Rowlett is a city in Dallas and Rockwall Counties in the U.S. state of Texas. The population was 44,503 at the 2000 census. It is a quiet upscale bedroom community near Dallas in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, located on Lake Ray Hubbard.
Rowlett derives its name from “Rowlett Creek” which flows into Lake Ray Hubbard and is a major tributary of the east fork of the Trinity River. The creek in turn was named for a waterway running through the property of Daniel Rowlett who moved from Kentucky to Bonham, Texas in 1835. Daniel who was a member of the Smoot-Rowlett political family had no direct dealings with the town that now bears his name.
The first post office opened on April 5, 1880 and it was called “Morris” after Postmaster Austin Morris.
The town was later renamed “Rowlett.” The Dallas and Greenville Railway passed through the town in 1886 connecting Dallas with Greenville, Texas and the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad. Shortly after its opening it was line was formally sold to the MKT.
In 1921 the town was a stop on the Bankhead Highway.
The town incorporated in 1952 when its population was 250. In the 1960s the town languished as Interstate 30 bypassed Rowlett.
The town has had a building boom since the completion of Lake Ray Hubbard in 1971 – growing to 1,600 by 1973; 10,573 by 1989; 23,260 by 1990; and 44,503 by 2000.
In 2003 the town made an unsuccessful formal proposal to get the Dallas Cowboys to move to a 1,000 acre “5-Point Park” on the banks of Lake Ray Hubbard when the lease for Texas Stadium expires.
