Collin

Formed March 1, 1846 (40^th county)

Collin County (1,066,465), McKinney (195,326), Plano (285,469)

The Modern red and tan brick and concrete 2007 courthouse is representative of this fast-growing county.  Pierce, Goodwin, Alexander & Linville combined on the designs.  Five courthouses have been located in McKinney but the original county courthouse was located in Buckner when the county was founded on March 1, 1846.  The last courthouse (1978) served as the Administration Building until 2012.  Collin County was formed from Fannin County as the 40^th county.  There is a city square in McKinney; however, this structure is located well to the north one block west of United States Highway 75.  The location is 2100 Bloomdale Road.  Collin McKinney provided his name to the county and county seat.  He was a Texas Declaration of Independence signer and local settler. 

Collin County government consists of a sheriff, a County Judge, and 4 Commissioners.  Two District Court Judges serve Collin and Tarrant counties and Eleven District Court Judges and Ten County Court Judges serve Collin County.  The county is located just north of Dallas, Texas and forms the northeast quadrant in the Metroplex.  The county center is in McKinney 3.4 miles South-Southeast of the city center.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Grayson, Fannin, Hunt, Rockwall, Dallas, and Denton counties. 

The area of the county is 848 square miles.  It is 186 out of 254 in the state.  It ranks 6 out of 254 in population in the state.  It has a density of 1257.6 persons per square mile making it 6 out of 254 in the state.  Collin County has 94.6% of its population in its incorporated areas.  United States Highway 75 transits from Grayson County, north, into Dallas County, south.  United States Highway 380 crosses east to west, Hunt County to Denton County.  A rectangle with its northeast corner cut out is the best description of the county.  A number of large companies have their corporate headquarters within the county.  McKinney is slightly west of center.  Plano is in the southwest corner of the county and extends into Denton County.  McKinney is the county seat and Plano is the largest city.  McKinney is 18.3% of the county population while Plano is 26.8% of the county population.  The largest city is pronounced PLAE-NOE.  This county is in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Statistical Area.