Things to Do in Denton, Texas

Denton's downtown square is one of the best-preserved in Texas, centered on an 1896 courthouse — built after the first burned and the second was struck by lightning — with most of the district on the National Register of Historic Places. Shops, restaurants, bars, and venues line the surrounding streets, and events and festivals fill the square through the year.

At its center, the Courthouse-on-the-Square Museum runs lectures and exhibits, and the grounds hold the grave of John B. Denton, the man the county and city are named for. The square is the heart of the town and the natural first stop.

Denton is one of the best live-music cities in Texas — the place where Grammy winners Norah Jones and Don Henley honed their craft, a tradition still going at the clubs, bars, and venues around town. You can hear blues, jazz, rock, and everything in between on any given night.

The scene peaks each April at the Denton Arts & Jazz Festival, a free 2.5-day event with performances from some 3,000 musicians that draws more than 225,000 people. Through spring and fall, the free Twilight Tunes series brings live music to the courthouse lawn every Thursday.

Denton is home to the University of North Texas and Texas Woman's University, and the UNT campus in particular is worth a stroll for its public art, fountains, and green spaces. UNT's College of Music runs the nation's first jazz studies program, which has shaped generations of musicians and feeds the town's music scene.

The universities give Denton its young, creative energy, and campus events and performances add to the calendar of things to do year-round.

For the outdoors, Denton is bracketed by Ray Roberts Lake to the north — with a state park for camping, hiking, and fishing — and Lewisville Lake to the south, linked by the 20-mile Greenbelt Corridor trail.

And because Denton sits at the top of the Metroplex on I-35, the rest of DFW is a straightforward drive south. But between the square, the music, the universities, and the lakes, Denton fills a weekend on its own.