You can't avoid Cooper Street. It travels for 12.9 miles, slices through UT Arlington and along side Arlington High School. It can take you to the Parks Mall, offer access to I-20 and I-30 and lead you pass some of the city's most diverse neighborhoods.

The origins of Cooper Street started when Arlington landowner James Daniel Cooper allowed drivers to cut through his vast property en route to Mansfield. It was Cooper Road then, says Geraldine Mills of the Arlington Historical Society. Cooper Road became Cooper Street in the early 1900s and would lengthen over time, said Water Information Service G.I.S. supervisor Tim Boyte.

Cooper was one of the city's early settlers. He was a landowner known for his generosity to the city. The home he built in 1878 on the southeast corner of what is now Cooper and Abram streets. Its Colonial design with columns and wide board floors made it rather majestic. The house was donated to the City of Arlington in 1952 and relocated to Meadowbrook Park. The Cooper House would serve as a library until 1962, when it was leased to the Arlington Woman's Club.
The house was designated a Texas Historical Landmark in 1965. The Woman's Club refurbished and maintained the home until Halloween night, 1998, when it was destroyed by an accidental fire and eventually demolished.

You can view a historical marker of the Cooper House at 211 Willis Street, the entrance of Meadowbrook Park.

One of the tragedies in the life of James and wife, Luna A. Cooper, was the death of their one-year-old daughter, Mattie Luna Cooper, in 1875. Mattie is considered to be one of the oldest documented burials at the historic Arlington Cemetery located at Mary Street at the intersection of East Mitchell Street near downtown Arlington.