Joppa (Dallas, TX)

[rantanamo]

If you want to know more, you should join the Dallasmetropolis.com forums.

[Grainraiser]

If the city spent $5mm for a bridge to Joppy it is safe to safe to say they have lost it. The entire Joppy neighborhood is worth that much. It has historical value but it is truly a place time has past by. It's as close to a shanty town as I have ever seen in my lifetime (excluding tent city that was once located near downtown).

[Ablebodied]

Joppa, pronounced as Joppy by most who know of the area, is actually tagged for revitalization if the Trinity River project became a realization. My grandmother lived there in the early 60's. It is in the Wilmer-Hutchins School District. In the 60's there was a terrible smelling dump behind the neighborhood and it reeked all the time. Before the bridge you could wait forever waiting for Southern Pacific to clear the track allowing you out of or into the area. Many of the teens would work as caddies at the nearby golf course. As the young people grew up they left and they are a lot of elderly there now. So, not as scary as it looks. But if the city ever gets that Trinity project full scale, they plan on rebuilding in the area. You know we have to have visitors see nice brick homes as they sail down the Trinity.

[Considering Coming Back]

Originally Posted by Ablebodied

Joppa, pronounced as Joppy by most who know of the area, is actually tagged for revitalization if the Trinity River project became a realization. My grandmother lived there in the early 60's. It is in the Wilmer-Hutchins School District. In the 60's there was a terrible smelling dump behind the neighborhood and it reeked all the time. Before the bridge you could wait forever waiting for Union Pacific to clear the track allowing you out of or into the area. Many of the teens would work as caddies at the nearby golf course. As the young people grew up they left and they are a lot of elderly there now. So, not as scary as it looks. But if the city ever gets that Trinity project full scale, they plan on rebuilding in the area. You know we have to have visitors see nice brick homes as they sail down the Trinity.

FWIW Wilmer-Hutchins was absorbed by DISD years ago. Joppa is currently zoned to SOC.

[Ablebodied]

Wilmer-Hutchins is yet still named Wilmer-Hutchins after protests against DISD, which started busing the students to various schools in Dallas. Today, though in the DISD, hose from the area of the former WHISD will probably forever see it as a separate entity from Dallas. It is difficult to see it as part of DISD, though like you said, it indeed is. The Wilmer-Hutchins district was made up of certain close knit communities in far southern Dallas as well as Wilmer and Hutchins and a small part of Lancaster.

[pepper131]

Blackspider - Thanks for writing about Joppa. I find these neighborhoods/areas fascinating and how they can disappear so quickly.
I had posted about Little Egypt a while back, but didn't get much response. Little Egypt From what I understand the original sharecroppers from the area around Northwest Hwy were relocated to the area behind Townview High School off 8th St. There is an elderly black man who travels from (new) Little Egypt to White Rock Lake near the spillway. He wears a suit and a cowboy hat, even on the hottest days, and travels by bus to sit at a bench along the lake where his family spend their youth. I don't see him as much as I used to, but I imagine he has a great deal of history to tell.

Equally, I used to enjoy walking and driving around State Thomas before the gentrification. Another neighborhood full of culture lost.

[TXNGL]

Originally Posted by pepper131

Blackspider - Thanks for writing about Joppa. I find these neighborhoods/areas fascinating and how they can disappear so quickly.
I had posted about Little Egypt a while back, but didn't get much response. Little Egypt From what I understand the original sharecroppers from the area around Northwest Hwy were relocated to the area behind Townview High School off 8th St. There is an elderly black man who travels from (new) Little Egypt to White Rock Lake near the spillway. He wears a suit and a cowboy hat, even on the hottest days, and travels by bus to sit at a bench along the lake where his family spend their youth. I don't see him as much as I used to, but I imagine he has a great deal of history to tell.

Equally, I used to enjoy walking and driving around State Thomas before the gentrification. Another neighborhood full of culture lost.

I've seen him at White Rock! Funny how certain people stand out.

[Blackspider]

Originally Posted by Ablebodied

Joppa, pronounced as Joppy by most who know of the area, is actually tagged for revitalization if the Trinity River project became a realization. My grandmother lived there in the early 60's. It is in the Wilmer-Hutchins School District. In the 60's there was a terrible smelling dump behind the neighborhood and it reeked all the time. Before the bridge you could wait forever waiting for Southern Pacific to clear the track allowing you out of or into the area. Many of the teens would work as caddies at the nearby golf course. As the young people grew up they left and they are a lot of elderly there now. So, not as scary as it looks. But if the city ever gets that Trinity project full scale, they plan on rebuilding in the area. You know we have to have visitors see nice brick homes as they sail down the Trinity.

Thanks for the info!

Yeah it would suck if your house was burning down or someone needed immediate assistance and they could not due to a train coming through and no one able to get in or out.

My drive through there, I saw mostly middle aged people out there. 40s or so. But that was just what I was able to see from whomever was outside at the time.

[Ablebodied]

Now maybe others can understand why so much money was spent to install this bridge. On the other end you can also get out of the area through a back route leading onto loop 12 Ledbetter.