The History of Duncanville, Texas

The land was part of the Peters Colony, and settlement began when Crawford Trees came down from Illinois in 1845 and bought several thousand acres south of the early Dallas settlement. The town took shape around the railroad: when the Chicago, Texas and Mexican Central Railway reached the area in 1880, it built a stop called Duncan Switch, named for a line foreman — and a local man, John Duncan, was instrumental in securing the right-of-way. In 1882 the first postmaster, Charles Nance, renamed the growing settlement Duncanville. It developed, as these towns did, right along the tracks, with a depot, a gin, and a bank.

For its first several decades Duncanville was a small farm town — a few hundred people at most between the early 1900s and the 1930s. What pushed it to become a real city was the same fear that drove so many of the Best Southwest suburbs: annexation by Dallas. In 1947, wanting to control their own future, residents incorporated a 225-acre city. When the population hit 5,000 in 1962, they adopted a home-rule charter, and Duncanville was on its way to full-fledged suburbanhood, growing past 30,000 by the late 1980s.

Duncanville earned its nickname on the court. Its high school basketball programs became Texas powerhouses, racking up state championships and turning out college and pro players, and the 'City of Champions' tag stuck. The roster of people who came through Duncanville High is genuinely impressive for a suburb its size — Texas Governor Greg Abbott graduated in 1976, WNBA great Tamika Catchings in 1997, and Olympic and NFL athletes along the way. It's a settled, middle-class southern suburb that punches well above its weight in producing talent.