Welcome,

You are invited to come and discover our “ best kept secret”, our historic olde downtown Garland, TX. Our living room, our surrounded Square, hosts wonderful shops and friendly merchants ready to make you welcome. When you are among such places and people it is easy to enjoy the atmosphere of the 1897 and early 1900 buildings that still remain.

Welcome, to our beginnings

The Friends of Olde Downtown Garland concept began with a conversation shared with Sally Hammond, President of the Garland Downtown Business Association. Plans for events were being discussed and our conversation drifted to a need of volunteers and into our love of our old downtown. Many citizens of past events shared this love when we had worked together with much enjoyment. It seemed natural to call these friends and get an opinion about forming such a group that would support events by attendance but also as volunteers.

Life long residents spoke of what they missed, of what has been lost or taken away in the name of progress and they described what had been - and we listened.

This group also shared an interest in the preservation of our olde downtown square; it’s the heart of our city. We were concerned about the conservation of our old buildings, the atmosphere that exists there and about the future of this great, historic place.

After a few months of evaluating what had been shared by many, our course set, on August 3, 2009 - Mary Howard, Co-Founder/Treasurer, and I were at the Records Building, downtown Dallas, filling out the papers and registering “Friends of Olde Downtown Garland”. Our concept was clear, our goals in place, we had members of the same determinations, we had begun and now we are...

Friends of Olde Downtown Garland an organization of citizen volunteers who enjoy sharing their time and talents with our city by supporting our downtown merchants, businesses and events. The “Friends” are about the preservation, conservation and the future of our historic Olde Downtown Garland.

It’s a brief history now; it will be interesting to see what our future holds.