Pioneer Drive

Pioneer Drive, a continuous thoroughfare running from State Highway 161 to Loop 12, resulted from connecting three separate country lanes, Sowers Road, Lively Street, and Hurwitz Road. Through the years, road improvements resulted in the joining of the three roads. To reduce confusion from having three names for what had become one road, the Irving City Council renamed the roadway Pioneer Drive in 1965., Sowers Road was named for Edmund Sowers, who arrived in 1856 and established a general store and blacksmith shop in the area of today's intersection of Pioneer Drive and Belt Line Road. The community that grew in the area was named Sowers, as was the road that ran from Sowers community to Dallas., Lively Street was named for Mark Callister Lively, who moved to Dallas County in the late 1850s. In addition to farming and ranching, M.C. Lively taught at one of the first schools in the area. He later served as Justice of the Peace, as did one of his sons, who also served in the Texas Legislature., Hurwitz Road was named for Ben and Esther Hurwitz, who moved to Irving in 1929. The Hurwitzes donated land for area roads and were involved in many community-building activities, most notably the founding of the Irving Library in 1941.