Pleasant Grove is an area located in the southeast portion of Dallas, Texas. The Pleasant Grove area is bounded by Bruton Road to the North, Elam Road, towards Seagoville, Texas on the South, Hickory Creek on the East towards Balch Springs, Texas and Jim Miller Road on the West.
History
The first settlers in the Pleasant Grove area in the 1840s included W. B. Elam, who held one of the original land grant, Richard Bruton, and Cornelius Cox. By 1875 a wooden building was used as a union church and school. An early teacher at one of the schools built in the 1880s was Don Lebow, who named the school Pleasant Grove after its location in a grove of cottonwood trees. The name was then applied to both the school and the community. In 1900 Sam Street's map of Dallas County showed Pleasant Grove as a small community with a store. In 1916 the first brick schoolhouse was built. In 1937 Pleasant Grove formed its own school district, which by the late 1940s had fourteen buildings. Due to a post-World War II housing boom the population grew from 120 to 3,500 between 1943 and 1952. By the late 1940s Pleasant Grove had seven businesses, including a new bank. Businesses remained less important than the residential areas, but in 1952 Pleasant Grove Shopping Center, a major retail center, was built. Pleasant Grove twice fought incorporation movements and remained unincorporated till June 1954 when Pleasant Grove was annexed by Dallas and the Pleasant Grove school district merged with the Dallas Independent School District. In 1962 the Greater Pleasant Grove Chamber of Commerce was formed to promote business in the area. This organization was later expanded to cover surrounding communities, and became the Southeast Dallas Chamber of Commerce.
Education
Primary and secondary schools
It is within the Dallas Independent School District. DISD Middle schools that serve Pleasant Grove students:
Skyline Center Magnet School, in Buckner Terrace/ East Dallas, 1971-
DISD operates the Pleasant Grove Stadium.
Cristo Rey Dallas College Prep work-study school, in Pleasant Hills/Southeast Dallas, 2015-
The charter school operator Life's Beautiful Educational Centers Inc. operated the school P.O.W.E.R. in Pleasant Grove. Charter schools that serve Pleasant Grove students:
The Pleasant Grove area is served by two public libraries. 1.Pleasant Grove Library Branch - Dallas Public Library Address: 7310 Lake June Rd. ~ in Pleasant Grove/Southeast Dallas 2.Prairie Creek Library Branch - Dallas Public Library Address: 9609 Lake June Rd., in Lake June/Southeast Dallas
Notable residents
Maceo Baston grew up in the Pleasant Grove area and attended Nancy Moseley Elementary School. He plays for the Toronto Raptors in the NBA.
