North and central Denton County are historic and still agricultural

 

The historic 1897 Denton County Courthouse and the square of late 19th/early 20th century buildings surrounding it are iconic of this county northwest of Dallas. But the county offers old, new, suburban and very rural areas to enjoy. 

Previously, I discussed places I enjoy visiting in the southeast portion of Denton County. This area is part of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. Today, we will look at some of my favorite places I have visited or want to visit in the rest of Denton County, an area that either still maintains its rural character or has developed a nouveau rural character.

The southwest portion of Denton County is the latter, nouveau rural. Because of my husband's employment in the estate sale business, I have visited two of these suburbs, Argyle and Double Oak. Both of these small towns are primarily large homes, none of them very old, on half-acre lots with no farms in the area. Argyle is immediately south of Denton, while Double Oak is eight miles southeast of there, It’s near but not in the southeast portion of the county.

In both cases, you won’t have to travel far to visit Starbucks. Double Oak is also near to a high-end shopping center called The Shops at Highland Village. Highland Village is another town that has only recently been built to give Texans a “rural” atmosphere while reasonably close to Dallas. Argyle and Highland Village both became towns in 1963. Double Oak didn’t do so until 1974, and some of the other towns in the area even later.

I enjoyed my visit to the shops at Highland Village while my husband worked an estate sale in Double Oak. But there are some places further north I would like to visit further.

My first stop if going to north Denton County, would be Denton itself. I have been there several times, corresponding with my husband’s work at estate sales in Argyle and in Denton itself.  After he was done working on the final day of the Argyle estate sale, he and I visited the historic Denton Square. Some of these buildings likely were here when my fourth great-grandmother lived in Denton County (she died in 1889.) Most were built in the 1890s or early 20^th century.

While almost every store in Denton Square is repurposed from what it once was, you can still see evidence of what it was like in the old days. The best example of this is the Evers Hardware Store. Even it was originally the Fritzlen Hardware Store, until Robert and Adolph Evers re-opened it as the Evers Hardware Store in 188t5.  Three generations of the family kept it open as Evers Hardware Store until 2001. Although it’s now a t-shirt printing business, the backside of the store still says Evers Hardware.

This is how Denton Square looked in 1889, the year my fourth great-grandmother from Texas died in nearby Pilot Point.  (I think this photo is also from the Denton County Historical Museum, but not sure. Old photos are common use. ) 

Maybe some of this was here in 1867 when my fourth great-grandfather from Texas died. 

A feature of Denton Square I have yet to visit, but would like to, is the historic Denton County Courthouse, which the county first started using in 1897. My ancestors’ time in Denton County precedes this courthouse. Had they any need to go to court (if they didn’t have another one in their hometown of Pilot Point), they would have visited two earlier versions of the courthouse. But one of these was destroyed by fire in 1875 and the other was condemned as unsafe in 1894. This 125-year-old courthouse is still standing and is structurally sound. It served Denton County until 1998, when most operations were moved to a new, larger courts building about 12 blocks east.

I also hope to again visit Pilot Point, where my fourth great-grandparents actually lived. It has a historic downtown, some of which might date back to my fourth great-grandmother’s day. (I’m less optimistic about it dating back to my fourth great-grandfather’s day since his death was clear back in 1867.) I will need to research a book specific to local history that I purchased the last time we were there to learn more about historic locations still standing.

All I am familiar with at the moment up there is the two historic cemeteries located there. My ancestors are buried in one of these, the Skinner Cemetery. It was established in 1858 and hasn’t been used for new burials since 1928.

We located that cemetery and the graves of my ancestors on our second trip to Pilot Point. There is also another James Graham (my fourth great-grandfather’s name) buried in a solo grave right next to my James Graham and his wife Mary “Polly” Dodson Graham. The other James was born two years to the day after my fourth great-great-great-grandfather and died on the exact same day. I can see no indication he is at all related to me, however.

On our first trip to Pilot Point, we mistakenly visited the Pilot Point Community Cemetery, which may be just as old. However, we were only able to locate one Graham in that cemetery, a girl named Elizabeth who was born in 1870 and died before her second birthday in 1872. We found that puzzling, as my second great-grandmother was Mary Elizabeth Graham, who was born in 1857 and died as the mother of young children in 1894. We had previously located the graves of my great-great grandparents and several of their descendants in Madera, California. But further research on Ancestry revealed this Elizabeth Graham, like my great-great-grandmother, was also my fourth great-grandparents’ granddaughter. She was the daughter of a younger son than my third great-grandfather.

Two other places I would like to visit in or near Pilot Point are Texas Tulips at the south end of Pilot Point, and the Fortunata Winery, which is eight miles south of the tulip nursery in Aubrey, Texas. Time prevented us from adding those to our itinerary both times we went to Pilot Point.

I’m told the tulips would not likely have been in bloom as early as March 4, which was the date of our second trip, and I doubt they were in the Summer of 2021 when we made the first trip. The Texas Tulips website, however, says they bloom from the end of February through the end of March or early April. So, seems like we missed a great opportunity – although we still were contending with freezing temperatures in the greater north Texas area at that time.

The winery is probably the closest place where grapes are actually grown to the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. It’s less than 40 miles from my home in Richardson but is closer to 60 miles from some DFW areas. Visit on Friday through Sunday and you can also enjoy wood-fired pizzas and charcuterie boards. More modest appetizers are available with the wine on Thursday, but the winery isn’t open on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. You also can enjoy live music on Friday and Saturday nights.

The attraction of this winery for me is it would be an easy day trip from Richardson, or even from a further south DFW city. But for those who want to make it an overnight trip, there are villas and small homes on the winery grounds, which can be reserved through VRBO or AirBNB. Their website allows you to reach either of these vacation rental programs for the specific lodging arrangement you wish. Rates range for $139 a night for four of their villas (suitable only for a couple sharing a king or, in one case, queen size bed) to more than $300 a night for two three-bedroom two-bath homes on the grounds.

So, please enjoy Denton County, whether its great shopping, history or the best of its still vibrant agricultural community. I myself will be back there tomorrow! (To the southeast Denton County city of Flower Mound.)