Richardson is a city in Collin and Dallas Counties in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 91,803, while according to a 2007 estimate, the population had grown to 101,400. Richardson is a part of Dallas’ Silicon Prairie, and is home to the Telecom Corridor, which is a very large technology business center that includes offices for 5,700 companies, including 600 technology companies, such as Nortel, Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent, Tellabs, Texas Instruments, and AT&T. It is also the corporate headquarters of Fossil, Inc.
In 2006, Richardson was selected as the 15th best place to live in the United States by Money magazine.
In 2007 the Morgan Quitno 14th Annual America’s Safest and Most Dangerous Cities Awards were announced, and Richardson was named the 69th safest city in America. In the same study Richardson ranked the 5th safest city in Texas.
In the 1840s, settlers from Tennessee and Kentucky began arriving in the Richardson area which was inhabited by Comanche and Caddo Native American tribes. Several of the earliest families clustered around an area later named Breckinridge in honor of John C. Breckenridge, Confederate Secretary of State and General, and Vice President of the United States from 1857-1861. The town was situated near what is now Richland College and consisted of a general store, a blacksmith shop and the Floyd Inn.
After the American Civil War, the new railroad bypassed Breckinridge and an area to the northwest of Breckinridge became the new center of activity. William J. Wheeler donated land for the town site and railroad right-of-way, but declined to have the village named in his honor. Instead the town was named for railroad contractor E. H. Richardson, who built the line from Dallas to Denison.
Richardson was chartered in 1873. Originally, there were three businesses: a general store, a post office and a drug store. In 1908 the Interurban, an electric railway, began service north to Denison, Texas, south to Waco, Texas, southeast to Corsicana, Texas and west to Fort Worth, Texas. By 1910, residents had seen their first telephone, electric light and gravel street, and had grown in number to about 600. In 1914, a red brick schoolhouse, presently home to the administrative offices of the Richardson Independent School District (RISD), was built.
Aerial photo of Main Street, circa 1950In 1924, the Red Brick Road (Greenville Avenue) was completed, bringing an increase in traffic, population and property values. The following year the town incorporated and elected its first mayor, Thomas F. McKamy. All taxable property was assessed at a value of $515,292, and a total of 15 businesses were in operation. Bonds were issued and in 1926, waterworks were completed so homes could be furnished with indoor water. A sewage treatment plant was then constructed, the volunteer fire department began operating and, soon after, utility franchises were awarded to Lone Star Gas and Texas Power and Light Company. By 1940, the population stood at about 740 but after World War II, the city experienced a new surge in population. By 1950, the city boasted a population of approximately 1,300. Additional municipal services, such as emergency ambulance, police protection and parks and recreation facilities, became available to residents.
Heights Park is famous for its rocketship slide.In 1951, Collins Radio opened a Richardson office, ushering the city into the electronic era. U.S. Highway 75 opened in 1954 and the agricultural city of the past became a community of shopping centers and homes. In 1955, Richardson’s first police department was organized; consisting of a chief and two officers. On June 26, 1956, voters adopted a home rule charter and a council-manager form of government that still operates today. Door-to-door mail delivery became available to the 5,000 residents and funds were approved for a park and city hall. Also in 1956, Texas Instruments opened its offices just south of the Richardson border and land values increased dramatically as the city made significant advances in population and economic status. More than 500,000 people moved into the Dallas area in the period between 1940 and 1960.
1969, Erik Jonsson and other Texas Instruments executives donated the Southwest Center for Advanced Studies to the state and it became part of the University of Texas System called University of Texas at Dallas. In 1972, the population stood at approximately 56,000, and this same year the Richardson Independent School District had an enrollment of approximately 32,000 students in 16 elementary schools, seven junior high schools and four high schools.
The city of Buckingham, after being completely surrounded by Richardson, was annexed into the city in 1996.
Today the city is no longer the bedroom community of the 1950s and 1960s, but is itself at the heart of a significant employment center, the Telecom Corridor, where more than 80,000 people work each day. The Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) completed construction on three light rail stations for the city in the late 1990s. In the spring of 2000, City of Richardson officials broke ground on the Eisemann Center for Performing Arts and Corporate Presentations at the Galatyn Park Station urban center, named after Richardson philanthropist and businessman Charles W. Eisemann.
On January 8, 1991, Richardson High School student Jeremy Wade Delle fatally shot himself in front of his English class, an incident that inspired the Pearl Jam song “Jeremy.”
On December 4, 2001 a Richardson-based charitable organization called the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development was designated under Executive Order 13224 issued by President George W. Bush as a charity that provided support to Hamas. In the United States the charity provided support to victims of the Iowa floods, Texas tornadoes, and the Oklahoma City bombing. The Holy Land Foundation criminal trial began on Monday, July 23, 2007, at the Earle Cabell Federal Building and Courthouse in Dallas, Texas. On Monday, October 22, 2007, Judge Joe Fish declared a mistrial for the government’s case against the charity because jurors were deadlocked. On November 4, 2007 the LA Times reported: “The nation’s biggest terrorism finance case ended so badly for the government that it has thrown into question the Bush administration’s original order to shut down the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development six years ago.”
Richardson was a “dry city” with no alcohol sales of any kind until November 2006, when the local option election passed to allow the sale of beer and wine.
