Ennis () is a city in eastern Ellis County, Texas, United States. Its population was 20,159 according to the 2020 census, with an estimated population of 23,686 in 2023. Ennis is home to the annual National Polka Festival. It is part of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.
History
In 1871, the Houston and Texas Central Railroad (H&TC) arrived at the spot that would become Ennis as it built north towards Dallas. The city was established that year and surveyed a year later. It is named after Cornelius Ennis, a founder of the H&TC Railroad.Ennis Historical Society . Ennis Historical Society. Retrieved on May 22, 2015.
Between 1874 and 1890, the population of Ennis grew tenfold from around 300 to 3,000. Many of the new settlers came from the war-torn European nations that later became Czechoslovakia. This early growth was attributed to the success of cotton production in the region, making Ennis a center of trade and commerce for both farmers and the railroad. The influx of Czech and Slovak migrants also shaped and transformed the cultural heritage of the community for years to come, making Ennis one of the largest Czech communities in Texas.
In 1891, the H&TC chose Ennis to be its northern division headquarters. The machine shops and roundhouse employed several hundred men. One condition of the agreement was that as long as Ennis was able to furnish water, the shops could not be moved from the community. The city built the first of three lakes for this purpose: Old City Lake in 1892, followed by New Lake in 1895, and Lake Clark (an extension of New Lake) in 1940.ENNIS, TX | The Handbook of Texas Online| Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). Tshaonline.org (June 12, 2010). Retrieved on 2015-05-22. However, H&TC was later acquired by the Texas and New Orleans Railroad, a subsidiary of Southern Pacific, in 1934. While it no longer hosted the company headquarters, the shops and yard in Ennis remained and continued to be used as a hub for other lines and branches serving the city.
On July 14, 1902, the Corsicana Oil Citys of the Texas League moved that day's game against Texarkana to Ennis, due to Sunday blue laws in Coriscana. Future major-leaguer Nig Clarke set an all-time record by hitting eight home runs in 10 at-bats in a 51–3 victory. (Clarke was helped mightily by the fact that Ennis' tiny ballpark featured a right field fence only about 210 feet from home plate.)
The expansion of the cotton industry supplemented by the railroad provided access to foreign and domestic markets through the port of Houston. By 1920, 152,601 bales of cotton were ginned and shipped from Ellis County, the most of any county in America. In part to the city's significant contribution, the Ennis Chamber of Commerce adopted the slogan "Where Railroads and Cotton Fields Meet". These two industries - trade and cotton production - produced immense wealth for the community that could be seen in the residential development of the city. Lawyers, doctors, businessmen, and other wealthy residents built churches of many different denominations and numerous fraternal organizations met regularly. Elegant houses along "the Avenue" and north were accompanied by dozens of Folk Victorian houses and Craftsman-style bungalows. These Victorian houses and Craftsman bungalows in the northwestern part of the city eventually became a part of the Templeton-McCanless Residential Historic District.
By the mid-20th century, Ennis had become a modern community with schools, three movie theaters, several drugstores, banks, and automobile dealerships. Descendants of early settlers had developed new traditions such as the National Polka Festival and the Ennis Bluebonnet Trail. Moreover, the city was connected to Dallas to the north and Houston to the south by Interstate Highway 45.
The commercial strip along Ennis Ave. between downtown and Interstate 45 was hit by a tornado on May 15, 2013, rendering four homes uninhabitable and damaging as many as 55 businesses. The damage caused by the tornado impacted the National Register Historic District, with some of its historic buildings facing demolition, but demolition was opposed by local community leaders and activists. As a result, these damaged buildings were sold by the city to developers, with the intention of repairing the buildings. Further restoration and revitalization plans were implemented in the Downtown Comprehensive Plan, and the city was admitted to the Texas Main Street Program in January 2015. In recent years, Ennis has seen a boost in its economy and its downtown area has been revitalized.
Ennis was part of the path of totality during the Solar eclipse of April 8, 2024, with the centerline of the eclipse passing through the northern part of the town. In celebration of the eclipse, Ennis threw a large festival, attempting to attract more visitors to the town and further bolster the economy. The city experienced 4 minutes and 23 seconds of totality.
Railroads in Ennis
Throughout the city's history, railroads have been instrumental in the community's early economic boom and supplemented the city's growth for over a century. Three railroads initially laid tracks and operated to and from Ennis—the Houston and Texas Central (H&TC) running north to southeast, the Texas Midland Railroad spurring to the northeast, and the Waxahachie Tap Railroad—later known as the Central Texas and Northwestern Railroad (CT&N)—coming in from the northwest. The CT&N was merged into the H&TC by the early 1900s and both remaining railroads serving the city were merged into the Texas and New Orleans Railroad in 1934, eventually merging into its parent company Southern Pacific Railroad by 1961. In 1996, Southern Pacific merged into Union Pacific Railroad, which now serves as the sole rail operator in the city, maintaining a yard and local base of operations for the Ennis Subdivision.
The construction of the HT&C was directly responsible for the early development of the city. Not only was the community strategically located in the middle of the Blackland Prairie, but also it was located along the proposed H&TC line from Houston to Dallas—the first rail connection between both cities. However, the railroad's decision to establish Ennis meant that the nearby town of Burnham—located five miles south near the present-day community of Ensign—would be bypassed. The issue of this decision presented itself when many businesses in Burnham were attracted to the railroad and relocated to Ennis. As a result, a mob of angry residents reacted violently to the railroad's bypass and attacked citizens in the city of Ennis, killing one and injuring several others. Burnham, an otherwise well-planned and relatively developed city, eventually declined and become a ghost town in the coming decades.
In 1870—as the H&TC was laying track in Ellis County—residents of the neighboring city of Waxahachie refused to give bonds to the railroad and resisted the development of a rail link to the system. After the railroad brought significant growth to Ennis and the decline of the bypassed community of Burnham took hold, attitudes changes as opportunistic businessmen and lawmakers chartered the Waxahachie Tap Railroad to link Waxahachie to the H&TC in an effort to reap some of the economic benefits. Construction was completed in 1879, establishing a 13-mile connection across Ellis County between both cities. In 1881, the railroad was reorganized into the Central Texas and Northwestern Railway and secured state legislation permitting the railroad to build out west into the Panhandle, but no further construction was made on the railroad. Eventually, the CT&N was merged into the H&TC in 1901.
In 1882, the H&TC began construction on a spur line to span over 100 miles from Ennis to the city of Paris, Texas, linking a southern terminus of the St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad. This would bypass the city of Dallas and provide a direct link from St. Louis, Missouri, to the port cities of Houston and Galveston. However, in 1885—just three years into construction—the H&TC went into receivership after only building half of the line, stopping just south of the city of Quinlan. In 1892, the Texas Midland Railroad was chartered by businesswoman Hetty Green, who purchased the northeastern spur from the H&TC. The link between the cities of Ennis and Paris finally was made 13 years later.
After a decade of operation, the Texas Midland was bought out by parties interested in a link and partnership between the Frisco Line and Rock Island Line. Plans were announced to build a line 65 miles south from Ennis to Waco to connect with the recently established Burlington-Rock Island Railroad, a joint venture of the Rock Island Line and Burlington Route. The potential of Ennis becoming a major railroad hub and junction was significant, and could have significantly boosted its already booming development. However, this southern extension never came to fruition and the Texas Midland eventually was bought out and annexed by Southern Pacific in 1928, which leased the line to its subsidiary Texas and New Orleans Railroad. In 1934, the T&NO fully acquired both the Texas Midland and the HT&C, dissolving both companies in a merger to consolidate the H&TC line into the Southern Pacific system and fully abandon the Texas Midland route. While Ennis continued to see T&NO service to Dallas and Houston, the northeastern spur from Ennis to Paris sat abandoned and unused for almost a decade. A washout of the bridge spanning the Trinity River led to the official abandonment and decommissioning of the line between Ennis and Kaufman in 1942.
The city was also served by the Texas Electric Railway, an extensive interurban railway network in North Texas that stretched over 200 miles at its peak. The line historically ran through Ennis at street level along Dallas Street before running parallel to the T&NO tracks outside of the city center. From 1913 to 1941, Ennis was a stop along the Dallas-Corsicana Line, but the rise of the automobile, decline in ridership, and the economic strain of World War II led to the suspension of service and closure of the line. Like the Texas Midland's spur along Breckenridge Street, the interurban line ran along Dallas Street and was likewise paved over after service was suspended. However, these tracks were revealed and partially restored during street renovations in the late 2010s.
By the mid-20th century, the significance of the railroad began to decline in the city, as the postwar boom of the midcentury favored the automobile over the locomotive. Texas and New Orleans' Sunbeam and Hustler services were cut in 1955 and 1957, respectively, after serving the city since the T&NO's takeover of the H&TC. Passenger service did not return to Ennis, as attempts by Amtrak to restore service to the city were largely unsuccessful. Ten years after the T&NO's merger into Southern Pacific in 1961, Southern Pacific initially resisted attempts to route the Lone Star along the line through Ennis in the early 1970s. In 1989, a spur of the Texas Eagle—the successor of the Lone Star service—running from Dallas to Houston ran nonstop through the city during the alternate service's three-year stint in the early 1990s. Shortly after in 1996, Southern Pacific merged into Union Pacific, which has since been the sole railroad operating in the city. Union Pacific went on to commemorate the city's significant railroad history by honoring the legacy of its local yard workers—some of whom were fourth- and fifth-generation railroaders - in awarding the city a membership to the company's Train Town USA registry in 2013.
Templeton-McCanless Historic District