Terrell's Gilded Main Street

Terrell sprang up almost overnight when the Texas & Pacific Railroad reached this point in 1873, and within a generation the little prairie stop had become one of the busiest cotton and trade towns in North Texas. The money that poured through its rail yards built a downtown to match — brick banks with cast-stone trim, a newspaper that helped launch a governor, churches in carved oak and stained glass, and a Carnegie library raised by the town's women's clubs. This short loop walks the heart of that turn-of-the-century downtown, the few blocks where Terrell put its prosperity on display in stone and glass. Many of these buildings still stand on or just off Moore Avenue, the brick-paved spine of the historic district. Bring comfortable shoes and look above the storefronts — the dates, cornices, and carved details that announce a boomtown's confidence are almost all up high.