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ABSTRACT “What's Good for Business Is Good for the City”: Interpreting Dallas

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ABSTRACT “What's Good for Business Is Good for the City”: Interpreting Dallas ABSTRACT “What’s Good for Business is Good for the City”: Interpreting Dallas and the Railroad Connection Alyssa Taylor Steed, M.A. Chairperson: Kenneth C. Hafertepe, Ph.D. In recent years, historic house museums have experienced a decrease in visitorship. In order for these institutions to survive, measures need to be taKen to revamp their interpretive plans. The purpose of this project is to aid Dallas Heritage Village at Old City Park reinterpret the on-site railroad depot in accordance with their new interpretive plan “All Roads Lead to Dallas.” In this sense, “road” refers not only to literal transportation routes and railways, but also passages for new ideas and attitudes. In undertaKing this project, research will be conducted in order to gain historical evidence for changes to be made to buildings in accordance with the new theme. The second phase of this project is to aid in the preliminary planning of the exhibit including creating a conceptual preliminary design of the railroad depot. "What's Good for Business is Good for the City": Interpreting Dallas and the Railroad Connection by Alyssa Taylor Steed, B.A. A Project Approved by the Department of Museum Studies _________________________________________________________ Kenneth C. Hafertepe, Ph.D, Chairperson Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Baylor University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Approved by the Project Committee _______________________________________________ Kenneth C. Hafertepe, Ph.D, Chairperson __________________________________________________ Ellie B. Caston, Ph.D ___________________________________________________ T. Michael Parrish, Ph.D ___________________________________________________ Julie L. Holcomb, Ph.D ___________________________________________________ Gary N. Smith, M.A. “What’s Good for Business is Good for the City”: Interpreting Dallas and the Railroad Connection A Graduate Project Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Baylor University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts By Alyssa Taylor Steed Waco, Texas May 2011 Copyright ©2011 by Alyssa Taylor Steed All rights reserved TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................................................... I TABLE OF CONTENTS............................................................................................................................ IV LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................................................V LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS...................................................................................................................VII ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS..................................................................................................................... VIII DEDICATION...............................................................................................................................................IX PROLOGUE.................................................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER ONE ............................................................................................................................................ 3 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................... 3 Museum History .....................................................................................................................................3 Historic House Museums in Crisis...................................................................................................7 New Solutions.......................................................................................................................................10 CHAPTER TWO.........................................................................................................................................18 DALLAS AND THE RAILROAD CONNECTION ..........................................................................................18 Before the Railroad............................................................................................................................19 What is Good for Business is Good for the City: Construction of the Railroad.........24 After the Railroad...............................................................................................................................27 CHAPTER THREE.....................................................................................................................................34 EVOLUTION OF CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS IN DALLAS.........................................................................34 Methodology.........................................................................................................................................40 CONCLUSIONS...........................................................................................................................................56 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................................................58 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Aerial floor plan of the depot at Dallas Heritage Village Figure 2. Wall 2 schematic Figure 3. Panel discussing utopia and requesting visitor responses Figure 4. Wall 3 schematic Figure 5. Wall 4 schematic Figure 6. Wall 5 schematic Figure 7. Wall 7 schematic Figure 8. Key for Morse code Figure 9. Panel explaining how telegraphy works Figure 10. Panel explaining telegraphy Figure 11. Panel connecting Dallas and the telegraph Figure 12. Panel explaining interactive Figure 13. Instructions for audio booth interactive Figure 14. Panel requesting visitor participation Figure 15. Wall 8 schematic Figure 16. Wall 9 schematic Figure 17. Population explosion flip-top; top v LIST OF FIGURES (CONTINUED) Figure 18. Population explosion flip-top; bottom Figure 19. Wall 10 schematic Figure 20. Wall 11 schematic Figure 21. Wall 12 schematic vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS DHV Dallas Heritage Village HNE Historic New England H&TC Houston and Texas Central Railroad T&P Texas and Pacific Railroad vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project would not have been possible without the support and input of many. I owe much gratitude to my committee chairperson Dr. Kenneth Hafertepe who patiently guided me in the unKnown waters of historical research, and who Kindly reminded what a literature review is (and what it is not). Also to those serving on my committee—Dr. Julie Holcomb, Dr. Ellie Caston, Dr. Michael Parrish, and Gary Smith—thanK you for tirelessly reading my many drafts and providing your much-valued feedbacK, you might recognize some of our conversations in these pages. To Dr. Evelyn Montgomery, curator of collections and exhibits at Dallas Heritage Village, thank you for opening the door to your curious little office on ParK Avenue and allowing me free rein on this project. Also I thanK you for patiently meeting with me through times of great stress (busted pipes for you and primary resources for me). Many thanKs to my roomie, Lisa Simpson for listening to my rants and raves, and for much needed hours of TV procrastination. Also to my Spring BreaK Bunch, and all of my cohort for their support and friendship. Lastly, but by no means least, I would liKe to thanK my family. ThanK you Aunt Cathy and Uncle Doug for sheltering me in your home these past two years—I owe you 500 more cooKies, and at least one more wedding caKe! And to my parents who always, always supported me in all that I did or ever wanted to do—this is the effect of all those “tourts”. viii DEDICATION For my parents. ix PROLOGUE The recent financial crisis has caused many industries across the board to cut staff in order to balance the budget. Museums are not immune to this trend, and a specific subset of museums, the historic house and history institutions in general, find themselves in more dire straights than others. Attendance of these types of institutions has been declining steadily for the past twenty-five to thirty years, and this latest recession has found much needed funding from cultural foundations and governmental assistance cut. Some have even been forced to shut their doors for good. In order to ensure the sustainability of history and historic house museums, museum professionals need to taKe action and update their institutions in accordance with modern visitors’ expectations. One new solution that many history museums are incorporating into their exhibits is maKing their historic spaces and exhibits more interactive with their visitors. Dallas Heritage Village (DHV) is a historic house village located in downtown Dallas that houses more than thirty historic structures on its grounds. Inspired by the new shift towards interaction in museums, staff at Dallas Heritage Village decided to update the village’s exhibits and historical spaces to maKe living history a more modern and interactive experience. The decision was made in response to visitor’s changing expectations over time and the understanding of different learning styles. This aim of this project was to develop a new interactive 1 interpretive scheme for the Katy railroad depot at Dallas Heritage Village. Preliminary research was conducted to determine the focus of the new interpretation of the depot.
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