Renner, Dallas

For the small town in Indiana, see Renner, Indiana.

Renner is a section of Dallas, Texas within southwestern Collin County that was once a distinct rural community of about 10 square miles and housed the center of a nonprofit agricultural research organization.

The namesake of the community, John A. Renner, developed townsites along the Cotton Belt line. A post office appeared in 1888. Coincidentally, the postmaster of Collin County in 1888 was George Renner. (DMN July 14, 1888). Renner received a telephone service in 1898 (DMN July 25, 1898). Renner was incorporated as a town in 1957 and annexed to Dallas in 1977.

Although the main residential portion of Renner mostly comprised a small triangle between McCallum (Wells) Blvd and the St. Louis Southwestern Railway, the agricultural portions of Renner extended North to Plano and East to include the agricultural research station, which is now a campus of the University of Texas at Dallas. The town also had a small bit of territory on the south side of McCallum Blvd. Land as far West as Josey Lane was within the corporate boundaries of Renner. Before absorption into Dallas, Renner had platted some of the agricultural portions for housing development.

Renner is currently home to many cleared lots featuring a variety of automobiles in a charming assortment of states of disrepair but the City of Dallas has plans to revitalize the area and use the existing freight line for a light rail.

AT&T's Renner switch includes several exchanges that now serve North Dallas but that once served the community of Renner. For example, the current "733" exchange was originally "Renner 3" or simply "RE3."

Template:Annexation Although the disparity between Collin County and Dallas County services was apparrant as early as 1940 (DMN 04-14-1940) the Town of Renner faced financial difficulties in the mid 1970's due to insufficient water infrastructure and budget shortages that required the laying off most of small police force. As early as 1971 there were plans to merge the town with Richardson, but Renner would later accede to Dallas in 1977. The final mayor, Harvey Miles was elected through a final election in which both he and his opponent received 77 votes each (DMN, Jan 20, 1977). One of Miles' last actions appears to have been to allow some residents to annex nonessential portions of the street to their properties. Miles handed the keys to the Renner town hall to Dallas City Manager George Schrader on April 4, 1977 (DMN, April 5, 1977) After this, the city of Dallas began annexing Renner and by 1983 had completed the process.. A total of 36 streets, including streets in the recently platted fields, and streets that have since been developed over, were renamed so as not to duplicate street names of Dallas proper (DMN, July 8, 1977). "Frank Jackson" and "Dickerson" are named after F.W. Jackson and J.B. Dickerson, patriarchs of prominent settler families who appear frequently in the society pages of the Dallas Morning News from the early 1900's. First and Second Streets became "Ronnie" and "Newt" after Ronald and Newton Hartline and a third street was bulldozed to expand McCallum Blvd, formerly known as Wells. Some members of the Coit and Campbell families also lived in the community.

Colorful mayor Ronald Newton Hartline (1937-1976), who was no-billed by Dallas County for official misconduct and theft by converstion (including borrowing a police CB radio to avoid speed traps) (DMN 03-23-1976), was killed in 1976 by a shotgun to the chest by Sam McDonald in Bonham, TX after a dispute over land on December 13, 1976 [1]. Hartline was a son of the town and his father Newt(on) "Lucky" Hartline (1887-1978) once served as mayor in the past.

Government and infrastructure

Renner is within the North Central Division of the Dallas Police Department, which is headquartered at 6969 McCallum Boulevard.

Governance

Before annexation to Dallas, the following people served as mayors

• J.T. Wells
• Newton Lucky Hartline
• Ronnald Lloyd Hartline
• John T. McCool
• Connie Armstrong
• Harvey Miles

(DMN 04-04-1971)

Education

Renner is within the Plano Independent School District. The area is zoned to:

• Jackson Elementary School
• Frankford Middle School
• Shepton High School
• Plano West Senior High School

Dallas Public Library operates the Renner Frankford Branch Library.

References

Collin Secessionists Want to Join Dallas. DMN 04-14-1940

External links

• Renner, Texas at the Handbook of Texas
• Small towns disappearing across North Texas prairie

• [2] The Paris News, Page 2 December 14, 1976