What new business is going to appear in the old McNeill’s Appliance building on the downtown Square? It’s a question on people’s minds as they pass by.
Rev. Reginald Logan could see the wagons of Black business owners and homeowners pulling their buildings and frame homes atop logs that rolled through downtown Denton in the early 1920s.
Three headstones found this week on adjoining properties on West Hickory Street and North State Boulevard brought a halt to development of an apartment building due to concerns bodies may have been buried there.
âThe stones were just sitting there,â said Brad Abell, an employee of Circle M Metals, a Dallas company that specializes in demolitions. âIâm religious, so I was not going to disturb a gravesite.â
For several days, Circle M Metals had been razing three houses built in the mid-20th century at that corner near the University of North Texas when it was nearing the end of its work. Abell said he found a headstone on Monday at the edge of the property line next to another home and another on the fence line separating that property and the three others that had been demolished.
The president of a historical preservation organization in Denton said he expects the U.S. Parks Service to designate a residential neighborhood here as a National Register District, making it the second one in the city.
âItâs called the West Denton Residential Historic District by the Texas Historical Commission,â Randy Hunt of Historic Denton said. âWork started in 2015, and it took three years to get the survey adopted and accepted by THC. It was approved in September 2018.â
The survey is required by the THC before historic designations are granted. They include photos, maps and descriptions of the area. Huntâs West Denton Residential Historic District survey is 118 pages.