Where to Stay in Grapevine, Texas

What is Grapevine known for?

Grapevine works its billing as the Christmas Capital of Texas hard through the winter, and across the rest of the year the older house stock, the Stewart House, the Dorris House, the Wiggins House and the Wall House, carries the visit instead. Gateway Church draws its own crowds. The Cotton Belt Section House marks the railway that set the town's early pace, and the runways of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport lie close enough that an arriving passenger reaches a room here before reaching either Dallas or Fort Worth.

What are the main landmarks in Grapevine?

Four houses hold the record. The Stewart House, the Dorris House, the Wiggins House and the Wall House survive from the farming decades, standing among later building as the clearest evidence of what Grapevine looked like before the Mid-Cities filled in around it. The Cotton Belt Section House is the railway's contribution.

Gateway Church is the largest single draw by attendance, and between them these six named places cover most of what a visitor to Tarrant County comes here to see.

What is the history of Grapevine?

The town dates from 1844. That puts Grapevine among the earlier settlements in this corner of Texas, established while the ground between Dallas and Fort Worth was still farmland and long before anyone spoke of a Mid-Cities suburban belt. Four houses carry the early record.

The Stewart House, the Dorris House, the Wiggins House and the Wall House each stand from the decades when this was a farming centre in its own right rather than a suburb of somewhere larger. Rail changed the scale of things. The Cotton Belt Section House survives from the line's working days, when a section crew kept quarters beside the track and the timetable set the rhythm of local trade.

Aviation changed it again. Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport was laid out across the city's edge, and Grapevine ended up holding a larger portion of the field than any of the other cities whose boundaries reach it, which reset the local economy and filled the town with hotels. Growth spread from there.

Building pushed the municipal limits across Tarrant County and into small parts of Dallas and Denton counties, Gateway Church arrived with the later suburban decades, and the Christmas Capital of Texas billing was hung on exactly the old streets those four houses still line.

Where is Grapevine?

An airport takes much of the map. Grapevine occupies Mid-Cities ground between Dallas and Fort Worth, and a large share of its municipal area is given over to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport rather than to streets or houses. The remainder is level and built up.

Most of the city falls inside Tarrant County, with minor portions reaching into Dallas and Denton counties, so the town's own boundary crosses three county lines. The old blocks sit apart from all of it.

What is the climate of Grapevine?

Winter is what Grapevine sells. The subtropical band it sits in keeps December mild enough for the Christmas Capital of Texas programme to run through the streets rather than indoors, which is half the reason the billing works at all. Summer is the harder season.

Heat settles over this flat Mid-Cities ground with no relief from height or shade, so the walk between the Stewart House, the Wiggins House and the Cotton Belt Section House is best taken early.

How do you get to Grapevine?

Most people land rather than drive. Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport lies partly inside the city limits, so a flight into the metroplex puts Grapevine closer than either Dallas or Fort Worth, and the transfer is short enough to make the town a common first night. Roads handle the rest.

Tarrant County traffic runs through on the suburban routes, the Denton county side gives an alternative approach, and the historic streets near the Stewart House and the Cotton Belt Section House are compact enough to leave the car once you arrive.