Texarkana: Why I Like to Live Here

First, I want to tell you a little about our city because it is unique in many ways. As you are entering Texarkana, the large sign greeting you on the outskirts of town proclaims “twice as nice.” If you’ve never been through our town you may wonder, “ what does that’ twice as nice’ statement mean.” For all practical purposes, Texarkana is one city but it’s actually two cities! Though there are a few twin cities in the United States, Texarkana, AR-TX is unique! No river or body of water, bridge, or other physical boundary separates the two, as is the case in other twin cities. State Line Avenue was laid out along the line between the two states; one side of the stripe is Arkansas, the other, Texas. As a result, we have two of most everything: two city mayors, two governments, two police departments, two fire departments, etc.

The State Line Post Office and Federal Building, which straddles the state line and has the distinction of being the only Federal building situated in two states. One half of the building is in Texas and one half is in Arkansas. This post office has two zip codes, 71854 for Texarkana, Arkansas and 75501 for Texarkana, Texas. The beautiful building features a base of pink granite from Texas and walls of limestone from Arkansas. It has for years been the subject of postcards and today, is said to be the most photographed building in the U.S. with the exception of the Capitol building in Washington, DC!

The popular “photographer's island” is located in front of the Post Office and Federal building. There, a person can stand in two states, one foot in AR and the other in TX. You can well imagine the possibilities tourists come up with when posing! Many of you have probably seen the famous “Man in Arkansas, his Ass in Texas” picture postcards.

Another antique postcard draws attention to our state line in a lighthearted way. It caught my attention because it was’ Cupid’ that lured me to cross over to the Texas side to live!