Cross Roads is a town in Denton County, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It sits along U.S. Route 380, a major east-west corridor through the county, between the cities of Denton and McKinney and near the shores of Lake Lewisville. The community takes its name from its location at a crossroads in the rural Denton County landscape. Its early history is tied to the area's farms and the construction of Lake Dallas, completed in 1927, which reshaped the local landscape. For decades Cross Roads remained a tiny rural settlement, reporting a population of about fifty in the mid-1940s and roughly 100 as late as the 1970s. Growth came with the expansion of the North Texas suburbs. The town's population climbed to about 600 by 2000 and to more than 1,700 by the 2020 census, as residential development spread along the U.S. 380 corridor. That growth has brought new subdivisions and commercial development to the town, while local leaders have worked to preserve a small-town feel amid the region's rapid change. Unlike the older county-seat towns around it, Cross Roads has grown mostly in recent decades, and its civic institutions are still taking shape alongside new residential streets. The town has focused on managing its growth along the highway while retaining the rural, low-density character that residents value, and its location near Lake Lewisville and at the center of the U.S. 380 corridor places it squarely within one of the region's most active development areas. Today Cross Roads functions as a small residential community within a rapidly growing part of the metroplex. Its location on U.S. 380 provides direct access to Denton, McKinney, Frisco, and the broader DFW region, while Lake Lewisville offers nearby recreation. The town's position between rural Denton County and the expanding suburbs shapes its identity as a place balancing growth with a country feel, and residents benefit from the employment, shopping, and services of the surrounding cities while retaining a smaller, quieter setting.