Dallas City Directory, 1955 Page: 12
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Skyscrapers, and its residential areas include such handsome suburbs as Highland
Park and University Park.
Dallas proper covers an area of 176 square miles. It boasts over 1,800 (1,350
paved) miles of streets, and 100 parks within its corporate limits, which include 68
supervised summer playgrounds. Its school facilities match any in the nation. In
the Greater Dallas area there are 113 public schools, 17 of which are for Negroes.
Total value of school land, buildings and equipment withinthcoprelitsf
the city' is more than $42,000,000.thcoprelitsf
On entering Dallas, a visitor senses the industrial might of the city and the
energy of its residents. Thousands of employees are busily at work in plants which
represent nearly" every type of industry. Dallas' expanding industrial empire is not
advertised, however, by the haze of smoke which usually accompanies the roar
of big machines. Natural gas and electricity take care of the power needs and leave
no grime to mar the beauties of the city. With practically every business index
pointing to Dallas, accelerating growth, the city is busy building new stores,
churches, factories and homes.
Dallas also stands out in the higher educational bracket. Beside the nationally-
famous Southern Methodist University, it points with pride to the Southwestern
Medical School of the University of Texas; Hockaday School for Girls; St. Mark's
School of Texas for Boys; Dallas County Day School for Boys and Girls; Baylor
College of Dentistry; Baylor School of Nursing; and numerous recognized business
colleges and parochial schools. The city also has one of the largest night schools in
the state, at Crozier Technical High School, where business course, art, short-story
writing, mechanical drawing, mechanics and a score of other subjects are taught.
Dallas is not dependent on one phase of business alone, and that is the major
reason it has grown in a sane, sound manner..
The industrialists, wholesalers, manufacturers, retailers, bankers, oil men,
aviation men and the little business men have pooled their efforts here to bring
about a financial condition, as far as residents are concerned, that few cities can
equal..
The city ranks third in the nation as an insurance center, and high as an~ oil
industry center. It has 1,630 manufacturing plants, and 2,728 wholesale establish-
ments.
Many of the retail stores here offer the newest fashions simultaneously with the
stores in New York and Hollywood. For this reason, their customers are not confined
to the local population. It is not uncommon for women to drive as far as 500 miles in
order to do their spring, summer or fall shopping at one of the Dallas retail centers.
"Dal," as Dallas is called in air circles, is served by three trunk carrier air lines,
three feeder carriers, one carrier handling freight exclusively, and numerous non-
scheduled and chartered carriers. During 1953, rgeularly-scheduled air lines carried
1,500,000 passengers in and out of Love Field, Dallas' municipally-owned airport.
Each year since 1940 Dallas has led the Southwest in number of domestic air-line
passengers and has ranked among the top 3 cities in the nation in airline passengers
per capita. Over 22,000,000 pounds of air freight were handled and over 1,000,000
pounds of air mail originated at Love Field in 1953.
Dallas' business advantages are unexcelled. It is in the center of the world's
richest oil belt; its wholesalers and manufacturers send goods throughout the south-
west and to Mexico and the Latin-American countries. Dallas has become the home
of many branch offices and factories because of the vast territory which can be
reached easily from its doorstep. From an argicultural standpoint its location is
ideal because it is in one of the nation's richest black land belts.
Recreation facilities of Dallas include the 2,500-acre White Rock Lake Park,
which attracts .1,000,000 people each summer; the $35,000,000 Fair Park; Five foot-
ball stadia; a dozen fine golf courses; a score of swimming pools, and 77 motion-
picture theatres.
Within the boundaries of Fair Park, home of the State Fair of Dallas, is the
$5,000,000 Civic Center, which includes the Museum of Fine Arts, with a $2,000,000
collection; the Aquarium; the Casino, with a seating capacity of 6,000; the Natural
History Museum; the Health Museum; and the Texas Hall of State, housing the
collection of the Dallas Historical Society.
The Fair, which is the largest celebration of its kind in the nation, draws an
average of over 2,000,000 people a year through its gates, and has reached such
proportions that it not only is looked upon as a boost to the state, but also as a
project through which national. manufacturers can reach thousands of prospective
customers. With its musical shows, mile-long midway, stock shows, sports events,
agricultural displays and manufacturing exhibits, the Fair is an educational and
amusement center which draws attendance from every state in the Union.
Musical high-lights are the annual visit of the Metropolitan Opera Company
and the summer presentation of the State Fair Musicals.
A "must see" on the tourist list is the Marsails Zoo, which houses animals from
all over the world.
Dallas' growth has been an example for the nation. Built on a firm business
foundation, and with a population which takes pride in all phases of civic life, the
town literally glows on any statistical report. Although the city has passed the
century mark, it is still comparatively young, and it looks to the future with the
same determination that helped it obtain great heights in the past.John Neely Bryan, Tennessee-born lawyer and Indian trader, traveled by horse-
back from Arkansas to the Texas frontier in 1841. When he arived at the Trinity
River he liked the country, and decided to make it his new home, hoping to establish
a profitable trade with the nearby Indian tribes. His one-room log cabin was built
against the east bluff of the Trinity, within a stone's throw of today's $1,000,000 triple
underpass at Commerce, Main and Elm streets.
Bryan named the frontier settlement in honor of "my good friend Dallas."
Historians believe that "my good friend Dallas" was a farmer of that name who
resided for a time in a nearby settlement, and who had been Bryan's neighbor in12
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John F. Worley Directory Co. Dallas City Directory, 1955, book, 1955; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth806917/m1/10/?q=waco+tornado: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Dallas Public Library.