W. D. McFarlin Building
Plano, Collin County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This building was purchased by W.D. McFarlin in 1885 and is considered one of the oldest brick buildings in Plano. A fire in 1895 destroyed the original building and McFarlin rebuilt the building out of brick. One year later, Schoolfield Drugs moved into the building. E.A. Carpenter bought the business and operated a drug store here until 1908 when it was sold to Allen Brothers Drug Store. The building remained in the McFarlin family for 65 years until it was sold in 1950. This building served as a grocery store, a dry goods store, drug store and other businesses.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
W.D. McFarlin purchased this Plano building in 1885, and after an 1895 fire destroyed the original he rebuilt it in brick—making it one of the oldest brick structures in town. Over the decades it housed a succession of enterprises, most notably a drugstore run in turn by Schoolfield, E.A. Carpenter, and the Allen Brothers, along with grocery and dry-goods businesses. The building stayed in the McFarlin family for 65 years until its sale in 1950.
Why it matters
Sturdy brick commercial blocks like this one anchored the main streets of railroad-era Texas towns and still testify to the durable optimism of small-town American commerce.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · W.D. McFarlin
- · E.A. Carpenter
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Mathews General Store
Plano, TX
After an 1895 fire, Plano rebuilt its Mechanic Street in brick, and S. J. and Nancy Mathews relocated their store into one of these new buildings in 1906. Mathews Department Store sold dry goods, clothing, and millinery handmade by Nancy and her daughters until 1947, after which the building carried on as a department store and other businesses. Its detailed brick façade, transom windows, and ironwork from Sherman Iron Works survive as one of Plano's few nineteenth-century stores in continuous commercial use.
Fred Schimelpfenig Building
Plano, TX
Built in 1884 by the Sanger Brothers, this one-story brick mercantile became Plano's most prosperous dry-goods store under Frederick Schimelpfenig, who also served as mayor from 1902 to 1908. After the great fire of 1895 it passed to J.H. Gulledge, who ran a dry-goods business until 1918, and later to Westway Sportswear in 1946 and a string of shops and tea rooms. The building still retains its original size and form on Plano's historic commercial row.
Murphy Community
Murphy, TX
Settled in the early 1840s by pioneers from a dozen states drawn to the fertile Blackland Prairie, this community farmed and ranched the tall-grass, black-soil country for well over a century. It took the name Murphy in 1888 when William Murphy granted right-of-way to the St. Louis Southwestern Railroad, though the city itself wasn't formally established until 1958. Founding Maxwell, McMillen, and Murphy families built the stores and schools of an agrarian town that faded by 1970—only to revive in the 1980s as a Dallas suburb.
Bankhead Highway in Garland
Garland, TX
As the automobile transformed America, the 1916 Federal Aid Road Act poured matching funds into highways and spurred creation of the Texas Highway Department in 1917. One result was the Bankhead Highway, the nation's second transcontinental route, running from Washington, D.C., to San Diego and passing straight down Main Street in Garland. Local boosters seized the opportunity, paving the road and lining it with repair shops, service stations, and restaurants until the Interstate era eclipsed it in the 1950s.