Rebuilt on the Square

Lancaster's square is one of the oldest in North Texas — laid out in the 1850s by a Kentucky settler who patterned it after his grandfather's hometown back east. It has seen a lot: a Confederate pistol factory turning out arms during the Civil War, a famous boarding house that drew travelers from across the country, founding churches, and, in 1994, a tornado that ripped through downtown and forced the historic square to rebuild. This walking loop circles that resilient heart, from the arms-factory site and the city marker to the pioneer churches and the Rawlins homestead just off the square. It's a tour about persistence — a town platted before the Civil War, scarred more than once, and patched back together each time around the same central green.