The Last Day the Streetcars Ran in Oak Cliff
Ron Cawthon Remembers...
It was Saturday, January 14, 1956. This was the last day the streetcars ran in Dallas and my Dad took all of us kids on a final ride. He also made sure we all had a "transfer" as a souvenir of this historic event, although it didn't seem all that historic to me as a 13 year old boy. I remember the Hampton line well. It went all the way to Fair Park and beyond. As a young boy I rode it every year from my home in Oak Cliff to the State Fair of Texas. From Hampton, the streetcar ran down Waverly, then turned onto Burlington (a block from our house on Windomere) , then onto Tyler, and turned East onto Jefferson, across the viaduct into downtown Dallas.
Sometimes, just for fun, my brothers and I rode the streetcar to the end of the line on Hampton. The conductor would get out and reverse the power cables that supplied the electricity that powered the streetcar, he would then flip flop all the seats so they would now be facing the opposite direction, then he would reverse all the little signs over each seat that had arrows pointing "whites forward, colored rear". Then the people on the streetcar would all change seats. I thought to myself as a young boy, "why are they doing this?" It seemed silly to me.
However, things were about to change forever. Only 6 weeks prior to our last streetcar ride in Dallas, on December 1, 1955, a lady by the name of Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. The rest is history!
Here's the transfer Ron saved on that last day.
Below is a map of the streetcar lines in Oak Cliff.
Benney Kirtley remembers...
One of my uncles worked for the Dallas Transit System so I always had plenty of tokens to ride the street cars in Dallas. As I recall further, one year when the State Fair opened, a neighborhood playmate and I saved out nickels, dimes, and quarters and at the ripe age of ten years old, he and I rode a street car to Fair Park on DISD day and stayed until seven or eight o'clock that night. Pitched a few nickels at the bowls and dishes and won myself a couple of baby ducks! That feat could not be repeated at this day and time needless to say.
Here is a picture of a streetcar in the 1930's crossing the Trinity River into Oak Cliff -- its hard to tell, but it might say Sunset on the front sign. I heard stories that before there were many auto/walking bridges between downtown Dallas and Oak Cliff, some (crazy) people would walk the streetcar bridges to get across -- and some didn't make it...
Here's the streetcar coming down Jefferson in front of Sunset High School after a snow -- probably the 40s or 50s.
This streetcar car is passing the Skillern’s Drug store on Edgefield Avenue at Seventh Street. Every year when school started, Skillern’s offered a free “Big Shake” at its snack counter, for students who purchased a required dollar amount of supplies. The store served up a lot of ice cream right after Labor Day every year. (Photo courtesy of David Spence.)
Look closely to see the streetcar going down Jefferson in this 1955 photo.
Editors Note
Fast forward to 2010. Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) is currently doing a feasibility study to see if the Houston Street Viaduct is strong enough to hold a new streetcar line that would go from downtown to Methodist Hospital (I don’t see why they don’t make it go all the way to Bishop Arts – for tourists). The viaduct was originally built in 1910 with the idea that a streetcar line would cross it, connecting downtown Dallas to the southern part of Dallas. (There are streetcars now runing on McKinney Street.) Time will tell if the project comes to fruition, but it would be fun to see streetcars running again in Oak Cliff – then the “last day” the streetcars ran in Oak Cliff would be changed…
Do you have photos or memories of Oak Cliff's Street Cars? if so, drop me a line at alan@oakcliff.com
