The story
History
Cedar Hill was founded circa 1846 by a small group of settlers from the Peters Colony. They came from Kentucky, Alabama, and surrounding areas to arrive in the Dallas area of North Texas; 197 families and 184 single men settled in what is now Cedar Hill, making it the largest settlement in the area at the time.
Cedar Hill has five homes listed on the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places, four historical structures on the Texas Historical Commission's list of Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks, and two graveyards designated as "Historical Texas Cemeteries" by the Texas Historical Commission, one of which is believed to be the oldest integrated cemetery in Dallas County.
1856 tornado
On April 29, 1856, Cedar Hill was struck by a tornado that claimed at least nine lives, damaged property, killed livestock, and reportedly left only two structures standing. Among the survivors was teacher and pastor, Robert Crawford. Crawford donated four acres of his land to church trustees to be designated as a free and indiscriminate public graveyard. Nine victims of the tornado were buried on Crawford's land.
The graveyard lay lost for about 100 years. It was rediscovered and certified by the Texas Historical Commission in 2006, and was named the Crawford Tornado Graveyard. The graveyard was reconsecrated in a blessing ceremony on October 7, 2011. The Texas Historical Commission marker was officially placed on the site on April 29, 2012, the 156th anniversary of the tornado.
Cedar Hill Bank robbery
On October 8, 1932, the then First State Bank of Cedar Hill was robbed by Raymond Hamilton, a sidekick of bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde. After taking the money, he locked the employees in the vault and made his getaway. When Hamilton got wind of reports that some of the cash had been hidden during the first robbery, he returned to rob the bank again. The consecutive robberies took a toll on the bank, causing it to fall into financial ruin and ultimately close its doors for good.
Raymond Hamilton was incarcerated at Eastham Prison in Lovelady, Texas on other charges when, on January 17, 1934, his partners, Bonnie and Clyde, broke him out of jail. The gang is known to have had an old hide out on the south edge of Cedar Hill and scattered places in the Mountain Creek Valley.
Hamilton was later re-captured on April 24, 1934. The building where the robbery took place still stands in downtown Cedar Hill. It is the current home of Cedar Hill Barbers. In March 2008, the building was designated as a historic resource by the city of Cedar Hill and bears an official medallion indicating its significance.
2020 census
As of the 2020 census, Cedar Hill had a population of 49,148. The median age was 36.9 years. 26.0% of residents were under the age of 18 and 12.1% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 88.1 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 82.4 males age 18 and over.
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95.2% of residents lived in urban areas, while 4.8% lived in rural areas.
There were 16,592 households in Cedar Hill, of which 40.1% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 49.0% were married-couple households, 13.5% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 32.6% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 19.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
There were 17,193 housing units, of which 3.5% were vacant. Among occupied housing units, 69.4% were owner-occupied and 30.6% were renter-occupied. The homeowner vacancy rate was 0.9% and the rental vacancy rate was 5.7%.
The 2020 American Community Survey estimated a median household income of $75,715.
2000 census
In 2000 the racial makeup of the city was 56.67% White, 33.61% African American, 0.50% Native American, 1.98% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 4.87% from other races, and 2.32% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latinos of any race were 11.91% of the population.
The median income as of the 2000 census for a household in the city was $60,136, and the median income for a family was $63,416. Males had a median income of $41,360 versus $32,207 for females. The per capita income for the city was $23,389. About 4.2% of families and 5.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.7% of those under age 18 and 6.5% of those age 65 or over.
Penn Farm Agricultural History Center
Farmers such as John Wesley Penn utilized the natural resources of the land to build farms and provided shelter and sustenance for their families. The Penn family lived and grazed livestock on the native prairie grasses for over a hundred years. During that time, most of the tallgrass prairie in Dallas County vanished – plowed under and replaced with crops of wheat or cotton. Perhaps because of the rocky surface and hilly terrain of the Cedar Hill area, the prairie remnants at Penn Farm survived and are maintained today.
Penn Farm Agricultural History Center was created from the remnants of Penn Farm, which date back to the 1850s. The center is located within Cedar Hill State Park. It was designed to educate people about early life in Cedar Hill and to demonstrate how human invention rendered the greatest impact on the tallgrass prairie once prominent in this area. Many of the original structures still remain standing, showing the evolution of machinery constructed and adapted by the Penn family as needs changed and modern conveniences were added.
Recreation
Parks
Cedar Hill manages and maintains 32 park properties including 6 community parks, 17 neighborhood parks, 1 special purpose park, 3 nature preserves, and 4 greenbelts.
Hike and bike
Cedar Hill currently has over 45 miles of multi-purpose, integrated trails and bikeways. Most recent additions include Pleasant Run Trail, Lake Ridge Hike and Bike Trail, and Red Oak Creek Trail.
DORBA Trail is the longest trail located in Cedar Hill State Park and is a shared use hike and bike trail. The trail was created through the efforts of the Dallas Off-Road Bicycle Association, hence the trail name, and the Cedar Hill State Park management. It is considered one of the top mountain biking trails in the state.
An ADA accessible trail can be found at the Dogwood Canyon Audubon Center.
A number of creeks are located around the state park, including Baggett Branch.
From Wikipedia’s article on Cedar Hill, Texas, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4