East Texas Places

Tyler

The commercial and cultural center for East Texas, Tyler has seen a population boom in recent years. Retirees and second-home owners are moving into town, prompting new housing to sprout up in former cotton fields and alongside the nearly century-old mansions built by the cotton and oil barons who once called the town home. Sculpted hedges and winding streets in Tyler's historic neighborhoods provide a respite from the unending prairie that dominates the surrounding landscape.

The local economy has shifted from the boom-and-bust heyday of the Texas oil industry to that of a regional banking and medical center, with three major hospitals in town. Tyler is a regional cultural center as well, with a symphony, ballet, and an art museum.

The town has also been known for harboring quite a few green thumbs—or pink thumbs, as they say in Tyler, since the gardeners have been particularly passionate about roses. At one point, some 80 percent of all roses sold in the United States were grown here. Though local rose growing has since declined, many out-of-state growers send roses to Tyler for cutting and packing before they are shipped to destinations worldwide. Rose sheds can be seen along the smaller roads leading in and out of town, along with the occasional field of rose bushes and a 14-acre municipal rose garden, the nation's largest. Each October the town celebrates its rosy past with the Texas Rose Festival.