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Irving (pronounced 'ur-ving') is a city located in the U.S. state of Texas within Dallas County. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city population was 216,290 making it the thirteenth most populous city in Texas. Irving is within the Dallas–Plano–Irving metropolitan division of the Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan area, designated by the U.S. Census Bureau and colloquially referred to as the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. Irving contains the Las Colinas area, which was one of the first master-planned developments in the United States and once the largest mixed-use development in the Southwest with a land area of more than . Las Colinas includes the Mustangs at Las Colinas, which is the largest equestrian sculpture in the world. A tract in Las Colinas is home to the Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas, completed in January 2011. The Dallas Cowboys played at the now-demolished Texas Stadium in Irving from 1971 to 2008. The city plans to build an extensive mixed-use project that spans State Highway 114 on the site. The lead developer is Forest City Enterprises, which is rehabilitating the old Mercantile complex in downtown Dallas into a Rockefeller Center-style mixed-use project. Part of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, which serves the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth, is inside the city limits of Irving. It is also home to ExxonMobil. [edit] History
Irving was founded in 1903 by J.O. "Otto" Schulze and Otis Brown. It is believed that literary author Washington Irving was a favorite of Netta Barcus Brown, and consequently the name of the town site, Irving, was chosen. Irving originally began in 1889 as an area called Gorbit, and in 1894 the name changed to Kit. Irving was incorporated April 14, 1914, with Otis Brown as the first mayor. By the late nineteenth century the Irving area was the site of churches, two cotton gins, a blacksmith shop and a general store. The Irving district public school system dates back to the 1909 establishment of Kit and Lively schools. Population growth was slow and sometimes halting, with only 357 residents in 1925, but a significant increase began in the 1930s. By the early 1960s the city had a population of approximately 45,000. A number of manufacturing plants operated in Irving, along with transportation, retail and financial businesses. The University of Dallas in Irving opened in 1956, and Texas Stadium was completed in 1971 as the home field of the Dallas Cowboys. Delta Air Lines Flight 191 crashed in Irving on August 2, 1985. Irving's population reached 155,037 in 1990 and the 2010 Census counted 216,290 residents. Former Irving City Council member Mayor Herbert Gears was elected to a three-year term in June, 2005 and re-elected in May, 2008 defeating Roland Jeter and Rigo Reza. Joseph Rice recorded the history of Irving in his 1989 book, Irving: A Texas Odyssey (Northridge, California: Windsor Publications ISBN 978-0-89781-300-6). Rice explored Irving's past and culture in his treatment of the city. [edit] Research Tips
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