The first step was to secure civilian employment. New factories offered industrial jobs. Carrolton’s population exploded from 1,610 in 1950 to 13,855 in 1970 as various industries located there, including this Glidden Company Plant, pictured in 1961.
TXU Electric
World Crossroads / 1945 to Today
Back Home and Back to Work
When World War II was over people worried that the busy wartime economy would end and another depression might follow. Many of those who served abroad and those who supported them from home were of an age where they had spent most of their life enduring the Great Depression and then the war. They were pleasantly surprised. Life throughout Dallas County was transformed by new postwar prosperity that attracted thousands of new businesses and residents to the region. Acres of farmland were developed for housing, factories, warehouses, and shopping centers. Towns that had once served primarily as agricultural market centers became sizeable cities. Addison, Balch Springs, Duncanville, Farmers Branch, Kleberg (later annexed into Dallas), Sachse, Sunnyvale, and Wilmer all incorporated between 1946 and 1956. Reunited couples were ready to buy homes and start families.
National WWII Museum
