Richardson, Texas

Everything Richardson is known for

0 songs mention this city 2 artists from here

Music in Richardson

Songs About Richardson

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Artists From Richardson

J
Jessica Simpson
pop
J
Jake Blocker
country

Rivers & Roads in Song near Richardson

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

Interstate 45 8 songs Trinity River 11 songs Interstate 20 13 songs Interstate 35 43 songs Texas State Highway 199 8 songs Sabine River 13 songs

History of Richardson

The Richardson Antennas That Carried the First Voices From Space RoadyGoat

Some of the most important radio engineering of the Space Age happened right here. In 1960 Collins Radio built a large satellite ground station at its Richardson campus and a twin in Cedar Rapids, then bounced signals off ECHO I, a passive balloon satellite NASA had inflated in orbit. On one pass Collins became the first to establish two-way voice contact via satellite between the two stations, and days later relayed an image of President Eisenhower the same way, early proof that you could talk and send pictures off a thing floating in space. Collins's edge was single-sideband technology, built around precision mechanical filters that squeezed clear voice out of weak, noisy radio links. That expertise made Collins NASA's pick for spacecraft communications: its equipment and the pioneering Unified S-Band system carried the voices, telemetry, and television for Mercury, Gemini, and every Apollo mission. When astronauts spoke from the Moon, the words rode hardware whose lineage runs straight back to engineers working along this Richardson freeway. (Source: The Arthur Collins Story; Collins Radio history.)

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How a Cotton-Field Suburb Became the Telecom Corridor RoadyGoat

The stretch of US-75 you're driving once carried a nickname known worldwide in the tech industry: the Telecom Corridor. It started with electronics. Texas Instruments planted a campus just south of the Richardson line in 1956, and in 1957 Collins Radio, a famous radio-engineering firm out of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, broke ground on what would grow into a multi-building, roughly 400-acre campus near Central Expressway and Arapaho Road. Those two anchors pulled engineering talent into a town that, in 1952, had barely 1,300 residents. By 1960 the population had jumped past 16,000. Rockwell bought Collins in 1971, and the next year MCI opened an engineering facility here, partly to buy microwave gear from Collins as it built a network to challenge AT&T's long-distance monopoly. Through the 1980s and 1990s the firms stacked up along the freeway, Nortel, Ericsson, Alcatel, Samsung, and dozens more, until this corridor held one of the densest clusters of telecom companies on the planet. The cotton fields became fiber-optic country. (Source: Handbook of Texas; City of Richardson.)

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The Town the Railroad Pulled Off the Prairie RoadyGoat

You're rolling into a town that exists because a railroad refused to stop where people already lived. Before 1873 the settlement here was Breckenridge, a small prairie community with a post office, store, blacksmith, and inn, established around 1858 and named for U.S. Vice President John C. Breckenridge. When the Houston and Texas Central Railroad pushed its line north through Dallas County, it bypassed Breckenridge, and the people did what frontier Texans always did: they picked up and moved to the rails. Two landowners, William J. Wheeler and Bernard Reilly, sold a combined 101 acres for a new townsite in April 1873, and trustees dedicated the right-of-way that June. The town took the name Richardson, in honor of a man connected to the H&TC. Sources differ on exactly which Richardson got the honor, often citing railroad secretary Alfred Stephen Richardson, sometimes a contractor by the same surname. The post office opened in 1874, and the old Breckenridge faded into memory, its name now surviving mostly on a few street signs south of where you are. (Source: Handbook of Texas.)

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Demonstration of the First Working Integrated Circuit

1958

The twentieth-century age of electronics can trace its roots to the 1906 invention of the triode vacuum tube, which marked the birth of modern radio. The invention of the transistor after World War II ushered in a new era of solid-state electronics. As engineers designed increasingly complex equipment, the difficulty of interconnecting large numbers of individual transistors and other components to form electronic circuits was a barrier to further progress. The need arose for a reliable, cost-effective way to produce and interconnect the components. Technical research groups in the United States and abroad began work on the problem. In 1958, Jack St. Clair Kilby, an engineer at Texas Instruments (TI) in Dallas, designed and built an integrated circuit with all the components formed in a single piece of semiconductor material. On September 12, 1958, he demonstrated this first working integrated circuit to TI personnel in the semiconductor building on this site. This conceptual breakthrough and work elsewhere led to development of the microchips that are at the core of modern electronic products, including a broad range of consumer electronics, digital computers, defense systems, and global communications networks.

Historical Marker →

Hamilton Park Community

1953

Located ten miles north of downtown Dallas, the African American community of Hamilton Park began as the White Rock Farming Settlement. In the 1940s and 1950s, racial violence in the South Dallas community of Queen City and the discriminatory displacement of African American residents for the new Love Field Municipal Airport resulted in the need for many of these families to move outside of the downtown area. In response, Jerome Crossman, a local oilman, compelled the Dallas Citizens' Interracial Association (DCIA) to locate land in North Dallas for the project and consulted philanthropist Karl S.J. Hoblitzelle for funding. On February 13, 1953, the Hoblitzelle Foundation lent DCIA funds to purchase acreage to address the housing shortage of African Americans. Named for Dr. Richard Theodore Hamilton, an influential voice in the African American Equality movement in Dallas, the Hamilton Park Community was the first African American suburban development in Dallas. Intentionally planned in two phases with the segregated twelve-grade school at the center and each street named for prominent African American individuals and institutions, the community officially opened in 1954. By 1958, many homes built near the school were complete and middle-class families began to move in with the community complete by 1961 with 741 single-family homes. In addition to the school, the community included three churches, a shopping center, and park, complete with a swimming pool, tennis court, basketball court, pavilion and playground. Since the 1950s, the Hamilton Park Civic League has served the community residents, connecting them with City of Dallas resources, encouraging voter registration and turnout, and planning community events. This sense of community and pride among residents helps preserve the Heritage and Legacy of the original homeowners. (2016)

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Anderson Bonner

1839

(c. 1839-c. 1920)

Born into a life of slavery in Alabama in the 1830s, Anderson Bonner was brought to Texas in the 1850s along with his family, including his wife, Eliza, and their four children. After Emancipation in 1865, Bonner worked to support his growing family by tending livestock, farming, and selling cotton, corn and other produce. In 1874, he and his brother, Lewis Bonner, purchased land along the White Rock Creek basin, which led the family to settle in the northwest part of Dallas.

Although he never learned to read or write, Bonner excelled by leasing land and farm equipment to sharecroppers and using proceeds to purchase additional land. By the 1920s, Bonner acquired many acres of land in the areas of Dallas, Richardson and Farmers Branch. According to oral tradition, Bonner rented land to African American families, which helped create a supportive community. Bonner and Eliza had ten children and contributed to the growth and development of North Dallas and the area's African American community. The exact date of Bonner's death is unknown; he is buried next to Eliza in the White Rock Garden of Memories.

The legacy of Anderson Bonner continued when one of the first African American schools in North Texas was named in his honor. Bonner's descendants worked to establish a scholarship endowment in his name for graduates in Richardson. In 1976, the City of Dallas established Anderson Bonner Park on land that once was the original Bonner farm, which had become a popular destination for African American family gatherings. As a prominent businessman in Dallas, Anderson Bonner transformed his life after slavery by becoming a landowner and an inspiring entrepreneur. (2020)

Historical Marker → · 3.4 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

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Buckingham, TX

1958

Buckingham was located in northern Dallas County near the Collin county line and was completely surrounded by the city of Richardson. The community was incorporated around 1958 and, as Richardson grew up around it, remained a small (159 acres) semi-rural enclave with about 150–200 inhabitants. In 1983 developers began purchasing the homes of the sixty-four families that lived in Buckingham, intending to convert the area to apartments, condos, and businesses. By 1985 most of the property in the community belonged to the Buckingham Development Venture. Before the residents moved away they cooperated with the developers to pass a liquor ordinance that made Buckingham a wet community in the middle of dry Richardson. Initial attempts to develop the town were squashed by the real estate crisis of the mid-1980s, and the Buckingham Development Venture went bankrupt in 1987. There were 102 residents in the community in 1990. In the mid-1990s development of Buckingham as an apartment and business district was finally underway, with several apartment buildings, liquor stores, a supermarket, and strip malls. These developments were contested by residents in the surrounding neighborhoods who were concerned about the commercial zoning given to Buckingham and the nature of some of the businesses located in the town. The city of Richardson annexed Buckingham in April 1996.

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Gary, John

1960

Singer and stage and television star John Gary was born John Gary Strader in Watertown, New York, on November 29, 1932, the son of Harold Strader and Merle Dawson Harrington. Gary became a popular stage and television star during the 1960s because of his soulful, heartfelt singing style and three-octave range. His signature song, "Danny Boy," revealed his love for Irish tunes, but his singing repertoire included show tunes, country hits, and romantic ballads. He began singing at age five with his older sister Shirley at amateur talent shows. At age nine he won a three-year scholarship as a boy soprano to the Cathedral School of St. John the Divine in New York. At age ten he won two "Pins of Distinction" from the American Theater Wing and the Merchant Seaman's Club for the Stage Door Canteen. By Gary's twelfth birthday his parents had divorced. After he toured the Southern states with Macon Conservatory pianist Frank Pursley he went to live with his mother and three siblings in California. He attended North Hollywood Junior and Senior High and enrolled in Hollywood Professional School while performing as a regular staff member on CBS/KNX radio. He also sang for tips as he worked as a waiter, doorman, and usher at various restaurants, hotels, and theaters. His stepfather, Bob Yale, became Gary's agent and manager and promoted his early career in Hollywood. As a teenager, Gary made stage and radio appearances with Lionel Barrymore, Paul Whiteman's Orchestra, Billy Wardell, Martha Tilton, Marie Wilson, Jack Cooper, George Jessel, Ken Murray's Blackouts, and others. When he was seventeen his voice finally began to crack and change, and he decided his singing career was over. He joined the United States Marine Corps, in which he served as a military policeman and chaplain's assistant. But he began singing in military chapel services and found his voice had matured to a brilliant tenor with rich baritone flexibility. After being discharged from the service at age twenty Gary met Bob McGimsey, who became his mentor and manager. Gary made "demo" recordings for songwriters such as Harry Ruby, Sammy Fain, Jimmy McHugh, Hoagy Carmichael, Johnny Mercer, Victor Young, and Henry Mancini. He performed regularly on Don McNeill's popular network radio show, "Breakfast Club," and then began a steady career making television and stage appearances across America. About 1962 he signed with the RCA label. During Gary's affiliation with RCA he recorded more than twenty albums; the first was Catch a Rising Star . He also recorded about twenty-five albums for various independent labels. He performed on "The Tonight Show," "The Ed Sullivan Show," "The Bell Telephone Hour," Dick Clark's "American Bandstand," and "The Danny Kaye Show." In the early 1970s a summer-replacement program for Danny Kaye's CBS television show evolved into Gary's own syndicated television variety show, "The John Gary Show," which ran for three years. Gary also sang in stage productions–– The Student Prince and Camelot , for instance––at venues such as the Kansas City Starlight Theater, the Dallas Theater in the Round, and the Dallas Crystal Palace. Gary's popularity continued well into the 1990s, and he sang with numerous symphonies and at various concert halls, conventions, and special events around the world. In 1971 he moved to Richardson, Texas, and married Lee Wilson. Gary also had children from previous relationships with Muriel Stafford Getz and Lois Reidy McDonnell. His family included four sons, two adopted sons, and seven stepchildren. Although Gary's singing talents made him famous, he excelled at many other interests throughout his life, such as boxing, archery, and underwater diving. Among his achievements are two published books of poetry and numerous published songs, including "Possum Song," "I'll Say It All Again," "One Red Rose," and "I'll Never Fall in Love Again." He received many honors and awards, including the National Association of Recording Arts and Scien

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Things to Do in Richardson

historical 12.5 mi away
The Sixth Floor Museum

Where Lee Harvey Oswald fired from. The JFK assassination site at Dealey Plaza.
historical 12.5 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 11.8 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 8.8 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…
spooky 9.2 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…
historical 10.1 mi away
Southfork Ranch

The filming location of TV's Dallas. JR Ewing lived here.
food 11.8 mi away
Pecan Lodge

Dallas' best BBQ. The beef rib alone is worth the drive.

Sports in Richardson

⭐ HOMETOWN LEGENDS Class 6A · Football

Berkner Rams — Berkner — a college & pro athletic pipeline

8 alumni who reached major-college or pro sports

Berkner High School in Richardson has a proud tradition of athletes who have gone on to compete at the highest levels. The Rams' athletic program has helped shape numerous individuals who achieved success in major college and professional sports. Among these accomplished alumni are Everson Walls, an NFL defensive back, and Aundra Thompson, an NFL wide receiver. The school's legacy also includes Toddrick McIntosh, a former NFL defensive lineman, and Kevin Murphy, a former NFL linebacker, showcasing the depth of talent that has emerged from Berkner.

The reach of Berkner's athletic alumni extends beyond football. Laurie Flachmeier Corbelli is a former Olympic volleyball player and current college volleyball head coach. In basketball, Keenan Evans played college basketball for Texas Tech and is a professional basketball player in the Israeli Basketball Premier League. Melissa Henderson is a former professional soccer player, and Keilahn Harris is an NFL wide receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers, further highlighting the diverse athletic achievements of Berkner graduates.

Pro/D1 alumni
8
Class
6A
Founded
1969
Key Players
  • Laurie Flachmeier Corbelli — , former Olympic volleyball player and current college volleyball head coach
  • Keenan Evans — (born 1996), college basketball player for Texas Tech, professional basketball player in t
  • Keilahn Harris — , NFL wide receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers
  • Melissa Henderson — , former professional soccer player
  • Toddrick McIntosh — , former NFL defensive lineman
  • Kevin Murphy — , former NFL linebacker
The moment

Everson Walls was an NFL defensive back.

Sources: Wikipedia · SI High School (ScoreBook Live)
⭐ HOMETOWN LEGENDS Class 6A · Football

Pearce Mustangs — Pearce — a college & pro athletic pipeline

3 alumni who reached major-college or pro sports

Richardson's Pearce High School, a Class 6A institution, has a history of producing athletes who have gone on to compete at significant levels. These alumni represent various sports, showcasing the diverse athletic programs at Pearce. Their journeys from high school competition to professional arenas reflect their dedication and skill.

Among those who have made their mark are Ray Childress, a defensive lineman in the NFL, and Anthony Dorsett, a defensive back for the Tennessee Titans and Oakland Raiders. Also from Pearce is Alejandro Moreno, a professional soccer player who played internationally with Venezuela. These individuals illustrate the athletic talent cultivated within the Pearce High School community.

Pro/D1 alumni
3
Class
6A
Founded
1967
Key Players
  • Ray Childress — (b. 1962), class of 1981, NFL Pro Bowl defensive lineman
  • Anthony Dorsett — (b. 1973), class of 1992, former defensive back for the Tennessee Titans and Oakland Raide
  • Alejandro Moreno — (b. 1979), professional soccer player who won three MLS Cups with three different teams, w
The moment

Anthony Dorsett played defensive back for the Tennessee Titans and Oakland Raiders.

Sources: Wikipedia · SI High School (ScoreBook Live)

Everything Near Richardson

1826 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the nearest 200 are listed here — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

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