Things to Do in Melissa, Texas

Melissa's parks are the everyday draw. City Park covers the playground-and-ballfield basics, Bob White Nature Park has wooded trails for hiking and birdwatching, and the Z-Plex Texas Sports Village runs a large youth-sports operation with baseball, softball, soccer, and a dozen tennis courts.

The sports village in particular brings tournament crowds to town, and the parks give families plenty of green space close to home in a community that's added a lot of both in a short time.

The Melissa Farmers Market is one of the town's social anchors — a regular gathering with fresh produce, homemade and artisan goods, live music, and food trucks. It's the kind of event a growing suburb builds community around.

Live music turns up regularly at local venues and parks, and the town's calendar of seasonal events keeps the community side of Melissa active through the year.

Melissa is older than it looks. The town was laid out along the Houston and Texas Central Railroad in 1872 and named, like several of its Collin County neighbors, for a railroad official's daughter. It was unusually modern for its day — electric lights, a telephone exchange, and paved roads before 1920 — and a stop on the Interurban electric railway.

A tornado leveled much of the town in 1921, and it stayed small for decades before the Collin County boom reached it. That long history is a reminder that the prairie now filling with subdivisions has been settled for well over a century.

Melissa's location makes the bigger attractions easy. Historic downtown McKinney, with its shops, restaurants, and festivals, is about fifteen minutes south. The Allen Premium Outlets and Frisco's sports and entertainment district — The Star and the PGA of America headquarters — are all a short drive down US-75.

So while Melissa itself is quiet, the full range of Collin County's big-city amenities is close at hand when you want it.