Lakes Trail Region

(800) 81P-LANO

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You may be over one hundred years too late to witness the great cattle drives that once traveled the Shawnee Trail through Plano but you can still see a bronze sculpture commemoration, complete with Longhorn cattle and drovers on horseback, at Baccus Plaza in Plano’s Legacy Town Center. And Plano’s effort to preserve its rich heritage doesn’t end with bronze livestock. The downtown historic district, complete with authentic red brick paving features places like Klepper’s Wagon Yard, Plano’s first hospital, the Shepard Mule Barn, and Plano’s Opera House among its catalogue of preserved and historic structures. Neighboring residential area Haggard Park, Plano’s 1870s answer to urban living, is now considered the Haggard Park Historic District and features beautifully preserved homes like the Prairie-style Carlisle House, the Queen Anne Salmon House with its elaborate architectural details, the vernacular Thornton House, once home to Plano’s prominent African-American investor and farmer John Thornton. Both historic districts offer an informative, self-guided walking tour with maps available from the Plano Chamber of Commerce or the Plano Conservancy, located in downtown Plano.

Plano once served as stopover along the Texas Electric Railway and its Interurban Railway Museum offers exhibits exploring this unique rail route that once carried passengers and mail between Denison and Waco. Nearby, the four-acre Heritage Farmstead Museum features a beautifully-restored Victorian home and twelve outbuildings from the early 1900s. This living history site is dedicated to presenting and interpreting farm life along the Blackland Prairie region of north Texas at the turn of the 19th century. When you’re ready to return to the present attend a poetry reading or explore an art exhibit at the Art Centre of Plano, premiere cultural headquarters for compelling works from around the world.

Plano boasts a state cultural district designated by the Texas Commission on the Arts. Explore all they have to offer on your next visit!