Welcome To Texas: Visiting The City Of Lancaster
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LANCASTER (CBSDFW.COM) - One of the things that makes North Texas so special is the communities that preserve their link to our state's great history-- even as they embrace the future.
Lancaster in South Dallas County is one such city, but as CBS 11's Karen Borta recently discovered, there's a lot more to the town than even native Texans may realize.
Few longtime North Texans can even hear the word Lancaster without immediately remembering that devastating F-4 tornado in 1994 that killed three people, injured dozens of others and destroyed much of its historic downtown.
Now, more than 20 years later, Lancaster is well on its way to complete recovery, and remains determined to build up what nature brought down.
City Manager Opal Mauldin-Robertson is especially proud of Lancaster's town square. "A lot of people are creating town squares. And Lancaster has a natural town square, and we want to capitalize on that natural asset we have."
And by natural town square, she's referring to the fact that the city was founded on its square. The original town well still sits in the center, and as any longtime resident will proudly boast, Lancaster doesn't take a back seat to Dallas.
"Lancaster was originally settled in 1848," says Mauldin-Robertson. "And when you talk to the descendants of the original families who were here in Lancaster, there's this, 'we were actually here and established early'. Our settlers didn't actually plat the town until later, but there's this thing that Lancaster was kind of the original here in the Dallas-Fort Worth area."
Suzi Weaver is one of those descendants. She's a sixth generation Lancaster resident, and a descendant of one of the town founders. "I can't tell you why it's magical. But people will come to this town, walk on the square and just say there's something magical about this place. There's a peace about it."
And there's that long history. Weaver and her husband own Rawlins Farm, which dates back to the Civil War. It's the oldest house in Dallas County still owned by the original family.
And in case you're wondering, the name of the city is pronounced LANG-k's-ter—not LAN-cast-er.
"We're called Lancaster (LANG-k's-ter)," Mauldin-Robertson said, further explaining, "because our founding father was from Lancaster, Kentucky, and the name is pronounced LANG-k's-ter, so we always say to keep the 'kiss' in Lancaster."
Weaver put it very simply. "We're survivors in this town. We went through a horrible tornado and we did lose some people, but the people that stayed are survivors, and we keep fighting for this town to be better."
And it's something they're accomplishing one brick at a time.
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