Dallas is the first city in Texas to have two downtowns (Houston: best city, sales)

[Dallaz]

I seen this on Reddit. I thought I should share

Oak Cliff began to develop in 1887, when Thomas Marsalis and John Armstrong purchased 2,000 acres of property and renaming Hord’s Ridge for the large oak trees in the area. To provide transportation from the City of Dallas to the City of Oak Cliff, Marsalis developed the first reliable transit service across the Trinity River. The right-of-way of that transit line was Jefferson Boulevard along which the steam train ran; then the electric Street cars and the Inter Urban which ran to Fort Worth, and finally automobiles and buses.

The City of Oak Cliff was annexed into Dallas in 1903. In the succeeding years from 1910 to 1935, West Jefferson Boulevard, originally platted for residential development, became the commercial, financial and social heart of Oak Cliff. Businessmen saw West Jefferson as an opportunity to locate along this busy transit line, providing professional services, retail goods, and other services to the surrounding neighborhoods which were developing during this time: Winnetka Heights, Miller Stemmons, King’s Highway, Ruthmede, Kessler Park, Lake Cliff and Trinity Heights. West Jefferson Boulevard developed as the Central Business District or Downtown for Oak Cliff. It was easily accessible to all the surrounding neighborhoods listed above because of the street car lines which ran down West Jefferson and turned north on Tyler branching east and west; south on Tyler into Ruthmede; south on Zang and continuing along West Jefferson to the Boundary district and linking to the Inter Urban to Fort Worth.

Dallas, during this time, became a bi-nodal city; a city with two central areas, one represented by Downtown Dallas and one represented by West Jefferson. Another period of growth along West Jefferson occurred during the years after World War II and continued into the early 1950’s further confirming its position as the downtown for Oak Cliff. Several large retailers built new buildings along West Jefferson, Sears and the first suburban Kress in Dallas, and other property owners refaced their 1920’s buildings to accommodate the tastes of the prosperous post war consumer. This idea of a bi-nodal city, or at least the importance of West Jefferson as a substantial commercial center, was often acknowledged in the Dallas newspapers, articles in 1933, 1948, and 1965, describe this area as second only to Downtown Dallas in size and sales tax generation.

It is believed that no other city in Texas had this type of development of a “city within a city” and two downtown commercial districts. West Jefferson continues to be the downtown of Oak Cliff expressing the cohesive yet culturally diverse community which it serves.

Jefferson Boulevard was originally platted as the right-of-way for the major thoroughfare through Oak Cliff, first for the steam line, then the street car and Inter Urban, and finally the automobile. West Jefferson, although platted for residential development, became the center for commercial activity in Oak Cliff. The surrounding streets of Sunset, Center, and Twelfth developed as suburban residential streets for the working and middle class. The architectural styles in the West Jefferson Historic District reflect the urban commercial forms prevalent from 1910 to 1950. The majority of the commercial growth in this area occurred between 1920 and 1940. Because this was not a planned shopping center such as Highland Park Village, the individual property owners constructed their commercial buildings as they would their homes, in styles they personally liked. This resulted in the construction of a variety of commercial styles. Many of these smaller scale commercial buildings are stylistically unique. West Jefferson contains a variety of urban commercial styles of which there is no other comparable collection in Dallas. Although many of the buildings have been altered, as noted above, several of these alterations occurred in the post War years. These alterations and the other later alterations that have occurred are mainly to the first floor retail area, exchanging weed fronts for aluminum and covering over transom windows. Architectural analysis indicates that these buildings can be restored with minimal work and guidance.

West Jefferson Boulevard commercial development originally occurred at two nodes: between Beckley and Zang and between Polk and Tyler. The architecture in these areas reflect early commercial styles from 1910 to 1925.

More common along West Jefferson is the one story commercial building which houses several retail spaces. One particular style of this genre is a tan brick one story with a mansard type roof and a pedimented entry and, usually, a corner entry with an arch and fan light. Transom windows are above the large single pane display windows. This style can be seen in four retail segments along West Jefferson:

In the period from 1925 to 1935, West Jefferson Boulevard saw a great deal of commercial growth. Despite the Depression, this is the period during which most of the growth occurred on West Jefferson. Such buildings as the Texas Theatre and several other commercial buildings were constructed between 1925 and 1935.

[FreeVilley]

Dallas was, is and always will be the Best City in Texas. Despite all the other natural advantages like coastal access, or being the center of state government that competing cities may have; Dallas has manifested its own greatness.

[LeavingMA]

Texas has different neighborhoods and not a just 6th street/downtown like Austin. Granted, over the last 10 years Austin has many areas just as good or better than 6th street, but it is easier to tell tourists just to go to 6th street. With Dallas, it depends on what people are looking for. The downtown has gotten much better, and then you have uptown which is younger. Then you can go to East Dallas/lower Greenville or over to Bishop Arts. There are just different areas, so it isn't as easy with Dallas telling a tourist go downtown and that's it.

[Dallaz]

Originally Posted by FreeVilley

Dallas was, is and always will be the Best City in Texas. Despite all the other natural advantages like coastal access, or being the center of state government that competing cities may have; Dallas has manifested its own greatness.

Yep, Dallas literally made itself relevant and an economic powerhouse without any of that. We set the trend for secondary CBDs within the state 100+ years ago, with other cities like Houston not catching on until much later.

[Johnhw222]

Dallas is a nice city but worst metro haters I’ve seen with their downtown worship.

[Dallaz]

Originally Posted by Johnhw222

Dallas is a nice city but worst metro haters I’ve seen with their downtown worship.

Elaborate. I'm not sure what you mean.

[Johnhw222]

Many threads on here from suburb haters never seen so much hate like that elsewhere

[Dallaz]

Originally Posted by Johnhw222

Many threads on here from suburb haters never seen so much hate like that elsewhere

A lot of people find the suburbs nice to live in but very bland and cookie cutter. You often hear people in Dallas proper saying "We don't want to be Frisco or Plano" even in the Park Cities too. Typically, people who visit/move here blame the blandness of the suburbs for what Dallas proper is culturally. I've heard many people describe Dallas as such but when you dig a little deeper, it's always the people who never really venture into Dallas proper like that. So, Dallasites tend to defend it and talk about areas with actual culture/uniqueness...to make a clear distinction between Dallas proper and the 'burbs. Since that is where the bigtime growth is happening, that's what a lot of people see when they come to the area. People often misjudge Dallas based on its suburbs and you simply have Dallas loving Dallasites defending their city.

[LeavingMA]

Originally Posted by Johnhw222

Many threads on here from suburb haters never seen so much hate like that elsewhere

Pretty much true. I know many that move here and think inside 635 they will get shot or it's awful. They have never really spent much time in Dallas.

[Pmurt]

Great find. What is not mentioned is how the catalyst for downtown Oak Cliff becoming such a commercialized place was how it would get cut off by the seasonal flooding of the Trinity River.
Why don't they just call it downtown Oak Cliff?