Little Monsters on Main Runs Through Old Town Lewisville's Two Rebuilt Front Doors

Little Monsters on Main returns to Old Town Lewisville on Saturday, Oct. 24, from 6 to 9:30 p.m. This year's lineup includes trick-or-treating at Main Street businesses, hayrides, a band and a movie in Wayne Ferguson Plaza. The route in is what's different. Both main entrances to Old Town are being rebuilt at once. On the west side, TxDOT is replacing the I-35E overpass at Main Street. At Mill Street, the city is preparing a gateway monument that will carry a three-dimensional pecan tree. The bridge job started in 2023 and is scheduled to finish in January 2027. The gateway idea has been discussed since at least 2004, and construction is planned for late 2026. This fall's Old Town calendar falls in the final months of the bridge work and right as the gateway moves toward construction.

The Night Itself, Hour by Hour

The City of Lewisville and the Old Town Business Association host the event. It's free, and the schedule is tight.

Trick-or-treating is scheduled to end at 8, and the movie starts right after, so the evening splits into two parts. The first part moves along Main Street. The second part sits still in the plaza. The first 1,000 costumed trick-or-treaters who stop at the information tent get a free Little Monsters on Main bag. The tent will be in North Poydras Plaza, between Main Street and Wayne Ferguson Plaza. If you want a bag, start at the tent before heading down Main Street.

Wayne Ferguson Plaza is the 1.5-acre urban park between Lewisville City Hall and the Lewisville Grand Theater. It has an elevated stage, tiered seating, a splash pad and beds of native grasses and wildflowers. The tiered seating is where the movie crowd will settle in for the final 90 minutes.

The Main Street Door: A Bridge in Its Final Months

The city's event release gives the standard directions: take I-35E to exit 452, head east on Main Street to Charles Street, and the Grand will be on your left. The same paragraph also warns that heavy construction at the Main Street intersection with I-35E could cause traffic delays.

The construction is TxDOT project CSJ 0196-02-128, listed as "I-35E – At FM 1171 and Main Street." It rebuilds the overpass and the frontage roads. TxDOT's early-2026 construction table for Denton County puts the cost at $117 million, names SEMA Construction as the contractor and lists the project as 64% complete. The schedule runs from May 2023 to January 2027.

The schedule has slipped before. In August 2024, Community Impact reported a $105 million project with completion projected for fall 2026. That report described the scope as a new FM 1171 bridge, 1.3 miles of rebuilt interstate main lanes and a new northbound frontage road from Fox Avenue to College Street. It also said the bridge would stay open except when demolition or construction required a closure, and that one phase would cut bridge traffic to two lanes in each direction. Between that report and TxDOT's 2026 table, the cost rose by $12 million and the finish date moved from fall 2026 to January 2027. If the newer date holds, this year's Halloween and holiday events land in the project's last few months.

We couldn't find a 2026 source that lists the current lane setup on the bridge, and no closure schedule for the evening of Oct. 24 was published. What the city does provide is parking. Free spaces are available along Main and Charles streets and at Lewisville City Hall. The hayrides also leave from City Hall, so parking there puts you at the start of one of the evening's main activities.

The Mill Street Door: A Pecan Tree Discussed Since 2004

Old Town's other entrance is on its way, but much more slowly. The city's park projects page lists the Old Town Gateway on Mill Street as under construction. Right now that means preparation work: demolition, an environmental site assessment and cleanup. Next comes a short design phase, with construction planned for late 2026. The design is a single column whose top spans Mill Street and Kealy Street. It will feature a 3D pecan tree as a nod to Lewisville's heritage, and it will closely follow the existing gateway monument on Main Street. Kimley-Horn and Associates, which has also worked on the Lewisville 2025 plan updates and the city's Unified Development Code, is designing it.

The bridge took 44 months from start to scheduled finish. The gateway has been in the works far longer. The city's project page traces it through a series of plans:

1. 2004: the Babendure Design Group Wayfinding Plan, the earliest discussion the city cites.
2. 2007: the Tourism Strategic Plan.
3. 2017 and 2020: two Old Town Marketing Plans.
4. 2020: the IH-35 Public Property Plan.
5. March 2023: the Community Relations and Tourism Department presents a concept plan to City Council.

The city's page says entry features help people recognize a historic district, and they often become heavily photographed landmarks. Once it's built, Old Town will have a pecan-topped marker at two of its entrances. The city's page gives a construction start window but no completion date.

What's Between the Two Doors

Two businesses on the trick-or-treat route have been confirmed as recent openings. Gilmore's Scoops opened in Wayne Ferguson Plaza at 191 W. Main St. It's an ice cream shop right on the plaza where the movie plays, steps from where the trick-or-treating ends. Ethel Jane's Whiskey Kitchen, run by BENDT Distilling Co., opened at 306 W. Main St. It was still sending out a monthly newsletter promoting its menu in August 2026.

Buffalo Hirsch, at 206 W. Main St., is an open-air cocktail truckyard with two bars and permanent food trucks. The Dallas Observer reported its opening in October 2025. At the time, its trucks included The Pickled Carrot, The Tomato Pizza and Feta's Lone Star Greek. That report is a year old, so check that lineup with the business before planning a stop around it.

The Rest of the Season Uses the Same Streets

Little Monsters on Main is one of several dates this fall that bring crowds into Old Town or to city venues while the bridge is still under construction:

• Wednesday, Oct. 14, 6 to 8 p.m.: The Lewisville High School Homecoming Parade comes through Old Town Lewisville.
• Friday, Oct. 16, 5 to 8 p.m.: A Chance to Dance: Halloween Bash, a free all-ages dance at Thrive, 1950 S. Valley Parkway, for community members with special needs and their families. It's not in Old Town, but it's part of the same city Halloween week.
• Saturday, Oct. 24, 6 to 9:30 p.m.: Little Monsters on Main.
• Friday, Dec. 4, and Saturday, Dec. 5: The Old Town Holiday Stroll at Wayne Ferguson Plaza, 150 W. Church St. Friday has Lewisville Lights!, hayrides, Santa, food trucks and a movie. Saturday has a parade, breakfast, Santa photos, crafts and family activities.

The Holiday Stroll is the season's last big Old Town event. It comes about a month before TxDOT's January 2027 finish date for the Main Street bridge. It also lands in the same late-2026 window the city has set for starting construction on the Mill Street gateway. Anyone coming to the Stroll from the interstate will still go through the Main Street work zone. If construction at Mill and Kealy has started by then, the Mill Street end of Old Town will have its own work zone too.

Old Town Lewisville's entrances are being rebuilt this fall, and we've been following both projects. For questions about getting around downtown or about homes near it, Linda Baker can help. Request a showing or builder consultation, and we'll share what we know about the area around Main and Mill.