The Arcane Texas Fact of the Day: Many folks know that Dealey Plaza, where JFK was assassinated, was also the place where John Neely Bryan, the founder of Dallas, built his first cabin in 1841. But most do not realize that the exact spot where Kennedy was assassinated is thought to be within 50 yards of where that cabin stood. The plaza was created when the Triple Underpass was built in 1935, combining the lower ends of Elm, Main, and Commerce streets into West Commerce. It was named for George Bannerman Dealey, publisher of the Dallas Morning News, honoring as father of city planning in Dallas. A statue of Robert E. Lee was intended for Dealey Plaza, but that statue was shifted to Oak Lawn Park and the parks name changed to Lee Park. The statue of Dealey, in Dealey Plaza, was erected in 1949, three years after his death. The area included in Dealey Plaza, about three acres, is the historical heart of the city. It entered history in 1837 before there was a thought of Dallas, when a group of Texas frontier fighters, fleeing down the Elm Fork of the Trinity from a disasterous encounter with Indians, reached the spot safely. The Kickapoo Trace, an ancient Indian highway, crossed the river nearby. In 1841, when John Neely Bryan arrived, the plaza site was on an 18 foot bluff that overlooked the Trinity River, which was moved a mile west in the late 1920s. The Triple Underpass is constructed DIRECTLY on top of the former riverbed. The south end (Commerce extension) of the underpass was the site of the first wooden bridge (1855) and the first iron bridge (1872) over the Trinity, both owned by Sarah Horton Cockrell, of whom I have previously written on this page. For many years Water and Broadway streets paralleled Houston Street to the west at the Dealey Plaza site, and the first stagecoach station in Dallas was at Main and Broadway. Both streets disappeared when the Triple Underpass was built. Dallas first real hotel, the Crutchfield House, was at the northwest corner of Houston and Main. I guess that was more than one arcane fact, but every time Im in Dealey Plaza I stand there and look at the huge buildings and listen to the traffic and look at the spot where JFK was shot and I ponder the fact that, just 85 years ago, a nice flowing river flowed where the Triple Underpass is, and just 85 years before that there was nary a structure or building in sight. The pace of change has been remarkable.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 13:00:00 +0000
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