Historical Markers in Dallas County
Texas·281 places·Page 10 of 12
Military
Site of Peacock Military Academy
The original Peacock Military Academy was founded in 1894 in San Antonio by Wesley Peacock, a well-known educator and child psychologist. In 1930 Peacock opened a north Texas branch of the school at this site to provide military, academic, and physical education for young men in the first grade through junior college.
History
Site of Sanger Brothers Department Store
This retail establishment traces its history to 1857, when German native Isaac Sanger opened a small dry goods store in McKinney. Sanger later was joined by his brothers Lehman, Philip, Alex, and Sam. The first store to bear the name Sanger Bros. opened in 1867 in Bryan. New stores were established as the railroad line moved north to Dallas, where the Sangers opened a store in 1872. Sanger Bros.
History
Site of Scyene Meeting Place
In the 1840s, settlers held public meetings under a tree at this site. Beginning in the 1850s, several successive 2-story frame buildings stood here and housed Masonic Lodge, church, elections, and social activities. Scyene Meeting Place housed one of the first public school sessions in Dallas County. In her girlhood, outlaw Belle Starr was a pupil in that school.
History
Site of the Dr. D. W. Gilbert Homestead
Site of the Dr. D. W. Gilbert Homestead Mississippi native Daniel Webster "D.W." Gilbert (1854-1930) was one of three brothers who became Texas doctors. At age 20, he joined his brother, Franklin Monroe Gilbert, in Grapevine and began to study medicine under him. In 1879, he enrolled at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, graduating in 1881 with a medical degree. Returning to Texas, D.W.
History
Sons of Hermann in Dallas
The national fraternal organization, Sons of Hermann, organized in New York in 1840 to help preserve German traditions while easing the transition of German immigrants into American society. The Grand Lodge of Texas formed in 1890 in San Antonio with eight lodges.
Architecture
South Boulevard-Park Row Historic District
This neighborhood is one of the few remaining intact residential districts which reflect the early twentieth century suburban development of Dallas. Construction of homes in this vicinity began soon after the Jewish Temple Emanuel El was moved here in 1913 from its downtown location. Many early residents of the neighborhood were prominent leaders of the Dallas Jewish community.
History
Southland Cemetery, Old
Founded in 1910 by Thomas H. Hall (1867 - 1965), this cemetery was the result of a need to have a burial ground closer to the community than those existing more than four miles distant. Four acres of land were dedicated for use as a cemetery, and Hall began to plot the original plan for the design of the graveyard, using lot markers made of bois d'arc wood.
History
Sowers Cemetery
Burial plot was begun in 1868, when a woman and her daughter, whose names have been lost, were interred on the land of Seveir Smalley, a local landowner. In 1874, Edmund D. Sowers (1826 - 1909) and his wife, Freelove, donated one adjoining acre as a public burial ground. In his family lot, Sowers had an impressive monument erected, using proceeds from sale of 65 acres of his land.
History
Sowers Community
By 1856, Edmund D. and Freelove Sowers, who came to Texas from Illinois, owned land in this vicinity. Along with their neighbors, including Jacob and Henry Caster, and William and Lucinda Haley, they farmed, hunted game and cut timber. Ed Sowers also served as a blacksmith. Sowers opened a general store on his property in the late 1870s, and a small business district developed around it.
History
Steel Dust
19th century Texas frontier champion who became foundation sire for the most popular quarter horse strain of the 20th century. A Virginia type horse foaled by a Kentucky thoroughbred mare, Steel Dust was brought in 1844 as a colt to the Texas Republic by settlers Middleton Perry and Jones Greene.
History
Stephen J. Hay School
This site commemorates a significant civic and business leader. Georgia native Stephen J. Hay (1864-1916) migrated to Dallas in 1887 and became an executive of the Texas Paper Company. He served eight years on the Dallas Board of Education and in 1907 was the first mayor elected to a new mayor-council government that replaced the ward system.
History
Swiss Avenue
This wide boulevard was a muddy country lane in 1857, when Swiss immigrant Henri Boll named it in honor of his native land. Swiss Avenue was lengthened and paved as part of Munger Place, an exclusive 140-acre residential area developed in 1905 by cotton gin manufacturer R. S. Munger (1854 - 1923).
History
Temple Emanu-El Cemetery
Established by Temple Emanu-el congregation in 1884, this was the second Jewish cemetery in Dallas. The first burials which occurred here were those of Russian immigrants Aaron L. Levy and Jacob Rosenthal. Both men were born in Russia on June 2, 1856, and died in Dallas on October 7, 1884.
History
Texas School Book Depository Building, Formerly The
This site was originally owned by John Neely Bryan, the founder of Dallas. During the 1880s French native Maxime Guillot operated a wagon shop here. In 1894 the land was purchased by Phil L. Mitchell, president and director of the Rock Island Plow Company of Illinois.
History
Texas Women in the Civil War, A Tribute to
Civilian duties of 90,000 Texas men fighting for the Confederacy fell to wives back home in land of few factories and an enemy blockade that cut down on imports. Women had to run businesses and farms for their absent men who committed to the uncertain mails their letters of instruction.
Transport
Texas' First Airmail and Passenger Service
Love Field witnessed two "firsts" in Texas aviation history. National Air Transport (later became United Air Lines) on May 12, 1926, inaugurated first airmail service in Texas, and on Sept. 1, 1927, flew the first passengers and express. The flights were to Chicago. The first airmail packets, weighing a total of 1,556 lbs.
History
Texian Land and Emigration Company
Site of the first agency, January 1845 Generally known as "Peters' Colony" in honor of William S. Peters who, under a colonization contract secured in 1841 from the Republic of Texas, introduced more than ten thousand settlers to 17 counties of North Texas. (4 mi. E. Farmers Branch, Dallas County)
History
The Baptist Standard
The history of this denominational publication dates to 1888, when Lewis Holland and John H. Boyet founded "The Baptist News" in Fannin County. It moved to Dallas in 1889, and its name cnaged to "The Baptist Standard" in 1892 under the guidance of J.B. Cranfill. The paper moved to Waco that year but returned to Dallas in 1898.
History
The Crossroads
Despite Dallas's reputation as one of the state's more conservative cities, its LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) community was among the first in Texas to organize politically and socially. In 1947, the city became home to one of the first gay bars in Texas, Club Reno, and in 1972 was the site of the first Gay Pride Parade in Texas.
History
The Daniel Cemetery
This burial ground originally served the family of the Rev. Ellison Armistead Daniel, Sr. (1797-1875) and pioneer settlers of southwest Dallas County. Daniel, who brought his family here in 1852, was a part-time Baptist minister who also farmed and ranched this land. The cemetery was first used in 1853 for the interment of his daughter-in-law Fannie P. Daniel.
History
The Hord Log Cabin
First permanent structure built on the west side of the Trinity River in Dallas, this cabin of hand-hewn logs was erected in 1845 by Judge William H. Hord (d. 1901), Dallas County Judge, 1848-50, who brought his family here by covered wagon from Tennessee. In 1887 Oak Cliff developer T.L. Marsalis bought the Hord property. Mr. and Mrs.
History
The Louis Wagner Home
A German immigrant, Louis Wagner (1848 - 1909) became a successful Dallas businessman. In 1884 he and his wife Anna Pretz Wagner built this residence. She was the daughter of Jacob Pretz, an early settler of the Swiss Avenue area. The house was originally located at 2917 Bryan Street. In January 1977 it was moved to this location to save it from demolition.
Architecture
The Magnolia (Mobil) Building
Erected in 1921-22, this building housed the offices of Magnolia Petroleum Co., later Mobil Oil Co. It was designed by Sir Alfred C. Bossom (1881 - 1965), noted British architect, and built at a cost of $4 million. The tallest structure in Dallas for almost 20 years, it reflected the city's increasing economic importance. In 1934 a revolving neon sign was placed atop the building.
History
The McNab Grocery
After the Civil War Ahab Bowen acquired this land, then an area of grape vineyards and small farms. In 1891 he sold the lot to J. B. Franklin, who erected this brick structure. James McNab (d. 1924) operated a neighborhood grocery here in partnership with William A. Boren and Thomas M. Cullum, who later founded the Cullum and Boren Sporting Goods business.
History
Thomas L. Bradford
Thomas L. Bradford, who built this home by 1907, was a mayor, capitalist and philanthropist. Born in Louisiana in 1869, he moved to Dallas in the 1890s and became an entrepreneur before working in Southwestern Life Insurance Company's finance department, guiding the company's impressive growth and becoming chairman of the board in 1930.
Elsewhere in Texas
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