Editing Flower Mound, Texas (section)

==History==
Settlement in the area around Flower Mound began when the Presbyterians established a camp in the area in the 1840s.{{sfn|Bates|1918|p=31}} A log cabin, dated around 1850, was discovered preserved within the walls of a home near Liberty Elementary in 2016, providing further proof of settlement. At first, the group held religious camps for two to three weeks at a time.{{sfn|Cannon|2004|p=7}} By 1854, residents had established the Flower Mound Presbyterian Church southwest of [[Lewisville, Texas|Lewisville]] in an area commonly referred to as "Long Prairie".{{sfn|Hervey|2002|p=16}}{{sfn|Greene|1973}} By 1920, the church had 126 members,{{sfn|Thompson|1920}} and the pine-framed building was expanded in 1937.{{sfn|Jordan|1976|p=147}} Early settlers such as Andrew Morriss and David Kirkpatrick are memorialized with street names in the town. The area remained sparsely populated for many decades after its initial settlement.

On February 25, 1961, the town voted to [[Municipal corporation|incorporate]] to avoid [[Municipal annexation in the United States|annexation]] by the City of [[Irving, Texas|Irving]].{{sfn|FMHC|1995|pp=55&ndash;56}} William Wilkerson, who became the town's second mayor, led the incorporation effort and helped improve the town's phone service and water supply.{{sfn|Ackerman|2006}} In 1970, when Flower Mound had 1,685 residents, Edward S. Marcus and [[Raymond Nasher]] began a [[planned community]] project with $18 million in loan guarantees from the [[United States Department of Housing and Urban Development]] through their [[National Urban Policy and New Community Development Act of 1970|New Community]] program.{{sfn|New Town Report|1970|p=1}} Called "Flower Mound New Town", the project included elements of the [[new towns movement]], including collaboration with [[University of North Texas|North Texas State University]] (now the University of North Texas) to move the school's administrative offices to Flower Mound and conduct all research for the project.{{sfn|Rogers|2002|p=509}} The project was featured in advertisements as late as 1974,{{sfn|Texas Monthly|1974|p=34}} but it was abandoned after residents threatened to [[Municipal deannexation in the United States|disannex]] a portion of the town to thwart the development.{{sfn|New Town Report|1970|p=5}}{{sfn|Minor|2011}} The disannexation effort sharply divided the town, and led to a number of strongly contested elections between 1971 and 1976.{{sfn|FMHC|1995|p=63&ndash;66}} In 1976, ''[[Texas Monthly]]'' awarded the project its "Bum Steer Award" after the project lost its federal loan guarantees.{{sfn|West|1976|p=73}}

The construction of [[Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport]] {{convert|4|mi|km}} south of the town in 1974 sparked a period of rapid growth. Between 1980 and 1990, Flower Mound's population increased from 4,402 to 15,896. It reached 50,702 in 2000, an average annual increase of nearly 13 percent per year during the 1990s, making it the nation's tenth fastest-growing community.{{sfn|SMARTgrowth|2012}} Between 2000 and 2002, Flower Mound was the ninth fastest-growing municipality in the United States with a population of more than 50,000, and its population continued to increase by approximately five percent each year between 2000 and 2005. Controlled growth continues in central and western Flower Mound.