Pilot Point, Texas: Things to Do This Fall Around the Historic Square
September 24, 2026
September 24, 2026
Walk the Historic Pilot Point Square this week and nothing looks different from the outside. Same limestone storefronts. Same wide sidewalks built for hitching posts a century ago. Same view down Washington Street toward the old bank building that once stood in for a Hollywood crime scene. But step inside two or three of those storefronts and you'll find the square is doing more work than it used to, with the same handful of buildings and the same small group of people taking on new jobs.
That's the real story here. Pilot Point isn't expanding outward this fall. It's filling in what it already had, and the people running the fill-in are the same names showing up in different roles.
The building at 110 S Washington Street has been a fixture on the square for longer than most residents can remember, most recently known as the Pilot Point Community Opera House and home to the Garage Door Theater. According to the City of Pilot Point's A Minute on Main Street, last year Kailey Rice and Joe Hjelmgren, who'd built a following on that same stage and run Starbright Music & Performing Arts nearby, bought the building outright and renamed it Starbright Center for the Arts.
Since then they haven't just kept the lights on. They've added a second theater space inside the building, put up a marquee sign that now faces the square directly, and reworked the main entrance into something that functions as its own event space. Most recently they launched Starbright Gallery, a small room for visual art of all kinds that's already pulling in work from artists as far as 30 miles out. For a town this size, that's a real draw radius. It's becoming a reason for people from Aubrey, Sanger, or Denton to make the drive specifically to see what's hanging on the wall.
A few storefronts over, at 111 S Jefferson, a tasting room quietly soft-opened on June 21. It belongs to Fortunata Winery, and every bottle poured there qualifies for the state's GoTexan program, meaning the product itself, not just the label, has to be primarily produced in Texas. The lineup runs from a signature Tempranillo to a set of High Plains wines grown near Lubbock, including a Trebbiano, a Cristallo, a red blend, and a rosé.
That's not a wine bar bolted onto a strip center. It's a tasting room built into the same walkable stretch as the theater, the coffee shops, and the festival grounds, which means a Saturday afternoon downtown can now include a pour of something grown a few hundred miles west without anyone needing to drive to Grapevine or Fredericksburg to get it.
Here's where the connection gets specific enough to matter. Pilot Point's biggest annual event is Bonnie & Clyde Days, held every October to mark the day the 1967 Warner Bros. film "Bonnie and Clyde," starring Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty, shot its bank robbery scene at the historic Farmers & Merchants Bank Building on the square. The town's connection to the outlaws runs deeper than the movie. Pilot Point and the surrounding area were genuine stomping grounds for the real Bonnie and Clyde and the Barrow Gang, and local legend holds that a family in the area once gave them a place to hide.
The reenactment of that bank robbery scene is the festival's centerpiece every year. This year, it's championed by FMB Legacy and directed by Starbright Center for the Arts, the same organization that just spent a year renovating the Opera House down the street. The film will also play all day on Starbright's screen during the festival, alongside a History Walk covering the details of the original filming.
The fall calendar stacks up fast this year, and it's worth knowing which events actually happen on the square and which don't.
That last detail matters if you're planning your month around the square. Sharkarosa itself is worth knowing regardless of the festival calendar. It's a 126-acre nonprofit wildlife ranch, not a traditional zoo, home to more than 180 animals and open to the public on weekends, sitting close to Ray Roberts Lake State Park on the edge of town. If you're expecting a third downtown street festival in as many weeks, you'll want to redirect toward Massey Road instead.
If you're on the square regularly, the practical read is simple. Parking gets tighter on the 26th and the 10th, both Saturdays, both centered on the same two blocks. The gallery and the wine room are good stops on a quieter weekday if you want to see either without a festival crowd competing for sidewalk space. And if you've followed Bonnie & Clyde Days for years without thinking much about who's behind the reenactment, this year's version carries a little more weight now that you know it's being staged by the same team that just gave the old Opera House a working marquee.
None of this changes the shape of the square. It changes what happens inside it, and who's responsible for making it happen. That's a different kind of growth than a new subdivision or a new strip center, and it's the kind that tends to hold up better over time, because it's built on people who were already invested in the town before any of this started.
Pilot Point sits about 11 miles north of Denton on Highway 377, close enough to be part of daily life for a good stretch of Denton County without losing the feel of a small Texas Main Street city. Whether you're already calling it home or thinking about what small-town North Texas living actually looks like day to day, it helps to have someone in your corner who knows which storefronts are worth watching. If you have questions about Pilot Point, Denton County, or anywhere else across North Texas, Kaki Lybbert would love to hear from you. Let's Connect.
Known for her integrity, experience, and deep commitment to her clients and community, Kaki Lybbert has become a trusted name in North Texas real estate. Whether helping families buy or sell a home, mentoring other REALTORS®, or advocating for the future of the profession, Kaki brings the same dedication, leadership, and heart that have defined her career for nearly three decades.
