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    Dealey Plaza
    Dealey Plaza
    Dealey Plaza
    Ebook142 pages40 minutes

    Dealey Plaza

    By Willis C. Winters and John H. Slate

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    About this ebook

    Dealey Plaza is famous for many things, both locally and nationally. Considered “the front door of Dallas,” the park rests on a bluff near the Trinity River, where Dallas’s founder, John Neely Bryan, identified a natural low-water crossing in 1841. This ford was the site of Bryan’s cabin and was also the site of the first ferry and bridge over the Trinity River. Home to several Dallas County buildings and other historic structures, Dealey is not just the birthplace of Dallas; it is also the site of Dallas’s first large-scale city planning solution, a traffic diverting triple underpass, and a beautiful downtown park built in the 1930s. The park was launched into national history when Pres. John F. Kennedy was assassinated here on November 22, 1963. Today, the site is visited by over two million annually. To preserve Dealey Plaza and its surrounding buildings, the federal government designated it a National Historic Landmark District in 1993.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateJul 15, 2013
    ISBN9781439642320
    Dealey Plaza
    Author

    Willis C. Winters

    Images of America: Dealey Plaza is authored by John H. Slate, CA, the city archivist for the City of Dallas, responsible for the Dallas Municipal Archives, and Willis C. Winters, FAIA, director of the Dallas Park and Recreation Department.

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      Book preview

      Dealey Plaza - Willis C. Winters

      Jeppson.

      INTRODUCTION

      Dallas’s Dealey Plaza is a place with many historical facets. Considered The Front Door of Dallas, the park rests on a bluff near the Trinity River, where a natural low-water crossing was identified in 1841 by Dallas’s founder, John Neely Bryan. The crossing was already known to the American Indian tribes of the area, which included Anadarkos, a Caddoan group, and displaced Cherokees, Tonkawas, and Delawares.

      The ford was the site of Bryan’s cabin and the location of the first ferry and bridge over the Trinity River. Home to several Dallas County buildings and other historic structures, Dealey is not only the birthplace of Dallas. It is also the site of Dallas’s first large-scale city planning solution: a traffic-diverting triple underpass and a beautiful downtown park built in the 1930s. The park was lodged into the national consciousness when Pres. John F. Kennedy was assassinated there on November 22, 1963. Today, the site is visited by over two million visitors annually. To preserve Dealey Plaza and its surrounding buildings, the federal government designated it a National Historic Landmark District in 1993.

      Just weeks before his death, Kennedy delivered a speech in honor of the poet Robert Frost at Amherst College. In that speech, the president commented on the role of the arts and history in American society. After enumerating potential artistic prospects for the country, he noted the importance of historic preservation. I look forward to an America . . . which will preserve the great old American houses and squares and parks of our national past. It is our hope that this book in some small way helps to realize Kennedy’s goal.

      One

      BEFORE DEALEY PLAZA

      John Neely Bryan (1810–1874), founder of Dallas, was the first Anglo American settler in the Dallas area. He constructed a simple structure at the forks of the Trinity River in November 1841 on the east side of a natural ford, which was at the intersection of two existing American Indian traces. In 1844, he persuaded J.P. Dumas to survey and plat the townsite of Dallas. When the city was selected as the county seat, Bryan donated land for the courthouse and 90 town lots. This 1850 map is the earliest extant map showing the future Dealey Plaza area. (Dallas Municipal Archives.)

      John Neely Bryan’s cabin was built of cedar logs on the east bank of the river, near what is now Elm Street in Dealey Plaza. Except for interaction with American Indians, he lived alone for about a year. He married Margaret Beeman, daughter of one of the first families to settle in the area. The couple is shown in the above photograph. John Neely Bryan Jr. later recalled: He pitched a crop of corn where the courthouse now stands. He made a plow of pieces of bois d’arc timbers spliced together, cut strips of buffalo hide for harness, and made [his horse] pull the plow. Buffalo and other wild game were plentiful in the area. Below is a reconstruction of the Bryan cabin, which has sat near the Dallas County Courthouse since the mid-1930s. (Both, Dallas Municipal Archives.)

      The area of the future Dealey Plaza was defined by the Trinity River. Early citizens of Dallas would have seen forestation up to the riverbanks. When navigation on the Trinity became a reality, snag boats, which cleared the waterways of driftwood, became a common sight. Above, a

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