Garland

Downtown: a rebuilt square with music most weeks

Garland's historic downtown sits around the square at State Street and Main Street. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017, and the city has rebuilt the square with about 60,000 sq ft of play areas, event space and a water feature. The Downtown Garland DART station is a short walk away.

Food and music anchor the square. Intrinsic Smokehouse & Brewery (509 W. State St.) brews beer and serves barbecue. Fortunate Son (500 Main St.), Dos Banderas (614 Main St.) and Main Street Cafe are nearby, along with Dead Wax records (519 Main St.) and Jimmy Wallace Guitars (514 Main St.). The Plaza Theatre (521 W. State St.) and the Granville Arts Center (300 N. Fifth St.) host shows. The Owl Icehouse is rebuilding the 1915 Jones Hardware building at 519 W. State St. into a two-story restaurant with a rooftop patio. State filings targeted April 2026 to finish the build-out; we did not confirm an opening.

Events are on the square nearly every month

The city's 2026 calendar puts almost every major event on the Downtown Garland Square. Music Made Here plays the first Friday of every month, and the Urban Market runs March through December. Spring brings Art Made Here (March 28 in 2026) and a Thursday concert series in April and May. The Asian American Heritage Festival was May 16, Juneteenth June 20 and Red, White & You July 3.

Fall is busiest: Fall Fest and the Guzzler .5k on Oct. 3, Día de los Muertos on Oct. 24, and Christmas on the Square on Friday, Dec. 4, 2026.

Parks, creeks and a 21,000-acre lake

Garland has 63 parks, more than 2,880 acres of park land and six recreation centers. Trust for Public Land scores the system 64 out of 100 and finds that 63% of residents live within a 10-minute walk of a park.

Central Park is the oldest; the city bought its first 50 acres after World War II. Audubon Park, on W. Oates Road, has fields, disc golf, trails along Duck Creek, and Surf & Swim, a city aquatic center rebuilt with a lazy river, wave simulator and three slides, slated to open in summer 2026. The Duck Creek Greenbelt trail runs about 5 to 5.7 miles. In the north, Spring Creek Forest Preserve (1770 Holford Rd.) protects old-growth oaks, some about 300 years old. Rowlett Creek Preserve (2525 Castle Dr.) has about 14 to 16 miles of unpaved trail used for mountain biking. Firewheel Golf Park covers 600 acres with 63 holes.

Lake Ray Hubbard forms Garland's east edge. John Paul Jones Park (4099 Zion Rd.) has boat ramps and trails, and the Woodland Basin trails are off E. Miller Rd.

Errands: groceries in town, hospitals out of town

Groceries are close by. Kroger has stores at 1406 W. Walnut St. and 6850 N. Shiloh Rd., Walmart has a Supercenter at 1801 Marketplace Dr., and Tom Thumb has stores on Firewheel Pkwy, Northwest Hwy and Arapaho Rd. H-E-B is converting a long-vacant building at 1040 W. Centerville Rd. into a Joe V's Smart Shop, its lower-price format, and the Garland City Council approved a full-size H-E-B on about 21 acres near Firewheel Town Center in May 2026. Neither had an opening date as of mid-2026.

Garland has no hospital inside city limits. Baylor Scott & White closed its Garland hospital in 2018, and the building is now a VA medical center. Ambulances take patients to hospitals in nearby cities. The closest for much of north Garland is Methodist Richardson Medical Center, at the Bush Turnpike and Renner Road. A Texas Health freestanding ER opened at 738 W. Centerville Rd. in 2016.

The Nicholson Memorial Library System reopened its Central Library downtown after an $18 million renovation in July 2025. It opened the 18,700 sq ft West Garland Library at Hollabaugh Park in October 2025, replacing the Walnut Creek branch. The North Garland and South Garland branches are still open.

Schools

Garland ISD serves most of the city, along with Rowlett and Sachse. It enrolled 51,513 students in 2023-24. The district uses a choice-of-school plan. Families can apply to any GISD campus, but students living closest to a school get priority. Seven comprehensive high schools serve the district; five of them are in Garland. In 2026 the district scored 86, up five points in two years, with no F-rated campuses. Garland High, Lakeview Centennial, North Garland and Sachse High earned A's. Parts of Garland are in Richardson ISD (Berkner High), Mesquite ISD (North Mesquite High) or Dallas ISD, so check the district for each address.

Getting around and public safety

I-30, I-635, the President George Bush Turnpike, SH 66, SH 78 and Belt Line Road all cross Garland. DART's Blue Line stops at Downtown Garland and Forest/Jupiter. From downtown, off-peak, CityLine in Richardson and downtown Plano are each about 16 minutes away, downtown Dallas about 28, Legacy West about 29, Love Field about 33 and DFW Airport about 43.

Garland Fire Department runs 15 stations from its headquarters at 1500 SH 66. It holds a Class 1 ISO rating, the highest rating ISO gives. New Fire Station 1 (427 Allen St.) and Station 7 (1910 Pleasant Valley Rd.) were under construction in 2025. Police headquarters is at 1891 Forest Ln.

Not confirmed yet

• Whether Surf & Swim opened in summer 2026 and its exact address (342 vs. 440 W. Oates Rd.).
• Whether the Owl Icehouse (519 W. State St.) has opened.
• Opening dates for Joe V's (1040 W. Centerville Rd.) and the Firewheel-area H-E-B.
• Acreage and amenities for all 63 parks.
• Whether the Texas Health ER at 738 W. Centerville Rd. is still operating.
• Street addresses for Garland ISD elementary schools, and 2026 letter grades for campuses not on the A list.
• Police sworn headcount.
• Date of the Fire Department's Class 1 ISO rating.
• Opening status of new Fire Stations 1 and 7.
• Drive times to the nearest hospitals and to Lake Lavon.
• Attendance boundaries for the Richardson, Mesquite and Dallas ISD parts of Garland.