City of Irving
Irving, Dallas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Permanent settlement in this part of Dallas County began before the Civil War with the establishment of small farming communities and supply centers. In the early years of the 20th century, while working on the construction of the Rock Island Railroad extension from Fort Worth to Dallas, two members of the survey party--its chief, J. O. Schulze, and a surveyor, Otis Brown--purchased just over 80 acres of land from pioneer farmer H. W. Britain. Soon they had platted a townsite, which they named Irving. On December 19, 1903, Schulze and Brown held a barbecue and auction for the sale of town lots. The first issue of the Irving "Index" was distributed to those in attendance. Approximately 40 lots were sold, and construction of buildings soon began. The post office, which had been located at Kit, moved to Irving in 1904. Co-founder Otis Brown served as Irving's first mayor after the town was incorporated in 1914. Over the years Irving grew to be a modest suburb of Dallas. With the construction of the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, Texas Stadium, and the Las Colinas Business Park, Irving experienced major economic growth during the last quarter of the 20th century. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Farming communities dotted this part of Dallas County before the Civil War, but the town of Irving was born of the railroad. Around 1902, two members of a Rock Island survey party — chief J.O. Schulze and surveyor Otis Brown — bought 80 acres, platted a townsite, and sold lots at a barbecue auction in December 1903. Brown became the town's first mayor after its 1914 incorporation, and Irving later boomed with the arrival of the DFW Airport, Texas Stadium, and the Las Colinas business park.
Why it matters
Irving's founding shows how the railroad survey line, more than any river or road, dictated where new Texas towns would rise at the turn of the 20th century.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
At the turn of the 20th century, the thing that decided where a Texas town would rise was no longer a river ford or a wagon road — it was the surveyor's line. Railroads were being pushed across the state, and the men who plotted their routes knew, before almost anyone else, exactly where the future depots and townsites would be. That knowledge was a kind of power, and sometimes an opportunity.
This part of Dallas County already had permanent settlement dating to before the Civil War: small farming communities and supply centers scattered across the land. But scattered farms are not a town. What turned open country into a platted townsite here was the coming of a new rail line between the region's two great cities.
The founding date itself — a lot auction in December 1903 — captures the era perfectly. Towns in this period were often *launched*, deliberately and on a schedule, sold off in numbered lots to buyers who would raise buildings within months. It was town-making as enterprise, and it happened fast.
People & events
The town of Irving was born from a survey party. As the Rock Island Railroad extended its line from Fort Worth to Dallas, two of the men working that survey — its chief, J.O. Schulze, and a surveyor named Otis Brown — bought just over 80 acres from a pioneer farmer, H.W. Britain. They knew where the line was going; they bought where it would matter.
Having secured the land, they platted a townsite and named it Irving. On December 19, 1903, they threw a barbecue and held an auction of town lots — part celebration, part sales pitch — and handed out the very first issue of the Irving *Index* to the crowd. Roughly 40 lots sold that day, and construction began soon after. A town does not get a much clearer birthday than a barbecue, an auction, and a newspaper's first edition all in one afternoon.
The institutions followed quickly. The post office relocated from nearby Kit to Irving in 1904, a small but decisive sign of which place was ascending. When the town incorporated in 1914, co-founder Otis Brown became its first mayor — the surveyor who bought the land now governing the community he had platted. For much of the century Irving grew as a modest suburb, until the arrival of the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, Texas Stadium, and the Las Colinas Business Park drove major growth in the century's final quarter.
Its place in the American story
Irving is a textbook case of the railroad town, and its founding lays bare a truth about how the American map was drawn. In the great rail-building era, the route of the survey — not geography, not existing population — often dictated where towns would appear. The people with inside knowledge of that route were sometimes the ones who founded the towns, exactly as Schulze and Brown did here.
The deliberate, auction-day launch was a distinctly American method of city-building, repeated across the expanding country: acquire the land, plat the lots, advertise, and sell. Communities that elsewhere took generations to coalesce were, in this era, conjured in an afternoon and built out within a year.
And Irving's later trajectory speaks to the second half of the American century — the way modest railroad suburbs were transformed by the infrastructure of the automobile and jet age. An international airport, a major stadium, and a planned business park turned a small platted townsite into a significant city. From survey line to sprawling metro node, Irving traces the whole modern arc.
If you visit
This is a place to appreciate origins hiding in plain sight beneath a thoroughly modern city. Irving today is a busy part of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, so the pleasure is in holding two images at once: the barbecue-and-auction townsite of 1903 and the airport-and-stadium city it became.
Stand with the founding story and notice how tightly it turns on the railroad. The line's route is why the town exists and where it sits; everything else radiated outward from that surveyor's decision. It's a satisfying thing to trace, especially if you have any feel for how transportation shapes a place.
Make it a stop on a metroplex history drive, and let the contrast land — that the same ground now defined by DFW Airport and Las Colinas was once 80 acres of a pioneer's farm, sold off lot by lot to about forty buyers on a December afternoon. Don't look for a preserved village here; look instead for the logic of the place, the through-line from a survey party's gamble to a modern American city.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · J.O. Schulze
- · Otis Brown
- · H.W. Britain
Themes & tags
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