plaza

On November 22 1963 President John F Kennedy rode through Dealey Plaza in an open Lincoln convertible and was shot from the sixth floor window of the Texas…
quirky 17.0 mi away
Big Tex at the State Fair

A fifty-five-foot cowboy named Big Tex has welcomed visitors to the State Fair of Texas in Fair Park Dallas every fall since 1952. He booms howdy folks over a…
quirky 4.5 mi away
Southfork Ranch

The Ewing family TV mansion from the Dallas soap opera sits on two hundred acres in Parker Texas and is open for tours every day. JRs bedroom is there. The…
historical 7.4 mi away
Southfork Ranch

The filming location of TV's Dallas. JR Ewing lived here.
spooky 14.2 mi away
Lady of White Rock Lake

Since the 1930s drivers along White Rock Lake report picking up a soaking-wet woman in a white dress. She asks for a ride home then vanishes leaving the seat…
food 17.1 mi away
Pecan Lodge

Dallas' best BBQ. The beef rib alone is worth the drive.
day trip
Day Trip to Plano 🐎 FULL EPISODE (S15 E7) - Bison Burgers, Southfork Ranch, and "Fowling"

Featured on The Daytripper — a full-episode local travel guide.

Sports in Plano

⭐ HOMETOWN LEGENDS Class 3A · Baseball

Academy — Academy — a college & pro athletic pipeline

5 alumni who reached major-college or pro sports

Plano, Texas – Academy High School, a 3A powerhouse, has a proud tradition of developing athletes who excel beyond the high school level. Our hometown spotlight shines on several notable alumni who have gone on to compete in major college and professional sports. These former Academy Eagles have represented our community on national and international stages, demonstrating dedication and skill in their respective fields.

Among these accomplished individuals are Julius Randle, a basketball player for the Minnesota Timberwolves; J. R. Reed, an American football safety; and Cameron Rupp, an American professional baseball catcher in the Oakland Athletics organization. We also celebrate Matt Constant, a Soccer Center Back for Michigan Stars FC, and Xavier Mitchell, an American professional baseball pitcher in the Los Angeles Angels organization. Their journeys inspire current and future Academy athletes.

Pro/D1 alumni
5
Class
3A
Founded
1997
Key Players
  • Julius Randle — basketball player for the Minnesota Timberwolves
  • J. R. Reed — American football safety
  • Cameron Rupp — American professional baseball catcher in the Oakland Athletics organization
  • Matt Constant — Soccer Center Back for Michigan Stars FC
  • Xavier Mitchell — American professional baseball pitcher in the Los Angeles Angels organization.
The moment

Julius Randle is a basketball player for the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Sources: Wikipedia
🏆 STATE CHAMPIONS Class 6A · Boys Basketball · 2024

Plano East Sr — 2024 UIL 6A Boys Basketball State Champions

Most recent: 2024 6A

Plano East Senior High School, representing Plano, Texas, in Class 6A boys basketball, has established itself among the state's elite. The Panthers proudly claimed a UIL State Championship in 2024. This achievement reflects consistent effort and a strong program within one of the state's most competitive classifications.

The community in Plano has a deep appreciation for high school sports, and the success of Plano East's basketball program adds to that rich tradition. While specific notable alumni who went professional or to major colleges are not listed, the program's state title speaks volumes about the quality of basketball played on their home court.

State titles
2024
Most recent
2024
Class
6A
The moment

The 2024 6A UIL State Championship stands as a high point for Plano East boys basketball.

Sources: UIL State Championship Archives · SI High School (ScoreBook Live)
🏆 STATE CHAMPIONS Class 6A · Girls Basketball · 2018

Plano Sr Wolfs — 2018 UIL 6A Girls Basketball State Champions

Most recent: 2018 6A

Plano Sr High School, a Class 6A powerhouse in girls' basketball, stands as a testament to consistent athletic excellence in the heart of Texas. The Wildcats have established a strong presence within the competitive UIL landscape, showcasing dedication and skill on the court.

The Plano community rallies behind its teams, fostering an environment where young athletes can thrive. While no specific alumni are listed as having gone pro or to major colleges from this program, the focus remains on the collective achievements and the spirit of high school sports in Plano.

State titles
2018
Most recent
2018
Class
6A
The moment

The Plano Sr High School girls' basketball team secured a significant victory by claiming the 6A State Championship in 2018.

Sources: Wikipedia · UIL State Championship Archives

Everything Near Plano

1855 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the nearest 200 are listed here — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

Explore Plano on the Map
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