Lancaster is a city in Dallas County, Texas (USA). As of the 2000 U.S. Census, the city population was 25,894 (though a 2007 estimate placed the city’s population at 35,050).
Lancaster is a suburb of Dallas and is part of the Best Southwest area, which includes Lancaster, Cedar Hill, DeSoto, and Duncanville.
Founded in 1852 and incorporated in May 1866, Lancaster was one of the first incorporated communities in Dallas County. “Honest A” Bledsoe is said to have surveyed and staked off the town on the 430-acre Rawlins survey, modeling it after his hometown of Lancaster, Kentucky. The city plan features a traffic circle in the center of a town square, with streets entering from the middle of each side.
During the American Civil War, Tucker, Sherrod & Company contracted with the State of Texas to manufacture replicas of the .44 caliber Colt Dragoon from a factory on West Main Street in Lancaster. John M. Crockett, former mayor of Dallas and lieutenant governor of Texas, served as superintendent of the arms factory.
Lancaster’s Historic MKT Depot and Rose GardenIn December of 1888, Lancaster’s train depot opened as a stop on the Dallas and Waco line, and in 1891, it became part of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad (MKT) line, running from Dallas to the Gulf Coast of Texas.
In February 1934, Clyde Barrow of Bonnie & Clyde fame robbed the R.P. Henry & Sons Bank that was then located near the southeast corner of the town square. Bonnie Parker waited in the getaway car while Clyde and Raymond Hamilton walked in, robbed the bank, and walked out with over $4,000.
1994 Tornado damage and repair are evident in the brick color on the former White Bank Building on Lancaster’s Historic Town Square.In 1994 a tornado of F4 intensity ripped through Lancaster, killing 3 people, devastating the Historic Town Square, and damaging or completely destroying 250 homes in the area. The White & Company Bank building, a local landmark since 1898, was severely damaged in the tornado but was rebuilt, and in 1998 reopened as headquarters for the Lancaster Economic Development Corporation.
In 2005 and 2006 Lancaster was a finalist for the All-America City Award. In 2007 the National Arbor Day Foundation designated Lancaster a Tree City USA.
