Alpha, Texas
USGenWeb >> TXGenWeb >> Dallas County >> Towns & Communities >> Alpha, Texas
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| Latitude | 32°56'19"N 32.938638 |
| Longitude | 96°48'11"W -96.803069 |
| Elevation feet/meters |
440/134 |
| Zip Code | 75240 |
| Founded | |
| GNIS FID | 2012314 |
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| Alpha | |
Alpha was centered on what is now the intersection of Alpha Road and Preston Road in Dallas, Texas. Alpha Road, running east–west across north Dallas, just north of Interstate 635 and just south of Spring Valley Road, is named for the community. Most of the land area is now occupied by gated communities, housing developments, and the Valley View Center shopping mall.
Founded as a freedmen's town just after the Civil War, Alpha was located on land that had been a part of Farmers Branch, Texas, on the main transportation route between Farmers Branch and Garland. The town gained a post office in 1893 and a general store in 1895. While the post office closed in 1904 as Alpha's population stood at 111, by 1933 that figure fell to 50 residents. This population would remain essentially unchanged at the 1980 census and through 1987 when the town was delisted as a community.
The Mount Pisgah Baptist congregation built a church in Alpha in the late 1800s at what is now the corner of Spring Valley Road and Preston Road. This building was rebuilt in 1945 and vacated in 1981 when the church relocated. The building, the last major structure remaining from Alpha's heyday, was rented out and allowed to fall into disrepair. The property was put up for sale in 2010. The building was renovated and, as of 2013, houses a Hispanic congregation.
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Matthew Hayes Nall
Alpha was on Preston Road (now State Highway 289) and Alpha Road four miles west of Richardson at a site now inside Dallas, in northern Dallas County. It was originally a freedmen's community that developed out of Farmers Branch and was on the principal route of transportation between Farmers Branch and Garland. A post office operated in Alpha from 1893 until 1904. E. C. Bramlett opened the first general store in 1895, and by 1933 the community had two businesses. The population was 111 in 1904 but decreased to fifty in 1933, where it remained in 1987, the last year it was listed as a community.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Daniel Hardy, Dallas County Historic Resources Survey (Dallas: Dallas Historical Commission, 1982). David S. Switzer, It's Our Dallas County (Dallas: Switzer, 1954).
Handbook of Texas Online, Matthew Hayes Nall, "ALPHA, TX"
