7.50 a History Journal for Dallas & North Central Texas
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Fall 2016 Unexpected LEGACIES A History Journal for Dallas & North Central Texas LConsequences Alexander the Once-Great It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time: Planning in Dallas “Give ‘Em Hell!” Truman’s Whistlestop Campaign in Dallas Centennial Celebration: Building the Dallas Museum of Natural History $7.50 Legacies is a joint publication of: Dallas Heritage Village The Dallas Historical Society The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza Editor Michael V. Hazel Designer Liz Conrad Graphic Design Book Review Editor Evelyn Montgomery Editorial Assistants Sam Childers Stephen Fagin Editorial Advisory Board W. Marvin Dulaney University of Texas at Arlington Elizabeth York Enstam Dallas, Texas Robert B. Fairbanks University of Texas at Arlington Russell Martin Southern Methodist University Jackie McElhaney Dallas, Texas Darwin Payne Southern Methodist University Carol Roark Fort Worth, Texas Gerald D. Saxon University of Texas at Arlington Thomas H. Smith Dallas, Texas Front cover: This aerial view of Dallas, from a 1932 Legacies is made possible postcard, looks north past the Adolphus Hotel and by the generous support of: Magnolia Building (not yet sporting its neon Pegasus) A. H. Belo Corporation and clearly shows the 45-degree angle of the streets Legacies: A History Journal for Dallas and North Central Texas north of Pacific. This odd juxtaposition was created by is published semiannually. The editor welcomes articles relating to differing pioneer surveys. See “It Seemed Like a Good the history of Dallas and North Central Texas. Please address in- Idea at the Time,” beginning on page 4. quiries to Editor, Legacies, 1515 S. Harwood St., Dallas, TX 75215; phone 214-413-3665l or email [email protected]. Back cover: The 1936 postcard, produced for the Texas Centennial Exposition, shows the gleaming new Copyright 2016: Dallas Heritage Village Dallas Museum of Natural History, constructed in The Dallas Historical Society less than six months. See “Centennial Celebration,” The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza beginning on page 26. LEGACIES A History Journal for Dallas & North Central Texas Volume L28 Number 2 DEPARTMENTS 4 It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time: Planning Dallas From the Editor By Evelyn Montgomery Fall 3 Alexander the Once-Great 14 By Frank Jackson Book Reviews 2016 Centennial Celebration: Building the 50 26 Dallas Museum of Natural History Unexpected By Walt Davis Consequences Contributors “Give ‘Em Hell!” 55 36 Truman’s Whistlestop Campaign in Dallas Dallas Then and Now By Sam Childers 56 All previous issues of Legacies from 1989 through 2015 are online at the University of North Texas Portal to Texas History. The address is: http://texashistory.unt.edu/explore/collections/LHJNT This 1958 image, taken while the Southland Life Building was under construction, shows the angled intersections of Live Oak, St. Paul, and Pacific, caused by differing pioneer surveys of the mid-19th century. The wedge-shaped building occupied the site that is now James W. Astin Park, behind the Majestic Theater. See “It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time,” beginning on p. 4. 2L LEGACIES Fall 2016 FROM THE EDITOR ife is full of surprises. The best-laid plans constructing the facility was alarmingly brief. Lmay produce success, but they can also go awry. Ground was broken January 14, 1936, and the The outcome may not be what was expected. building needed to be ready for the opening History provides countless examples of unantici- of the Texas Centennial Exposition on June 6. pated consequences, and Dallas history is certainly Amazingly, it was. Walt Davis recounts the many no exception. This issue of Legacies includes four challenges overcome by the museum director, articles dealing in one way or another with this architects, and construction crew. topic. In 1948 few people gave President Harry Beginning with the hiring of George Kessler Truman much of a chance at winning his bid in 1910 to develop its first comprehensive city for election. But “Give ‘Em Hell” Harry was plan, Dallas has demonstrated a commitment to confident that if he could carry his message to urban planning. But even before that, dating to the people, especially in the West, he could the first land surveys, the town tried to plan for triumph. And thus he embarked on a “whistle- growth. Yet repeatedly these plans produced stop” tour, traveling by train to California and unintended problems—street grids that didn’t back through Texas. In a single day he scheduled align, highways that improved transportation but nine stops, one of which was at Burnett Field siphoned population from the city center. Evelyn in Dallas. There the president spoke before an Montgomery examines several examples in her integrated crowd, a first. Sam Childers details this article, aptly titled, “It Seemed Like a Good Idea largely forgotten event in Dallas history, part of at the Time.” a strategy that led to the decidedly unexpected In 1930 the Dallas Steers, the city’s minor- outcome of Truman’s victory in November. league baseball team, thought it could draw big We continue to live with the legacy of deci- crowds by signing Grover Cleveland Alexan- sions made decades and even a century ago. And der, a record-holding major league player near- quite often, it’s a legacy never envisioned by the ing the end of his career. Fans did turn out, but decision makers. they didn’t always get to watch Alexander. And —Michael V. Hazel when they did, his performances were less than stellar. He was suffering from the alcoholism that would soon end his career. Frank Jackson tells It has come to our attention that a number of our Dallas this colorful but sad story of hopes unfulfilled. readers failed to receive a copy of the spring issue in the The construction of the Dallas Museum mail. The Post Office has been unsuccessful in resolving of Natural History at Fair Park in 1936 had a the problem. Meanwhile, the issue can be read online much happier outcome. The museum was the through the University of North Texas Library’s Portal to Texas History: http://texashistory.unt.edu/explore/ fulfillment of decades of dreams, but when the collections/LHJNT. time came, the window for creating exhibits and LLEGACIES Fall 2016 3 It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time: Planning Dallas By Evelyn Montgomery f people were perfect, historians would er that allowed the streets to be almost aligned Iwrite dull recitations of faultless decisions with with the compass points. Land nearby had al- optimal outcomes. Historical mistakes are both ready been surveyed by Warren Angus Ferris, fascinating and often informative about the lim- who used a Spanish tradition of turning the grid its of human judgment and the complexity of 45 degrees, setting up the inevitable collision of changing human beliefs and desires. The field of streets when the grids met. Just north of down- city planning is a good area for observing these town, John Grigsby was planning streets in that tendencies. The planning of roads, services, and alternative orientation.1 public spaces is essential for producing a func- As downtown Dallas expanded from the tional modern city. Ancient and medieval cities 1870s to the 1920s, Bryan’s grid went as far as that grew organically, without planning, often it could, until it reached Grigsby’s, two miles resemble mazes, with random streets that are away, and other canted grids to the south. With charming but not navigable. Planning is good, no plans in place to resolve the street connec- but all of the training and knowledge available tions where the grids met, some streets simply is insufficient to make a city planner omniscient. stopped in dead ends. Others managed to con- Dallas has not escaped the errors that result. nect in awkward triangles. In New York City, Dallas’s founder, John Neely Bryan, was ar- such “precious irregularities and opportunities guably its first urban planner, building his cab- at the acute and obtuse junctions” of Broadway in along the Trinity and envisioning a city that and the relentless grid spawned such icons as would grow from river commerce. Bryan was the Flatiron Building.2 Most in Dallas spawned not alone in his plans for the area, and that fact only confusion, but where Commerce and Jack- produced many of the ensuing problems. Bryan son streets met at what was then part of Preston planned a street grid for Dallas starting at the riv- Road, Dallas eventually saw its own flatiron. 4L LEGACIES Fall 2016 John Neely Bryan oriented his town plan in the 1850s Unfortunately, Bryan’s town plan abutted a survey toward the Trinity River, envisioning the settlement’s by Warren Angus Ferris angled 45 degrees differently growth from river commerce. The orientation was also than his. Dallas streets reflect this conflicting conveniently aligned with the north/south points of a juxtaposition to this day. compass. Later named Pershing Square, the junc- a frequent victim of collisions. It is now on the tion of five streets faced a triangular island in a grounds of Dallas Heritage Village. sea of traffic. Before 1900, several houses were By 1900 Dallas’s many planning problems built there, sited as if to ignore their odd loca- were becoming obvious. Economic growth came tion. It was not until 1921 that the Magnolia Oil from the railroads, but the tracks running across all Company and Dallas architects Lang and Witch- the street grids caused a transportation nightmare. ell joined to find a practical and aesthetic use. A The Trinity was inadequate as a trade route, but filling station, with entry from both Commerce it was capable of repeated flooding, an ability it and Jackson, could have been unsightly, but the demonstrated most notably in the flood of 1908.