Welcome to Oak Cliff
The banner at the top of the page is from an 1895 promotion. Oak Cliff is still shaded by large oak trees on rolling hills -- and is still a pleasant part of Dallas where people say "howdy' when you walk past them on the sidewalk. This website is about Oak Cliff past and present. Stay a while. Most of the information on this site was contributed by people like you -- so if you have information or pictures of Oak Cliff please share them with us! Click here and we'll let you know how to best send them to us. Thanks to all the Cliffites who have shared their memories with us!
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Coming Soon Images of America:
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About the book cover: In the heyday of cinema, the Texas Theater opened to much fanfare on April 21, 1931. Moviegoers marveled at the large majestic auditorium, the dream child of Cliffite C. R. McHenry and financed by Texas billionaire Howard Hughes. Patrons came to cool off from the Texas summers, since the theater claimed the title of the first air-conditioned movie palace in Texas. After playing host to hundreds of thousands, the theater’s reputation waned in the 1960s, only to come back into the limelight during a dark moment in American history. On November 22, 1963, at roughly 1:45 p.m., fifteen Dallas police officers entered the theater and arrested Lee Harvey Oswald, just hours after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The theater fell on hard times in the following decades but is now undergoing a renovation and revival that should return its prominence as the jewel of Jefferson Boulevard. |
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Did anyone hear a moo? The noted Oak Cliff artist Frank Reaugh drew and painted cattle, and the open plains of the West. Beginning around 1900, he took a series of “sketch trips” with fellow artists (including Edward Eisenlhor) to West Texas and beyond. Travelers on these month-long camping excursions cooked, ate, and slept under the wide Texas sky. They traveled by buggy and covered wagon, and the Dallas newspapers reported their trips. (Courtesy of Lucretia Donnell Coke.)
All Aboard: At the turn of the century, interurban trolleys connected Oak Cliff to the people of
Dallas. This photograph shows Lancaster Avenue at Tenth Street, circa 1900. The
building in the center back is Britton and Collin Drugs, and the center front
building is Caldwell and Carlton. The Interurban trolley can be seen coming down
the track on the right. (Courtesy of Bill Melton.)
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Move over Putt-Putt. One of the most popular Oak Cliff teen hangouts on warm summer evenings in the 50s and 60s had to be Wee Saint Andrews Miniature Golf Course. Who could forget the strings of lights illuminating the carpet-covered putting greens, and the Top 40 rock-and-roll hits blaring from the speakers? (Photo courtesy of Bill Melton.)
Also, check out the
Oak Cliff History Index