Oak Cliff

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Downtown Dallas as seen from Lake Cliff.
Downtown Dallas as seen from Lake Cliff.
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Oak Cliff was a town located in Dallas County, Texas (USA), that was annexed by the neighboring city of Dallas in 1903. It has since retained a distinct neighborhood identity as "Dallas' older, established neighborhood". As such, it is often called "The Cliff."

Oak Cliff also has some of the most beautiful turn of the century and mid-20th century housing, many parks and remarkably close proximity to the central business district of downtown Dallas without the heavy vehicular traffic or higher cost of housing commonly associated with Dallas' northern neighborhoods.

The actual boundaries of Oak Cliff are roughly Interstate 30 and the Trinity River on the north, Interstate 35E on the east, Clarendon Road on the south, and Hampton Road on the west. However, in practice nearly every neighborhood south of the Trinity River (excluding west Dallas) is called Oak Cliff, though much of it was never part of the original town. For example, the South Oak Cliff neighborhood (the primary African American sector of Dallas, which shares much of the above boundaries, but includes neighborhoods south of Illinois Avenue) was never part of the original town of Oak Cliff, while predominantly Hispanic Arcadia Park was once its own municipality.

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[edit] History

In the early 2000s, SBC Communications (now AT&T) built a regional call center in the sparse western portion of the community, resulting in many major retailers locating along Interstate 30.

Since the phenomenon of "white flight" occurred in the district after the local schools were desegregated (after a bitter court battle) in the early 1970s, much of Oak Cliff (especially South Oak Cliff) became a mainly minority, low-income area after most of the mainly White middle class moved out of the area to the nearby suburbs. As a result, Oak Cliff now has more low-income housing and more citizens living below the poverty line than several other districts of Dallas and also has one of the smallest municipal budgets; the area has struggled with high crime and a high rate of gang activity in its schools.

Oak Cliff (the original area) has been experiencing some revitalization in recent years with middle class professionals (many of whom work in downtown Dallas and other north Dallas neighborhoods) finding Oak Cliff an affordable and convenient alternative to other Dallas neighborhoods such as the "M Streets", Lakewood and the Greenville Avenue corridor, which have become more expensive since the 1990s.

In order to access better housing and educational opportunties for their families, many middle class African Americans (who in past decades settled in South Oak Cliff) have in the most recent years begun to settle in some of the nearby southern Dallas County suburbs which have been traditionally White (as part of the recent nationwide trend of Black flight): these are towns such as DeSoto, Lancaster and Duncanville.

[edit] Neighborhoods

[edit] Transportation

[edit] Trains

[edit] Light rail

[edit] Highways

[edit] Early rise and fall

The community on the south bank of the Trinity River was called Hord's Ridge by its original residents in 1845. In 1887, a pair of land speculators bought all the land of the community with the intent of developing an elite residential and vacation community. The town incorporated in 1890, with a population of 2,470. According to the 1900 census, the town had a total population of 3,640.

The investors quickly built the town's amenities and infrastructure, but the Panic of 1893 erased the prosperity the town had been designed to exploit. As the market for vacation communities disappeared, one of the investors was forced into bankruptcy, and the town's large, exclusive lots were divided into parcels for sale to middle- and working class buyers.

Oak Cliff's annexation by neighboring Dallas came in 1903, after three years of unsuccessful attempts by annexation backers. The final vote was 201 to 183 in favor.

[edit] Demographics

While Oak Cliff was a predominantly African American neighborhood for decades (though this included areas not part of original Oak Cliff), the influx of Hispanics has changed that profile. In the 2000 census, Hispanics outnumbered African Americans as the largest minority in the Dallas area. While many Hispanics have moved into poorer neighborhoods like Oak Cliff, more affluent African Americans have migrated south to the suburbs of Cedar Hill, Duncanville, Lancaster and DeSoto.

[edit] Education

W. H. Adamson High School
W. H. Adamson High School

[edit] Public (DISD)

[edit] High schools

Schools within the traditional boundaries of Oak Cliff:

Schools considered to be in Oak Cliff, but in areas not part of the original city:

[edit] Private

[edit] High schools

[edit] Milestones

  • Town of Oak Cliff annexed by Dallas in 1903.
  • The Southland Ice Company began selling eggs and milk from their store at 12th and Edgefield in 1927. The first convenience store would eventually become known as 7-Eleven. (This 7-Eleven had a historical landmark, however it went out of business in the late 1990s.)
  • Blues singer and guitarist T-Bone Walker lived in Oak Cliff in his youth and made his first recordings in 1929 under the name "Oak Cliff T-Bone".
  • Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, the criminal duo known more informally as Bonnie and Clyde, met in Oak Cliff in the 1930s. Barrow is buried in an Oak Cliff cemetery.
  • Blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan was born in Oak Cliff in 1954. The lyrics of his song "Tick Tock" are engraved in the bricks of DART's Hampton Station. Pop singer Edie Brickell (married to Paul Simon) is also from the area.
  • Lee Harvey Oswald was captured at the Texas Theater on Jefferson Avenue after allegedly assassinating U. S. President John F. Kennedy and killing Dallas police officer J. D. Tippit on November 22, 1963. Oswald was also an Oak Cliff resident at the time.

[edit] References

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This article has been tagged since March 2007.

The infamous Howard Hughes originally owned the Texas Theater located on the Historical Jefferson Street.

[edit] External links

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