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HISTORY <br />created a class of citizens who were capable of <br />forming and backing cultural and!, artistic <br />decisions of community importance. Cotton was <br />also an economic indicator, with Paris becoming <br />a gilded branch of the Cotton Kingdom. The <br />cotton buyers and cotton dealers strictly advised <br />the farmers, what they should be doing. The <br />surviving homes of this period of economic <br />influence display evidence of the owners' concern <br />for show and beauty✓ over usefulness and <br />function. They express an architectural desire to <br />display achievement. <br />Paris was a unique city. Unlike its surroundings, <br />Paris was more southern than western and more <br />urban than rural. The Cotton Kingdom status of <br />Paris enticed several Engllish families to take up <br />residence in the 1880s. This influx of Europeans <br />,created a cosmopolitan atmosphere in the small: <br />Texas town, and turned its attention to Europe as <br />a source of ideas. Today, Paris still exhibits <br />architectural traces of the great cotton era <br />because the economic and social influences of oil <br />were not experienced here, as they were in <br />Dallas, Tyler, Waco, and many✓ other towns in <br />Texas. The discovery and subsequent wealth <br />from oil greatly influenced these towns and <br />caused them to lose their historic past. <br />By 1885, the first residential subdivisions and <br />commercial developments were established <br />beyond the center of town. These new areas of <br />Paris were connected to downtown with trolley <br />lines. It was also at this time that the railroad <br />passed through Paris; development along these <br />lines soon followed. During the 1890s, Paris <br />continued to flourish and the population <br />continued to grow. With this came the need for <br />,even more land. Additions to the town continued <br />along the numerous rail lines and transportation; <br />corridors. By the turn of the century, the rapid <br />population growth slowed, but suibdivisions <br />continued to be created. <br />The City of Paris, the Board of Trade, and <br />Progressive Club commissioned landscape <br />Design Standards for the City of Paris, Texas 4 <br />