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(pronounced 'er-ving') is a city located in the U.S. state of Texas within Dallas County. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, the city population was 191,615; the 2006 estimate was 201,927 according to the North Central Texas Council of Governments, and 196,084 according to the U.S. Census Bureau. 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 12,000 acres (49 km²). Las Colinas includes the Mustangs at Las Colinas, which is the largest equestrian sculpture in the world. A tract in Las Colinas is also under development to become the site of the Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas, which is expected to be completed in November 2010.
The Dallas Cowboys played at Texas Stadium in Irving from 1971 to 2008. The city plans to demolish the old stadium to build an extensive mixed-use project that spans State Highway 114. 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.
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 townsite, 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.
Irving's population reached 155,037 in 1990 and is currently (2006) estimated at 201,927. 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.
). Rice explored Irving's past and culture in his treatment of the city.