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Old 06-26-2012, 05:43 AM
 
392 posts, read 630,130 times
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I don't agree with this "tearing down history" idea.

in the past, Dallas was a small village on a river. Does anyone seriously expect that downtown Dallas should still look like a small village in the 1850's?

Dallas has preserved certain elements that are old and historic. It still has the Old Red courthouse, beautifully restored, it has the 1930'ish Art Deco Fair Park, and it has the Old City Park area with its 19th century townscape. It has Dealey Plaza and the Kennedy assassination environment. That should be enough. Outside of the downtown area, it has suburbs that sprung up out of nothing after World War Two... what does it mean to talk about the "history" of Lakewood or Preston Hollow.

In another sense, history is something written down. A building is not history. A book, and the writing in it, is what history is all about.

Visitors to Dallas admire the new, clean building landscape. The Uptown buildings especially are pretty impressive. Would it be better to still have a collection of 19th century shacks there? Would that be a tourist attraction?
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Old 06-26-2012, 08:11 AM
 
Location: Houston, Texas
2,169 posts, read 5,147,928 times
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No one's talking about 19th century shacks -- but the few remaining examples of vintage residential architecture in Uptown that still exist offer a nice counterpoint to all the modernity surrounding them and I'm glad they're still there. Not everything needs to be a Gables or Post property. I'm glad the black cemetery is still there, off Central Expressway, the last reminder of the neighborhood's original inhabitants.

Until recently, much of Dallas seemed unconcerned about its past. Fort Worth got the whole cowboy thing. Dallas, despite its considerable musical lineage, let that slip to upstart Austin. Deep Ellum should be considered in the same breath as Beale Street, if not quite to the level of Bourbon Street, and generate the tourist dollars that would come with that, but that has yet to happen. For much of the post-JFK era, from what I've read, the city just seemed to want to forget that tragedy happened.

This isn't an either/or proposition. You can have a modern, forward-thinking urban environment and still treasure what came before.
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Old 06-26-2012, 10:50 AM
 
Location: The Magnolia City
8,928 posts, read 14,249,788 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TrueDat View Post
No one's talking about 19th century shacks -- but the few remaining examples of vintage residential architecture in Uptown that still exist offer a nice counterpoint to all the modernity surrounding them and I'm glad they're still there. Not everything needs to be a Gables or Post property. I'm glad the black cemetery is still there, off Central Expressway, the last reminder of the neighborhood's original inhabitants.

Until recently, much of Dallas seemed unconcerned about its past. Fort Worth got the whole cowboy thing. Dallas, despite its considerable musical lineage, let that slip to upstart Austin. Deep Ellum should be considered in the same breath as Beale Street, if not quite to the level of Bourbon Street, and generate the tourist dollars that would come with that, but that has yet to happen. For much of the post-JFK era, from what I've read, the city just seemed to want to forget that tragedy happened.

This isn't an either/or proposition. You can have a modern, forward-thinking urban environment and still treasure what came before.
I honestly don't understand why Dallas or Houston allowed Austin to take over as the music "capital" of Texas.
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Old 06-26-2012, 10:58 AM
 
5,673 posts, read 7,384,516 times
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Originally Posted by Nairobi View Post
I honestly don't understand why Dallas or Houston allowed Austin to take over as the music "capital" of Texas.
Because dallas and houston are to big to care....thats a niche for austin..They can have something to be proud of. Dallas and Houston have bigger stuff to be.
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Old 06-26-2012, 11:44 AM
 
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From the 20s to the 70s, Dallas was the live music capital of Texas:


When Dallas Rocked - YouTube
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Old 06-26-2012, 11:50 AM
 
Location: Houston, Texas
2,169 posts, read 5,147,928 times
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Originally Posted by dallasboi View Post
Because dallas and houston are to big to care....thats a niche for austin..They can have something to be proud of. Dallas and Houston have bigger stuff to be.
Again, there's no reason a city can't be both and more a la New York, LA, Chicago, Atlanta, Nashville, New Orleans, and Miami. Are you saying that Dallas city officials wouldn't want the visitors and tax revenue generated by something like South by Southwest? I'm not saying music would replace whatever other economic activity taking place in the city but be an addition to it.

Remember, this wouldn't be about creating something out of whole cloth but simply building on the music heritage that this city once had -- and which Lakewooder references part of in his post above.
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Old 06-26-2012, 11:56 AM
 
5,673 posts, read 7,384,516 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TrueDat View Post
Again, there's no reason a city can't be both and more a la New York, LA, Chicago, Atlanta, Nashville, New Orleans, and Miami. Are you saying that Dallas city officials wouldn't want the visitors and tax revenue generated by something like South by Southwest? I'm not saying music would replace whatever other economic activity taking place in the city but be an addition to it.
What I mean is every city cant be everything.....Austin being the music capital of Texas Takes nothing away from Dallas or Houston.Austin is known for nothing else accept UT....Let them have the music. Dallas and Houston are both notable on so many other levels that Austin only dreams of being mentioned on....so kudos to Austin and music...gives people a real reason to visit there.
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Old 06-26-2012, 12:39 PM
 
Location: Dallas
328 posts, read 468,045 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Metro Matt View Post
You forgot to tell him/her the part where Dallas tore a lot of its old historic buildings & neighborhoods down all in the name of progress or so they thought back then.
I think it's a shame that so many older buildings and homes have been torn down in the last fifty years. Changing times and economics had much to do with it.

Many older homes had closets, bedrooms and kitchens that were/are far too small for today's families. Have you seen the old, inadequate kitchens in some of them, often in a tiny room at the back through a door? It would cost an arm and a leg to renovate these older homes into something that would please today's homeowner.

Also, many of us would have loved to see the older downtown buildings re-purposed (many are, BTW), but the cost of asbestos abatement rendered renovation not feasible.

My family and I took a trip to Galveston years ago and took the Victorian homes tour. During the tour, one of the guides told us why so many Victorian homes were torn down leading up to the first half of the 20th century: Prosperous towns and cities had people with the resources to replace the old, decaying Victorian homes with new, modern homes. The people living in poorer towns did not have the money to do so, so made do, and kept them, often chopping them up to add apartments, because the cost of renovation was too high.

The upside is that those beautiful, old Victorian homes that were able to weather the economic decline are now being renovated by the well-heeled, who are researching colors and materials in order to return them to their former glory, while utilizing green and cutting-edge technologies to make them energy efficient.
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Old 06-26-2012, 12:50 PM
 
16,087 posts, read 41,006,064 times
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Dallas has lost most of its Victorian homes - many were in the Oak Lawn and Uptown areas and to the south by Old City Park - where R. L. Thornton freeway construction finished the deed. However, Dallas does have an excellent collection of early 20th century Prairie Foursquares (mainly Munger Place), Craftsman (Junius Heights, Mount Auburn, Vickery Place, Winnetka Heights), Tudors (M-Streets/Greenland Hills/Hollywood Heights/Lakewood), Mediterranean/Italianate/Spanish (Lakewood, specifically the homes of Clifford Hutsell plus Swiss Avenue) - also many examples of Colonial Revival, Georgian, early Ranch (see architect Charles Stevens Dilbeck for instance), Mid-Century Modern et al..

I know I have left out many neighborhoods as I am most familiar with East Dallas - where we have many conservation and historic districts. East Dallas is really the cradle of historic home preservation in Texas, going back to the Swiss Avenue movement in the early 1970s.

Here's a good site: Dallas Eclectic Architecture
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Old 06-26-2012, 01:01 PM
 
Location: under a rock
1,487 posts, read 1,699,590 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dallasboi View Post
What I mean is every city cant be everything.....Austin being the music capital of Texas Takes nothing away from Dallas or Houston.Austin is known for nothing else accept UT....Let them have the music. Dallas and Houston are both notable on so many other levels that Austin only dreams of being mentioned on....so kudos to Austin and music...gives people a real reason to visit there.
Being the home to UT is pretty impressive in and of itself. Austin has some pretty tasty vittles, too. It's also a great place to enjoy the Texas Hill Country and all its natural beauty. The music isn't the only reason folks visit there. Don't forget their tech scene, either. But, i'm sure you were just trying to make a funny.
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