This year, Richardson Today will be telling some of these stories and exploring the people and events that helped shape Richardson into the place it is today, including a look this month at what Richardson was like as it was growing from a small town to a larger, technology-driven city.

For more than three decades, the Wildflower! Arts & Music Festival has been a staple on the Richardson community events calendar. Wildflower! has brought numerous music legends to Richardson, including this year’s event, which is being headlined by 2015 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Joan Jett and The Blackhearts.

Libraries are the center of learning for a community. From children to adults, libraries offer something for everyone.
Richardson residents have had access to a public library since 1944, when the Dallas County Library opened a 400-volume Richardson Branch inside the Richardson Hardware store.

One way to ensure the past is not forgotten is to name things after the people who came before. That is certainly the case in Richardson, where many roads and parks are named after Richardson’s earliest settlers, some of whom still have descendants who live in Richardson to this day.

When it was founded in 1873, Richardson was a railroad town surrounded by farmland. Richardson grew slowly over the subsequent decades until the 1950s, when Richardson’s first period of explosive growth began.

While most fire engines are sold at the end of their “useful” lives to recoup costs, Engine 4 was “rescued” by the community it had long protected.