Here in Lewisville, we love our pets! Lewisville is a community of bird-lovers. The city and its residents take stewardship over flocks of Purple Martins that return every year to build nests, raise their young and eat bugs. More than 50,000 of the migratory songbirds take up temporary residence in Lewisville from late February through August before heading to Brazil. Lewisville residents and the city have erected martin houses for the birds.
The Purple Martins—featured on the Lewisville city logo—are attracted the area’s abundant water supply. Lewisville is located on the south shore of Lewisville Lake, a 29,000-acre reservoir built in the 1920s to supply drinking water to Dallas. Lewisville is a suburb 25 miles northwest of Dallas and 33 miles northeast of Fort Worth in North Texas.
Lewisville, in Denton County, has a current population of more than 106,000. It had fewer than 1,000 residents as late as 1940. Its population has grown by more than 37 percent since 2000.
Today, the suburb is becoming more than a bedroom community and an outdoor getaway for people in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. In 2018, Dallas-based Mary Kay Inc. opened a research and manufacturing facility in Lewisville that employs 400. Ericsson, the telecommunications company whose North American headquarters is in Plano, has its largest U.S. training center in Lewisville and plans to build a 300,000 square-foot smart factory in the city. Xerox, Sysco and Bed Bath & Beyond also have local operations.
Farmers and their families were the first Americans to settle in Lewisville shortly before the Civil War. Its proximity to Dallas has always been the draw. Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport is located in the center of the triangle created by the three cities, and that fueled growth in Lewisville as well. The area was originally called Holford Prairie after one of the first families to arrive. It was renamed by Basdeal Lewis after he purchased the land in 1855.
The climate in Lewisville is classified as humid subtropical. The area gets 38 inches of rain yearly, which is the average for U.S. locations. Temperatures get much hotter than average, though. From May through September, average highs are near or above 85 degrees. The average high temperature in August is 95.
That explains the attraction of Lewisville Lake, which offers opportunities for boating, fishing, swimming and other water sports. The city manages the 622-acre Lewisville Lake Park, which includes picnic areas, camping and a marina.