World City Guide

Key Attractions

Dealey Plaza and the Sixth Floor Museum
It is impossible to come to Dallas without hearing about 22 November 1963. President J F Kennedy was assassinated as his car passed by the ‘grassy knoll’ at Dealey Plaza, having been shot from the sixth floor of what was then the Texas School Book Depository building, now the Sixth Floor Museum. The Plaza is simply an outdoor grassy area on the north side of Elm Street, surmounted by a white stone, unadorned platform where people go for a few quiet and thoughtful moments. The museum, which is the most visited attraction in Dallas, gives full details of JFK’s life and times, a minute-by-minute account of events on the infamous day, exhibits, over 400 photographs, video footage and an audio tour.

The actual JFK Memorial is Downtown on Main Street and Market Street, at the Dallas County Historical Plaza, and was designed by New Yorker Philip Johnson, a Kennedy family friend. Visitors who want to know more should visit the Conspiracy Museum, 110 South Market Street (tel: (214) 741 3040), for a fascinating look at assassinations, cover-ups and the theories surrounding other famous US presidential and related killings, including JFK’s.

411 Elm Street
Tel: (214) 747 6660 or (888) 485 4854.
Website: www.jfk.org
Opening hours: Daily 0900-1800.
Admission charge.

Fair Park
Fair Park’s 111 hectares (277 acres) was created in 1936, for the Texas Centennial Exposition. There is too much to do in one day, or even several days, as it comprises museums, concert facilities, theatres and other venues. It is best for tourists to choose what they wish to visit in advance and combine that with a stroll through the park, as the central promenade has murals and sculptures.

Through its four vaulted galleries, the African-American Museum fully details African-American art and history from pre-colonial times to the present day, with permanent and temporary exhibitions. The Museum of Natural History has 60 dioramas of Texas flora and fauna, Texas dinosaur exhibits (including a huge protostega sea turtle around 90 million years old) as well as various temporary exhibitions. The Science Place and IMAX Theater incorporates the Planetarium, all in a hands-on complex with over 350 exhibits. The Women’s Museum is the parks newest opening.

The Park also contains the Dallas Horticulture Center (tel: (214) 428 7476), Cotton Bowl Stadium (tel: (214) 638 2695), Hall of State (tel: (214) 421 4500; website: www.dallashistory.org), Dallas Aquarium (tel: (214) 655 1444; website: www.dallas-zoo.org), Age of Steam Railroad Museum (tel: (214) 428 0101; website: www.dallasrailwaymuseum.com), Texas Vietnam Veterans War Memorial (tel: (972) 579 9430) and the Fair Park Music Hall (tel: (214) 565 1116).

1300 Robert B McCullum Street
Tel: (214) 670 8400.
Website: www.fairparkdallas.com
Opening hours: Daily 24 hours.
Free admission.

African-American Museum
3536 Grand Avenue
Tel: (214) 565 9026.
Website: www.aamdallas.org
Opening hours: Tue-Fri 1200-1700, Sat 1000-1700, Sun 13-1700.
Free admission.

Museum of Natural History
3535 Grand Avenue
Tel: (214) 421 3466.
Website: www.dallasdino.org
Opening hours: Mon-Sat 1000-1700, Sun 1200-1700.
Admission charge.

The Science Place
1318 Second Avenue
Tel: (214) 428 5555.
Website: www.scienceplace.org
Opening hours: Tue-Fri 0930-1630, Sat 0930-1730, Sun 1130-1730 (Sep-May); daily 0930-1630, Sat 0930-1730, Sun 1130-1730 (Jun-Aug).
Admission charge.

The Women’s Museum
3800 Parry Avenue
Tel: (214) 915 0860.
Website: www.thewomensmuseum.org
Opening hours: Tue-Sun 1200-1700.
Admission charge.

Dallas Museum of Art
The permanent collection galleries at the Dallas Museum of Art are spacious, allowing full appreciation of the exhibits, which cover different types of art from ancient to modern times, from the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia. Of particular significance is the Wendy and Emery Reves Collection of Impressionist paintings. The museum shop is worth a visit for unusual gifts and souvenirs.

1717 North Harwood Street
Tel: (214) 922 1200 or 1803.
Website: www.dm-art.org
Opening hours: Tue-Wed, Fri-Sun 1100-1700; Thu 1100-2100.
Admission charge; free Thu 1700-2100.

Fountain Place
In such a landlocked city, this square is attractive, with its impressive water displays and its calming trees and streams. There are 172 ‘blubber fountains’ (low dome-shaped fountains), while the Central Court Fountain has 360 fountain heads. Around 2.25 million litres (0.5 million gallons) of water pass through the plaza and at night, coloured lights play on the shimmering cascades. The huge, 60-storey glass building is part of the design and is based on a prism, a favourite theme of architect I M Pei, who also designed the glass pyramid outside the Louvre in Paris (France, that is, not Texas). There are other designs by Pei around the city and discovering them makes a good theme for an unusual exploration. The Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla Street (tel: (214) 670 5111), which houses Henry Moore’s largest bronze sculpture, is one example. The Morton H Meyerson Symphony Center, 2301 Flora Street (tel: (214) 670 3600), is another.

1445 Ross Avenue, at North Field Street
Tel: (214) 855 7766.
Opening hours: Daily 24 hours.
Free admission.

Wilson Block Historic District
The Wilson Block is an entire block of houses on Swiss Avenue, which Henrietta and Frederick Wilson acquired in 1899. They proceeded to build six homes on the land. The Preservation Center, based in the Wilson House, their own Queen Anne home, is open to the public and introduces the district through walking tours, film and a resource library. The district contains many houses from the same period, another particularly striking one being the Arnold House.

Further out, along Swiss Avenue (beginning at block 4800) is another historic district, the Upper Swiss Avenue Historic District (website: www.sahd.org), from La Vista to Fitzhugh Avenue. Here visitors can see more early 20th-century mansions in various styles, such as ‘gingerbread’, ‘prairie’ (after the school of architects developed by Frank Lloyd Wright) and Italianate.

2922 Swiss Avenue
Tel: (214) 821 3290.
Website: www.preservationdallas.org
Opening hours: Tues-Fri 1000-1600, Sat 1000-1400.
Free admission.