The westside of Farmers Branch once existed as sweeping landscapes of warehouses, concrete and mowed weeds. Over the last decade, a surge in residential development has replaced the majority of the areas once religiously mowed, while the commercial/light-industrial zones have continued to age.
Before the "development,", like most of Dallas County, it was once most assuredly a beautiful vista of tall-grass prairie. Now, we have concrete, turf-grass, warehouse buildings, townhouses, and huge apartment complexes.
Like many cities in the United States, it was the railroad that really enabled Farmers Branch to grow. In 1874, settlers sold railroad right-of-way through their land to force the Dallas and Wichita Railroad (later Missouri-Kansas-Texas) through town, spurring growth. By 1878, 20 miles of line from Dallas to Lewisville had been built. The following photo is not that line. At least, I don't believe that it is. I believe that line is what is now owned by a combination of DART and DCTA. I'm actually not sure how to research this information at this point – a quest for another day.
Automobile traffic eventually became a thing and took over. For a time in the 1900s the development pattern of sprawl seemed to work. Now, I just don't know. The number of small towns in Texas that look like they got the shit kicked out of them with state highways running right through the middle of their downtown areas just doesn't feel right to me at all. The over-built roads and sprawled development patterns seem to be a cancer that if not mitigated, will eventually contribute to the slow death of many more places.
On another weird note, while wandering around this area, I listened to Noble, a Serial podcast about the Tri-City Crematory fiasco uncovered in 2002. And as I listened, I couldn't help but wonder how many bodies have been hidden away underneath the inches if not feet of concrete my feet passed over. Not purposefully, but accidentally.
It's not a completely crazy thought that lacks a basis in reality, either, for this very thing has happened in Dallas. I75 was originally built over a forgotten Freedmen cemetery, only to be rectified years later when the highway was being re-constructed.
Concrete is like this invasive material, useful by many rights, but also detrimental to so many others. I sit and write this in a parking lot constructed of concrete. One very much lacking in shade, one in which the sun has heat up throughout the day and it now holds on to heat throughout most of the night. Do we really need all of the concrete we currently have? Can we not as a society figure out better ways to construct similar needed things in the name of "progress?"
