Grapevine, Texas: A Destination Economy for the Ages

Settled in 1844 and officially incorporated in 1907, Grapevine is among the oldest cities in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. Long before its modern geopolitical boundaries were drawn, the community that sprouted in the Grape Vine Prairie served as a way station between larger cities in North Texas; shaped equally by market forces and the innovative men and women who sought to make the best of the area’s fertile soil and convenient location.

Progress in Grapevine can be charted along two courses: major projects that generated tailwinds in North Texas, and localized innovations designed to capture that momentum. Highways, railroads, airports, and lakes may have shaped the City over a century, but infrastructure alone did not define it. 

Careful observers of Grapevine history will recognize the deep roots of today’s Destination Attractions in the early boosterism that defined the City at the turn of the 20^th century.

Grapevine’s Early Years

It should be noted that local history predates the pioneers who gave the area its modern name. Anything that could rightfully be called “Grapevine History” begins shortly after Sam Houston and 10 Indigenous American nations signed the Treaty at Bird’s Fort in 1843, as commemorated by the Peace Circle in front of Harvest Hall. Until then, there was no Grapevine: only the Great Plains and the tribes who called them home. We would be remiss not to acknowledge them. 

Early settlements following the treaty were largely agrarian, with stretches of fertile soil that allowed for a variety of crops even before the area had an organized water supply. Farms dotted the landscape, with a collection of businesses and vital services clustered in the middle. According to Larry Groebe, Director of Communications at the Grapevine Historical Society, those opportunistic trading posts are the foundation of today’s Historic District.

“If you go back to 1844, when the very first settlers arrived here from Missouri and, subsequently Tennessee and places like that, they stopped in some cases just because they couldn’t go any further. But this was a pretty good place to put down roots. You could farm, build a family and earn a living,” Groebe said. 

“We had slightly bigger towns that started to grow, in Fort Worth and Dallas, with Grapevine kind of in between the two. It was mostly just farms and farmers, but at some point, you need a store. The earliest stores we can trace are from the 1850s: a General Store… things just kind of coalesced over time, like water going down a surface: it eventually collects in one spot. So there was a Main Street from the 1850s, and eventually another store. And another store, and another store.”

“There are Grapevine Directories from the 1890s which list a couple of doctors, farm implement stores, there or four General Stores, a drug store; all the kinds of things you basically needed but couldn’t make at home came to Main Street. And it wasn’t a giant place back then, we’re talking about a stretch of three blocks on either side. On both the North end and the South end, it just kind of stopped.”

The Eras Tours: Grapevine Edition

Over the years, Grapevine residents would endure their fair share of market shocks. From the Civil War to the Great Depression, worldwide disruptions made their way to this community. But the people here always rebounded, finding new and creative ways to leverage whatever conditions they faced. Some of which bear striking resemblance to the economy that sustains Grapevine today.

“We had an era of just settlers and communities. We had an era where there were trains, and a town began to form that was nice. We then had an era where we started to form a City government and think about things we had to worry about: sewage and electricity, lighting and water, those sorts of things. Then we started to transition to cars. And then the Depression hit,” Groebe said. “I don’t think we grew much more at that point. After all, it was still just a farming town, basically: cotton being the main crop, but there was dairy farming. That survived pretty well. When the cotton market collapsed, Texas A&M recommended cantaloupe as a crop that was going to be a good one.

“Grapevine found itself deciding to become the ‘Cantaloupe Capital of Texas,’ one of the early branding ventures and extraordinarily successful. It was a great hook in the middle of the Depression to hang things on. Grapevine cantaloupes made it all the way up to Kansas and Missouri and across Texas. The Cantaloupe Festival, every summer in the middle of the harvest – when they were ripe – became, for about seven years, a huge deal... I mean the very first year, the newsreel photographers came out to film the Cantaloupe Festival and meet the Cantaloupe Queen!”

Those festivals, themselves the forebearers of today’s GrapeFest and Main Street Fest (not to mention Grapevine’s status as the Christmas Capital of Texas), were a natural extension of early market days that saw a modest Main Street transformed into a booming market. And, just like today, they were promoted heavily by the residents and business owners themselves.

“In the teens and the twenties, they were doing what they could to promote Grapevine as a great place to live. We had, by then, gotten a couple dozen of the first automobiles to come around town. The roads were starting to be built, so they were not just rutted cattle wagon trails,” Groebe said. “[Citizens] set out with a dozen Model T’s and visited nearby towns – Coppell, Irving Farmer’s Branch, all the other ones – and had the town band come along. They gave speeches and played music. They invited everybody to come to the town’s Trade Days, which happened in May 1913 and 1914… Anything to draw in people from across the surrounding communities and farms.”

Signs and Relics, Brick and Mortar

The City’s DNA has been consistent for almost two centuries, but even thriving communities run the risk of outrunning their history in pursuit of progress. Once-booming agriculture gave way to railroads, which in turn faded from prominence as the nation shifted to a new set of styles and sensibilities after World War II. Properties that had served as canning factories or manufacturing hubs became less important, and America looked to its first shopping malls. Main Street could have turned over.

“The people who lived here always valued Main Street,” Groebe said. “Right up until the 1950s and 60s, Main Street was very important. It started to decline in the 60s – that was not unusual, that was common to many small towns and main streets – but the fortunate thing was that it didn’t descend completely. Just as it needed saving, it began to be saved. You can date some of that to the rescuing of the train depot. That was the impetus of the Grapevine Historical Society!”

Grapevine’s residents and business owners saw the value of preserving their history, and – in some cases – rediscovered it decades later. One can still find the original signage from Wilhoite’s Garage inside the historic establishment, now a restaurant. Or read about the exploits of bank robbers in the Grapevine Home Bank on the walls of Bermuda Gold & Silver: the very same walls that once held safes targeted by compatriots of Bonnie and Clyde.

“What we have here on Main Street, we’re the real deal,” said Debi Meek, owner of Bermuda Gold & Silver as well as landlord for Talking Animals Books. “In the 300 and 400 blocks, we have done our very best to preserve the actual buildings so that when you come to Grapevine you can step back in time… It’s important to me to do historic preservation, particularly of our building, which was built in 1900. It’s been at the forefront of everything I’ve tried to do in our building. Of course, everything can’t be exactly the same. But we have the original floors. I have a remake of the old teller’s window. I have a posting machine dated to 1917, original to the bank. I also have picture and other memorabilia along with our modern jewelry and everything we have for sale. We’ve tried to keep that feel so that when people come in, they can step back in time.”

Whether donated by citizens or maintained by property owners, the firsthand evidence of Grapevine history is built into the fabric of Main Street itself. It’s part of the appeal here in the Historic District; a sense that history is tangible still. And, even if it doesn’t repeat itself, it tends to rhyme. Storefronts like these are a rare form of living poetry, connecting shoppers to the past even as they enjoy modern amenities and direct connections within and well beyond the DFW metroplex.

If that strikes you as the perfect place to launch a business, we invite you to reach out to Grapevine Economic Development for more information. You can plan your next visit to the Historic District at grapevinetexasusa.com. For an audio version of this article with even more detail, check out the ‘Growing Grapevine’ podcast online or in your favorite streaming app.