A Quick History of Bransom

Bransom is divided by the Interstate Highway, which runs east to west, and a state highway that runs roughly northwest to southeast, into four, irregular quadrants. I have lived in all those quadrants, but my current home is in the northeast, in the Arbor Grove Homes, which is a comparatively small, mostly enclosed, housing development. (The University and my main store are in the upper portion of the quadrant below us.)

When I was a child, Bransom had three elementary schools (George Street, Saggett Hills, and Linda Dunn - I attended all three of them at one time or another), one middle school and one high school. When I was in 6th grade, the fourth elementary opened (Nora Woods). That’s less than half of the schools that we have now. When I was on the school board (late ‘90s), we considered a bond election for some new schools. Among the facts that I read at that time was that Bransom had sustained a positive growth rate for over 50 years. The growth was greatest in the early to mid-‘90s, when there was an economic boom, gas was cheap, and we turned into an exurb of Dallas, but it always has, and still is, with us. Of course, I've not seen a report for the last couple of years, but Bransom is now a city of it's own and I think we're still positive. While we've lost some people who worked in Dallas, I know we've continued to gain people who were tired of 'the big city'.

I’m not sure how long Bransom has been around. My understanding is that, when the ‘white men’ first arrived, there was already a Indian settlement in the area. There ended up also being two white settlements around: one by the lake side, one on the trade route. Unlike the Texas Panhandle and central area, this part of Texas is not plains; it’s hilly, and heavily wooded. Especially as Dallas grew, I know there was a lot of lumbering around these parts. Nothing like they had in the Pacific Northwest or the New England regions, but it was enough for people to earn livings. Also, because of that geography, it meant there were limited easy paths, so it was easier to set up a town near water, to provide a stop for people, than in the plains.

Over time, the railroad came through, which created a new town. The town on the railroad quickly grew to meet and merge with the town on the trade route, and that is what became Bransom. In the meantime, other communities moved into the area. According to my granny (which is what everyone called my great-grandmother), at one point there were Irish and German communities also. Bransom continued to grow and, by the early 1900s, had engulfed each of those, leaving Lakeside as the last separate community.

I know that Lakeside had resisted several efforts to be annexed into Bransom. They were part of the Bransom Independent School District (ISD), but not part of the actual town. That meant they had freedom from town regulations and taxes, but also that they didn’t receive city services, like water, sanitation, and trash pick-up. However, as I said before, in the 1990s, a lot of people began to move to this area from Dallas. Some of them bought summer and weekend homes, while others moved full-time. Lakeside was a popular place for them; but, they were city folks and wanted those amenities. About 9 years ago, Lakeside was officially annexed into Bransom.

When they ran the state highway through, it was on the east side of town, between Bransom and the Lakeside community. Of course, that meant traffic, so businesses began to open along it, and people began to move that way. We didn’t really have a huge expansion over there until the 1950s, when the university opened - of course, it was just a college back then. The Interstate came through about the same time that the college opened, but it was along the same basic route as the old Dallas highway, so that didn’t have much effect.

We have sprawl, just like any place else that's been around for a while. For a long time, I guess it seemed easier to move on and build anew than to renovate an old place. Today, we have a mall on the interstate on both sides of town. The original mall has mostly become small shops and a flea market-type environment. The 'new mall', which is over 30 years old now, is on the east side of town, towards Dallas. Over a period of about two years, they did a major renovation and addition to it, which is when they asked me to go from a kiosk for card-games to a full store. The new, new mall is on the west side of town and is near the Lamar Movie Theater, which is the same complex as one of my stores.

In the early 70s, the college became a university and they built a community college just south of it. About 15 years ago, the two merged to handle the universty's growth, but you can still take basic community college courses and get an associatte's degree (two year) as well as a full degree.

If you look at a map of Bransom, it looks almost like a rifle sight, with the NS-axis off-kilter and a blue spot to the southeat. I tell you all this, not because I think you were dying to know. I’m going to assume that most of you didn’t want to know this much about your own home town, much less mine. I just wanted to point out to you that Bransom has always been a growing concern, and to show you the main influences on our little town and how it’s grown into a city of its own. Really, I just want you to have some idea when I mention the old mall or the main store. Hope this helps a bit and if anything is confusing or unclear, feel free to ask.