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Lewisville Information
Lewisville is a city in Denton County and Dallas County, Texas (USA). As of
the 2000 census the city had a total population of 77,737. With strong
population growth continuing into the new millennium, the city's official web
page gives a 2006 population estimate of 89,000. Lewisville is one of the older
incorporated cities in the northern area of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, but
it remained a small rural town with just a few thousand people as late as 1960.
The earliest white settlement in what is now Lewisville occurred in the
1840s. Basdeal Lewis purchased the land around which Lewisville would be formed
and named the town after himself.
Growth was very slow during the 19th century, with population rising to only
about 500 by 1900. The settlement did boast several agriculture-related
industries, including a grist mill, a cotton gin, and a livery stable and feed
mill. In 1885 the building currently housing the Greater Lewisville Community
Theater was constructed on the city's principal thoroughfare, Main Street. It
remains Lewisville's oldest standing structure.
Lewisville High School opened in 1897, and in 1909 the first bank robbery in
Denton County history occurred at the First National Bank of Lewisville. In 1925
residents voted to incorporate the area as a city. Lewisville slowly grew with
its first automobile dealership and traffic light appearing over the next two
decades. Another notable bank robbery occurred in 1934 at the First National
Bank, this time engineered by the Barrow gang (minus leaders Bonnie and Clyde,
who had visited the city earlier that year).
Construction of the Lewisville Dam began in 1948 and concluded six years later,
which expanded the Garza-Little Elm Reservoir into the current 30,000-acre
Lewisville Lake. Population growth began to accelerate, and the 1970 census
counted 9,264 residents. In 1963 Lewisville became one of the first Texas cities
to integrate its school system, with the first two African-American graduates
from Lewisville High School in 1965 and a third in 1966. In September 1969 the
city hosted the Texas International Pop Festival on Labor Day weekend, with
Janis Joplin, B.B. King and Led Zeppelin performing. Just four weeks after
Woodstock the festival drew over 250,000 rock and jazz fans.
Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport opened in 1974, and the population of
cities like Lewisville and Flower Mound, north of the airport, began to explode.
The census figures tell the story: 24,273 in 1980, 46,521 in 1990, and 77,737 in
2000. Rapid growth continues, though the city has tried to maintain a small-town
ambiance.
Lewisville's growth is due in part to its proximity to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, a few miles to the city's south. Lewisville served for a time as the corporate headquarters for Fleming Foods, the food distributor, before the company ran into financial problems and relocated. Vista Ridge Mall is an important and expanding shopping center for Lewisville and surrounding communities. Lewisville Lake borders the city to the north; Lake Grapevine is located near its southern boundary. The city is served by the Lewisville Independent School District and to a lesser extent by the Coppell Independent School District. Four private Christian schools are also located in Lewisville. Among well-known natives of the city are Walt Garrison, former Dallas Cowboys fullback, and Dave Mitchell, a radio personality of Miami and Dallas.
Some Things to Consider When Looking for a Place...
When searching for a new apartment make sure to take your time to think
through what are the most important things to you in an apartment and plan your
search based on those priorities. Here are some things to consider when planning
your move:
1. Consider the areas where you would like to live
* What is the crime rate?
* If you have children - what rating does the local school system have?
* Is there area convenient shopping, health and recreation services in the area?
2. Make a list of your housing priorities
* Do you have pets?
* Do you need parking?
* Do you need to be on the ground floor?
* What amenities are important to you - swimming pool, fitness room, in unit
laundry?
3. Evaluate the building
* What is the condition of the unit and building?
* Are the grounds maintained?
* Are windows, steps, and railings in good condition?
* View the property at night. Is it safe and well lit?
4. The security of the property
* Are there security service? When is the guard on duty?
* Does the building have controlled access?
* Does each unit have secure door and window locks?
5. Talk to the neighbors
* Ask other residents whether they are satisfied with the building.
6. Amenities
* Who is allowed to use the amenities?
* When are they open?
* Are the fees charged to use those facilities included in rent?
7. Ask about Utilities
* Does the owner or tenant pay the utility bills?
* Are any utilities included with monthly rent?
* Do units have separate thermostats to control heat and air conditioning?
8. Review the lease
* How much notice must you give before moving out?
* Can the rent be increased? If so, by how much and how often?
* Are pets allowed?
* What is the security deposit and cleaning costs upon move out?
* What is the responsibility of tenants for damage to property?
* Is there a penalty for breaking a lease?
9. Information too bring to a lease signing
* Credit Report
* Pay stubs/tax returns
* Reference
* Application
More Apartment Information
An apartment (or flat in Britain and most other Commonwealth countries) is a
self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building. Apartments
may be owned (by an owner-occupier) or rented (by tenants).
Some apartment-dwellers own their apartments, either as co-ops, in which the
residents own shares of a corporation that owns the building or development; or
in condominiums, whose residents own their apartments and share ownership of the
public spaces. Most apartments are in buildings designed for the purpose, but
large older houses are sometimes divided into apartments. The word apartment
connotes a residential unit or section in a building. Apartment building owners,
lessors, or managers often use the more general word units to refer to
apartments. Units can be used to refer to rental business suites as well as
residential apartments. When there is no tenant occupying an apartment, the
lessor is said to have a vacancy. For apartment lessors, each vacancy represents
a loss of income from rent-paying tenants for the time the apartment is vacant
(i.e., unoccupied). Lessors' objectives are often to minimize the vacancy rate
for their units. The owner of the apartment typically transfers possession to
the occupant by giving him/her the key to the apartment entrance door and any
other keys need to live there, such as a common key to the building or any other
common areas, and an individual unit mailbox key. When the occupant move out,
these keys should typically be returned to the owner.
Apartments can be classified into several types. Studio, efficiency, bed-sit, or
bachelor apartments tend to be the smallest apartments with the cheapest rents
in a given area. These kinds of apartment usually consist mainly of a large room
which is the living, dining, and bedroom combined. There are usually kitchen
facilities as part of this central room, but the bathroom is its own smaller
separate room. Moving up from the efficiencies are one-bedroom apartments where
one bedroom is a separate room from the rest of the apartment. Then there are
two-bedroom, three-bedroom, etc. apartments. Small apartments often have only
one entrance/exit. Large apartments often have two entrances/exits, perhaps a
door in the front and another in the back. Depending on the building design, the
entrance/exit doors may be directly to the outside or to a common area inside,
such as a hallway. Depending on location, apartments may be available for rent
furnished with furniture or unfurnished into which a tenant usually moves in
with his/her own furniture. Permanent carpeting is often included in an
apartment.
Laundry facilities are usually kept in a separate area accessible to all the
tenants in the building. Depending on when the building was built and the design
of the building, utilities such as water, heating, and electric may be common
for all the apartments in the building or separate for each apartment and billed
separately to each tenant (however, many areas in the US have ruled it illegal
to split a water bill among all the tenants, especially if a pool is on the
premises). Outlets for connection to telephones are typically included in
apartments. Telephone service is optional and is practically always billed
separately from the rent payments. Cable television and similar amenities are
extra also. Parking space, air conditioner, and extra storage space may or may
not be included with an apartment. Rental leases often limit the maximum number
of people who can reside in each apartment. On or around the ground floor of the
apartment building, a series of mailboxes are typically kept in a location
accessible to the public and, thus, to the letter-carrier too. Every unit
typically gets its own mailbox with individual keys to it. Some very large
apartment buildings with a full-time staff may take mail from the mailman and
provide mail-sorting service. Near the mailboxes or some other location
accessible by outsiders, there may be a buzzer (equivalent to a doorbell) for
each individual unit. In smaller apartment buildings such as two- or
three-flats, or even four-flats, garbage is often disposed of in trash
containers similar to those used at houses. In larger buildings, garbage is
often collected in a common trash bin or dumpster. For cleanliness or minimizing
noise, many lessors will place restrictions on tenants regarding keeping pets in
an apartment.
In some parts of the world, the word apartment is used generally to refer to a
new purpose-built self-contained residential unit in a building, whereas the
word flat means a converted self-contained unit in an older building. An
industrial, warehouse, or commercial space converted to an apartment is commonly
called a loft.
When part of a house is converted for the ostensible use of a landlord's family
member, the unit may be known as an in-law apartment or granny flat, though
these (sometimes illegally) created units are often occupied by ordinary renters
rather than family members. In Canada these suites are commonly located in the
basements of houses and are therefore normally called basement suites.
Staying in privately owned apartments rather than in a hotel is quickly becoming
popular with travelers.