Oak Cliff: The Town that Became Dallas, Texas

Dallas, Texas may be known as a modern mix of cowboy culture and glass skyscrapers, but the city had humble beginnings as a small frontier town for families looking to start a new life. The Trinity River, which runs along the southern edge of downtown Dallas, was the perfect spot for a town to be founded in the mid 1800’s. The land south of the Trinity, unlike the flat prairie land north of it, featured rolling hills, numerous trees, and abundant streams for families looking to settle. By the 1860’s the town became known as Oak Cliff (named of course, for the mighty trees that dominated the area). Settlers also expanded onto the north shores of the Trinity, which would later become known as Dallas. While Dallas became a bustling city with large buildings to support the trade fueled by barges on the Trinity and later by the railroad, Oak Cliff remained mostly residential. By the early 1900’s, Dallas was one of the largest cities in the south, with most of the people who worked there living just over the river in Oak Cliff. Eventually, Dallas annexed Oak Cliff in the 1920’s and the modern city of Dallas was born.

Oak Cliff retained its’ independent character, with a number of affluent neighborhoods and recreational spots dominating the area. Among these neighborhoods is Kessler Park, one of Dallas’ most beautiful areas designed by renowned city planner George Kessler in the early 1900’s. Kessler worked to connect the scenery of Oak Cliff’s neighborhoods with the industry that had taken hold in downtown Dallas. A series of bridges now spans the Trinity, which still provides a natural obstacle between the skyline of Dallas and the serene neighborhoods just across the river.

Oak Cliff entered into the national consciousness in 1963 when Lee Harvey Oswald, a self-professed Marxist, killed President John F. Kennedy as he rode past the Texas School Book Depository in downtown Dallas. Oswald then fled the scene, into the neighborhoods of Oak Cliff where he stayed in a boarding house (the site where the famous photo of Oswald posing with the rifle was taken). His wife had left him just before the assassination and lived in a Dallas suburb. While in Oak Cliff, he was confronted by J.D. Tippett, a Dallas police officer. Oswald shot and killed Tippett, and fled to the nearby Texas Theatre, a movie house built by Howard Hughes. Oswald was apprehended and the rest of the story became history. To this day, tourists from around the world visit Oak Cliff to see the Texas Theatre, the boarding house where Oswald lived, the corner where Tippett died. While there, they find that Oak Cliff remains not just a beautiful place to visit, but a wonderful place to live.

Today, Oak Cliff is the term used to describe those parts of Dallas south of the Trinity, a place where families of all types live and work, a favorite place for working young professionals can settle and be only five minutes from work downtown. Oak trees still dominate the landscape, just as it did when it was settled over a century earlier. If you find the right spot, you will get a wide view of the Dallas skyline, with its glass skyscrapers towering over the banks of the Trinity River.