Dallas Historic Preservationists work to restore and revitalize the local community

On a clear, sunny morning in Oak Cliff, Jefferson Boulevard is alive. Cars go up and down the street. Residents enter and exit storefronts on the ground floor of Jefferson Tower. Some eat at El Padrino looking at the iconic Sonny the Steer perched atop the Charco Broiler Steak House across the street.

These modest buildings and landmarks define the street, setting it apart from any other commercial strip in the city.

Among these landmarks is the Texas Theater, built in 1931 and one of Jefferson’s most important buildings because of its connection to the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy.

The theater was where Dallas police arrested Lee Harvey Oswald, the man arrested for the Kennedy assassination. After the murder, it was covered with a stucco shell on the outside, altering the appearance of the building.

“They did a massive redesign of the building to look totally different and erase the connection to the Kennedy assassination,” said David Preziosi, executive director of the Texas Historical Foundation.

Preservation in Dallas began about 50 years ago with the first ordinance created to protect the West End area, and primarily the Texas School Book Depository building.

After Kennedy’s assassination, there were calls to tear down the building and “remove the stain” on Dallas, Preziosi said.

“But there were some forward-thinking people who said, ‘we have to preserve this building, it’s part of our national history now,'” Preziosi said. “And luckily, it wasn’t torn down because it’s one of the most visited places here in Dallas.”

The Texas Theater was also saved and later restored for the filming of the 1991 movie “JFK.” It has been a Texas Historical Commission landmark since 2013 and still operates as a movie theater today.

Jefferson Boulevard has been Oak Cliff’s main street for decades. But Sarah Crain, executive director of Preservation Dallas, said, to her, it feels like the city’s main thoroughfare.

“When you walk down the street, you get a sense of the place very easily,” Crain said. “And I think what we’re really talking about is, is how do we continue to preserve and preserve those senses of place in Dallas?”

Demolition of history

After the historic Cox Mansion in Highland Park was torn down, community members renewed calls for historic preservation in a city that does not have a system for such designations. The 1912 mansion was known to be the most important house in the Park Cities by Preservation Park Cities.

Highland Park city officials said that while the city wants to keep historic homes intact, decisions about preservation remain at the discretion of the property owner.

Larry Good, Preservation Park Cities board member, He previously told KERA that maintaining historic houses was a visible reminder of history.

“Having more and more of these homes torn down, it just leaves us with less and less of the homes that are representative of the entire history of these two communities, so it’s important,” Good said of the homes in the park cities.

The demolition of the Cox Mansion, built in 1912, is not the first to be torn down, and it won’t be the last, said Preservation Dallas President Ron Siebler.

Years earlier, the Trammell Crow estate at 4500 Preston Road was also demolished.

Historic homes are often what draw people to an area in the first place, Siebler said.

“It’s that goose that laid the golden egg,” he said. “And yet here we are eating the goose.”

Crain, with Preservation Dallas, said the Park Cities are in a different position in terms of historic preservation than where Dallas was 50 years ago. When preservation began in Dallas, it was because of a movement driven by preservationist homeowners.

“It really takes a community to come forward to save these neighborhoods, these cultural icons of Dallas or these community spaces like churches that may no longer have congregations,” Crain said. “And when you don’t have those public processes, then the onus is really on the independent individual owner, and that’s much harder to push for.”

Preservation often boils down to the tension between cities, people like property owners or developers, and the community and culture of an area.

The public processes available for conservation in Dallas take the pressure off individual property owners, Crain said.

“In Dallas, what we’re really saying is, ‘this is a cultural icon, this is a community icon,’ and we’re really trying to save the structure,” Crain said. “We’re saving the heart of anything. neighborhood that we’re really going into and defending.”

Reactivate a community

Arts Mission Oak Cliff Board Chair Todd Lott knows firsthand what it means to save the heart of a community.

Arts Mission is located in Winnetka Congregational Church, a Winnetka Heights neighborhood church built in 1929. It is located at the corner of West 12th Street and South Windomere Avenue, across from Greiner Junior High School.

After passing through different owners and serving a variety of uses, the former church now hosts performances and serves as a shared workspace for local artists.

Lott said he and his wife Lola bought the building and restored it about eight years ago, but there is still work to be done.

The roof of what used to be the sanctuary space is open, exposing the beams and wiring.

“The acoustics are amazing and I’m a little worried, and it sounds great, so we’re worried about it changing the acoustics a little bit,” Lott said. “And besides, it’s expensive.”

Lott said there are grants available that Arts Mission cannot apply for until they are a fully accessible building.

So, their next project is the installation of an elevator to make the building accessible to wheelchair users. The elevator will be inside the building almost like an elevator to maintain the original exterior of the church.

Once Arts Mission is fully accessible, it will open up its performers to grants that require them to perform in fully accessible venues.

“Being a good neighbor, being accessible, that’s the other issue,” Lott said, noting the community benefit.

Alicia Quintans, a preservation architect with the American Institute of Architects, said that when the Lotts wanted to turn the former Winnetka Heights neighborhood church into an art center, there was pushback from the local community.

“They jumped through many, many hoops,” Quintans said. “I mean, it was very difficult to combine the wishes of the neighborhood with that, but they succeeded.”

Neighborhood pushback was one of the unexpected challenges Lott said they had to face when they began their restoration journey. They went door to door in the neighborhood explaining their plans for the building to mixed reactions, some supportive, some skeptical.

After going back and forth with the neighborhood and completing the restoration, Lott said one of the first shows they hosted was a Christmas carol.

Lott said he stood outside on the sidewalk listening to the music and watching the stage through the open doors. One of the neighborhood skeptics, who had been to the Christmas performance, left the building toward Lott.

“I didn’t know it was there,” Lott said. “I’m like, ‘Whoa, thanks for coming’. He’s like, ‘no, no, I’m going to get my wife and the money for the basket.’ So yeah, it’s like we’re doing the right thing.”

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