Ennis () is a city in eastern Ellis County, Texas, United States. The population is 20,159 according to the 2020 census, with an estimated population of 21,210 in 2021. Ennis is home to the annual National Polka Festival.
History
In 1871 the Houston and Texas Central Railroad (H&TC) arrived at the spot that would become Ennis as it built north towards Dallas. The city was established that year and surveyed a year later. It is named after Cornelius Ennis, a founder of the H&TC Railroad.
Between 1874 and 1890, the population of Ennis grew tenfold from approximately 300 to 3,000. Many of the new settlers came from the defeated Confederate States of America and others came from the war-torn European nations that later became Czechoslovakia. This early growth was attributed to the success of cotton production in the region, making Ennis a center of trade and commerce for both farmers and the railroad. The influx of Czech migrants would also shape and transform the cultural heritage of the community for years to come.
In 1891, the H&TC chose Ennis to be its northern division headquarters. The machine shops and roundhouse employed several hundred men. One condition of the agreement was that as long as Ennis was able to furnish water the shops could not be moved from the community. The city built the first of three lakes for this purpose: Old City Lake in 1892, followed by New Lake in 1895, and Lake Clark (an extension of New Lake) in 1940. However H&TC would later be acquired by the Texas and New Orleans Railroad (T&NO), a subsidiary of Southern Pacific, in 1934. While it no longer hosted the company headquarters, the shops and yard in Ennis would remain and continue to be used as a hub for other lines and branches serving the city.
On July 14, 1902, the Corsicana Oil Citys of the Texas League moved that day's game against Texarkana to Ennis, due to Sunday blue laws in Coriscana. Future major-leaguer Nig Clarke set an all-time record by hitting eight home runs in ten at bats in a 51–3 victory. (Clarke was helped mightily by the fact that Ennis' tiny ballpark featured a right field fence only about 210 feet from home plate.)
The expansion of the cotton industry supplemented by the railroad provided access to foreign and domestic markets through the port of Houston. By 1920, a total of 152,601 bales of cotton were ginned and shipped from Ellis County, the most of any county in America. In part to the city's significant contribution, the Ennis Chamber of Commerce adopted the slogan 'Where Railroads and Cotton Fields Meet." These two industries - trade and cotton production - produced immense wealth for the community that could be seen in the residential development of the city. Lawyers, doctors, businessmen, and other wealthy residents built churches of many different denominations and numerous fraternal organizations met regularly. Elegant houses along "the Avenue" and north were accompanied by dozens of Folk Victorian houses and Craftsman style bungalows. These Victorian houses and Craftsman bungalows in the northwestern part of the city would eventually become a part of the Templeton-McCanless Residential Historic District.
By the mid-20th century Ennis had become a modern community with schools, three movie theaters, several drugstores, banks and automobile dealerships. Descendants of early settlers had developed new traditions like the National Polka Festival and the Ennis Bluebonnet Trail. Moreover, the city was connected to Dallas to the north and Houston to the South by Interstate Highway 45.
The commercial strip along Ennis Ave. between Downtown and Interstate 45 was hit by a tornado on May 15th, 2013, rendering four homes uninhabitable and damaging as many as 55 businesses. The damage caused by the tornado impacted the National Register Historic District, with some of its historic buildings facing demolition. However, demolition was opposed by local community leaders and activists. As a result, these damaged buildings were sold by the city to developers with the intention of repairing the buildings. Further restoration and revitalization plans were implemented in the Downtown Comprehensive Plan, and the city was admitted to the Texas Main Street Program in January 2015. As a result of these efforts small businesses have been displaced and the downtown is still in shambles.