Oak Lawn, Dallas

Last updated
Oak Lawn
Oak Lawn, Dallas, Texas.jpg
Nickname: 
Gayborhood
Dallas, Texas map - Oak Lawn.svg
Location in Dallas
  Official
  Unofficial
Country United States
State Texas
Counties Dallas
City Dallas
Area
  Total12 sq mi (31 km2)
Elevation
479 ft (146 m)
Population
 (2014)
  Total50,805 [1]
 Population total includes combined population of Oak Lawn and Uptown
ZIP codes
75201, 75204, 75205, 75219, 75235 (small area)
Area code(s) 214, 469, 972, 945
Website http://www.oaklawncommittee.org/

Oak Lawn is a neighborhood in Dallas, Texas (United States), defined in Dallas City Ordinance 21859 as Planned Development District No. 193, the Oak Lawn Special Purpose District. The unofficial boundaries are Turtle Creek Boulevard, Central Expressway, the City of Highland Park, Inwood Road, and Harry Hines Boulevard. It is over 12 square miles (31 km2) in area. [2] [ citation needed ] Officially it is bounded by the City of Highland Park, the North Central Expressway, Stemmons Freeway, Woodall Rodgers Freeway, and other roads. The district is within the boundary defined by the City of Dallas law, excluding any existing planned development districts within. [3]

Contents

About

Oak Lawn is one of the wealthier areas of metropolitan Dallas, with the population consisting mainly of urban professionals. The area is peppered with upscale townhouses, condos, apartments, and duplexes. Along the Uptown portion on McKinney Avenue and along Turtle Creek Boulevard, there are many new high-rise condominiums and apartments. It is also a very diverse neighborhood with well established areas of older, single family homes.

For most of the 20th century the southern portion of the neighborhood near the intersection of Cedar Springs Road and Harry Hines Blvd was known as "Little Mexico". St. Anne's Catholic school served as the center for the community. With the redevelopment of the neighborhood beginning in the 1980s Little Mexico vanished. Only a few structures of this original community remain for most have been replaced by high rise office buildings, luxury hotels, and condominiums. As of 2010, St Ann's Catholic School, which had closed, is now an upscale restaurant.

Oak Lawn became a magnet for the counterculture movement in the late 1960s due to its inexpensive apartments and its proximity to Turtle Creek Park (formerly known as Lee Park and Oak Lawn Park).

Geography

Neighborhoods

Government and infrastructure

The United States Postal Service operates the Oak Lawn Post Office at 2825 Oak Lawn Avenue; ZIP Code: 75219. [4]

The Federal Bureau of Prisons South Central Region Office was previously in Oak Lawn. [5] It has since moved to the U.S. Armed Forces Reserve Complex in Grand Prairie, Texas. [6]

Diplomatic missions

The Consulate-General of the United Kingdom in Dallas was located in Suite 940 at 2911 Turtle Creek Boulevard. [7] [8]

In April 2005 the British government announced that it was closing the Dallas consulate in the summer of 2005; its territory was transferred to the consulate-general in Houston. It was one of 19 British diplomatic missions shut down around that time period. [9] The Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom said that the consulates and embassies closed as a way to decrease costs. [9] [10]

The Consulate-General of Mexico in Dallas is also located in Oak Lawn. Alfredo Corchado of The Dallas Morning News said that as of 2009, in terms of activity and size of the area Mexican population, the Dallas consulate is considered to be the third most important Mexican consulate after Los Angeles and Chicago. [11]

The consulate moved from 8855 North Stemmons Freeway to 1210 River Bend Drive in January 2009. [12]

Education

Public schools

North Dallas High School North Dallas High 02.jpg
North Dallas High School

The public schools in Oak Lawn are part of the Dallas Independent School District and are zoned [ permanent dead link ] among the following:

The William B. Travis Academy/Vanguard for the Academically Talented and Gifted is located near McKinney Avenue and Oak Grove Avenue.

In 2014-2015 its student body was 95% low income; despite that it exceeded its "performance targets". Due to gentrification, Sam Houston's enrollment declined to 201 students in the 2015-2016 school year while it had 302 students in the 2011-2012 school year. [13]

Irma Lerma Rangel Young Women's Leadership School was previously in Oak Lawn. [14]

Private schools

The Walt Whitman Community School (WWCS), an LGBT-oriented private school, was established in 1997 in Oak Lawn. [15] It closed in 2004.

Public Libraries

The Oak Lawn Branch of the Dallas Public Library serves the Oak Lawn area. In addition to its regular library holdings, it has the only circulating, non-reference collection of LGBT materials in the US. [16]

Infrastructure

Transportation

A trolley running along a now-defunct trolleyline in 1948 Dallas1948.jpg
A trolley running along a now-defunct trolleyline in 1948

US 75.svg Central Expressway (US 75) flanks the community on the east. Texas Spur 366.svg Spur 366, known locally as Woodall Rodgers Freeway, runs along the southern border of the community. The Lomac and Uptown portions of Oak Lawn are served by the free M-Line, provided by the McKinney Avenue Transit Authority and Dallas Area Rapid Transit. The Blue and Red light-rail lines stop at Cityplace Station, right outside Oak Lawn. Just outside Oak Lawn to the southwest is Victory Station in Victory Park, which is served by the Trinity Railway Express, both red and blue lines during special events, and regularly by the Green and Orange light rail lines. The two lines continue to the northwest, stopping at Market Center Station and Southwestern Medical District/Parkland Station within Oak Lawn.

Culture

The Oaklawn Halloween Block Party An African American Man at the Oaklawn Halloween Block Party.jpg
The Oaklawn Halloween Block Party

Oak Lawn is considered to be the epicenter of Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex's gay- and lesbian-culture. Cedar Springs Road, between Oak Lawn Avenue and Wycliff Avenue, has numerous businesses, retail establishments, restaurants and night clubs catering to the LGBT community. The area has some of Dallas' most renowned gay bars and nightclubs, most of which are located along, or close to, Cedar Springs Road. Oak Lawn is contiguous with the Dallas Design District and less than two miles away from Downtown Dallas.

The area also hosts some of the larger city festivals including the annual Halloween street festival, Dallas' Gay Pride parade, and Easter in the Park at Oak Lawn Park (formerly Robert E. Lee Park).

In 2014, Dallas's Oak Lawn was voted the number one gayborhood by Out Traveler. [17] In October 2018, Dallas made history when it became the first Texas city to get state recognition for its Oak Lawn LGBT neighborhood. [18]

There is a large concentration of Hispanic owned businesses, restaurants, grocery stores, nightclubs, and retail establishments on the Maple Avenue corridor between the Inwood Road and the North Dallas Tollway.

Architecture

Oak Lawn is one of the older neighborhoods in Dallas. Continuous redevelopment of the neighborhood has created a mixture of architectural styles spanning much of the 20th century to the present day.

Measuring by structural height, the tallest buildings in or adjacent to Oak Lawn are as follows: [19]

  1. Cityplace Center, 560 feet (171 m) (42 floors)
  2. W Dallas Victory Hotel and Residences, 439 feet (134 m) (32 floors)
  3. Azure, 375 feet (114 m) (31 floors)
  4. 1900 McKinney (26 floors)
  5. Mayfair at Turtle Creek, 302 feet (92 m) (24 floors)
  6. 2500 McKinney, 285 feet (87 m) (25 floors)
  7. Ritz-Carlton, Dallas, 285 feet (87 m) (21 floors)
  8. 17 Seventeen McKinney (22 floors)
  9. Residences on McKinney, 231 feet (70 m) (22 floors)
  10. La Tour Condominiums (22 floors)
  11. McKinney Avenue Lofts (21 floors)
  12. The Ashton (20 floors)
  13. The Mondrian (20 floors)
  14. The Vendome, 252 feet (77 m) (20 floors)

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dallas</span> City in Texas, United States

Dallas is a city in Texas and the most populous in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the most populous city in and seat of Dallas County with portions extending into Collin, Denton, Kaufman, and Rockwall counties. With a 2020 census population of 1,304,379, it is the ninth-most populous city in the U.S. and the third-most populous city in Texas after Houston and San Antonio. Located in the North Texas region, the city of Dallas is the main core of the largest metropolitan area in the Southern United States and the largest inland metropolitan area in the U.S. that lacks any navigable link to the sea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red Line (Dallas Area Rapid Transit)</span>

The Red Line is a light rail line in Dallas, Texas operated by the Dallas Area Rapid Transit system. It began operations in June 1996, and is one of two inaugural light rail lines in the DART Light Rail system alongside the Blue Line.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arts District, Dallas</span> Neighborhood in Dallas, Texas

The Arts District is a performing and visual arts district in downtown Dallas, Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Turtle Creek, Dallas</span> Neighborhood of Dallas, Texas, United States

Turtle Creek is a neighborhood running along Turtle Creek and adjacent Turtle Creek Boulevard in the Oak Lawn area of Dallas, Texas (USA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victory Park, Dallas</span> Place in Texas, United States

Victory Park is a master planned development northwest of downtown Dallas, Texas (USA) and north of Spur 366. It is along Interstate 35E, part of the Stemmons Corridor and Uptown.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Texas State Highway Spur 366</span> Highway in Texas

Spur 366, also named Woodall Rodgers Freeway, is a highway that connects Beckley Avenue and Singleton Boulevard in West Dallas to Interstate 35E and U.S. Highway 75 in central Dallas, Texas. The highway, as part of the downtown freeway loop, also serves as a dividing line between downtown Dallas on the south and the Uptown and Victory Park neighborhoods on the north.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cityplace, Dallas</span> Place in Texas, United States

Cityplace is a TIF District and neighborhood in Old East Dallas, Texas (USA) - near the Uptown area of Dallas, adjacent to the intersection of Central Expressway and Haskell Avenue/Blackburn Street. East of Central Expressway, the neighborhood includes the tree-lined Haskell boulevard and travels past the 42-story Tower at Cityplace. At 42-stories, it is the tallest building in Dallas outside downtown. Also on the east is the newer Cityville high-end apartment complex. The west side Cityplace includes the new-urbanist West Village and the northern end of the Uptown neighborhood.

Central Expressway is a north–south highway in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex in Texas (USA) and surrounding areas. The best-known section is the North Central Expressway, a name for a freeway section of U.S. Highway 75 between downtown Dallas and Van Alstyne, Texas. The southern terminus is south of the Woodall Rodgers Freeway at exit 284C of "hidden" Interstate 345. From there, Central Expressway becomes the South Central Expressway, the northernmost portion of which was renamed César Chávez Boulevard on April 9, 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stemmons Corridor, Dallas</span> Place in Texas, United States

The Stemmons Corridor or Lower Stemmons is a stretch of industrial and commercial property in northwest Dallas, Texas (USA). From downtown north, Interstate 35E (I-35E) is known as the Stemmons Freeway, named so for Leslie Stemmons by his son, John M. Stemmons. It lies north of downtown, west of Oak Lawn, east of the Trinity River and Irving, and south of the Elm Fork of the Trinity River. The area has a considerable amount of hotels and office towers. Property in the district accounts for 20% of Dallas' tax base. I-35E in Dallas Texas is currently the widest freeway in the DFW area with 16 total lanes, 10 lanes of high speed freeway with 6 lanes of access roads, stretching from the Woodall Rodgers Expressway in Downtown Dallas to the State Highway 183 split. I-35E is one of the most congested freeways in the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Dallas High School</span> High school in Dallas, Texas, United States

North Dallas High School is a public secondary school located in the Oak Lawn area of Dallas, Texas, United States. It enrolls students in grades 9-12 and is a part of the Dallas Independent School District. As of 2017, the principal administrator is Katherine Eska.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Turtle Creek (Dallas County, Texas)</span> Creek in Texas, United States of America

Turtle Creek is the name of small tributary creek of the Trinity River, with headwaters in northern Dallas, in Dallas County, Texas.

This article is about transportation systems in and around Dallas, Texas (USA).

Turtle Creek Boulevard is a thoroughfare that runs through the Turtle Creek neighborhood of Oak Lawn, Dallas, Texas (USA), generally alongside the actual Turtle Creek. The street has been broken up by dedication of Reverchon Park and by construction of the interstate, but its continuation through the Design District provides a hint of the culverted creek running beneath the streets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">El Fenix (restaurant)</span>

El Fenix is a popular chain of Mexican restaurants in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex, (Texas) and the oldest chain of Mexican restaurants in the U.S. The name is Spanish for "the phoenix", the legendary bird which, according to mythology, arose from its own ashes. The chain has its headquarters in Dallas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elmwood (Dallas)</span>

Elmwood is a residential neighborhood in central Oak Cliff, within Dallas, Texas, composed of tudor cottages, craftsman bungalows and ranch-style homes built mostly in the 1920s through the 1950s surrounding a central greenbelt along the limestone banks of Cedar Creek (Texas).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trinity Strand Trail</span>

The Trinity Strand Trail is a proposed 7.8-mile, hike/bike commuter and recreational trail that will run along the course of the original Trinity River in Dallas, Texas (USA), also known as Old Meanders. This part of the Trinity River flows through the heart of the Dallas Design District. Trinity Strand Trail plays a key part in the vision for the Old Trinity River corridor. It will provide a recreational resource for the area and will also connect to Katy Trail, the Southwestern Medical District, Dallas Market Center and several residential and commercial properties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uptown, Dallas</span> Place in Texas, United States

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Dallas</span> Place in Texas, United States

North Dallas is an area of numerous communities and neighborhoods in Dallas, Texas. The phrase "North Dallas" is also sometimes used to include any suburb or exurb north of Dallas proper within the metropolitan area. The majority of North Dallas is located in Dallas County, while a small portion is located in Collin and Denton counties. North Dallas generally includes areas of Dallas north of Northwest Highway, along with Lake Highlands and areas of Dallas north of IH-635 known as Far North Dallas. The area has strong social and economic ties to the Dallas enclave of Park Cities, and two inner suburbs of Dallas, Richardson and Addison.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Downtown Dallas</span> Central business district and residential area in Texas, United States

Downtown Dallas is the central business district (CBD) of Dallas, Texas, United States, located in the geographic center of the city. It is the second-largest business district in the state of Texas. The area termed "Downtown" has traditionally been defined as bounded by the downtown freeway loop, bounded on the east by I-345 (although known and signed as the northern terminus of I-45 and the southern terminus of US 75, on the west by I-35E, on the south by I-30, and on the north by Woodall Rodgers Freeway.

Cedar Springs Road is a road mainly in Uptown Dallas. The road also connects to Dallas Love Field and provides access to its terminal. It also once was a major thoroughfare through central Dallas and the Turtle Creek area in the early 1900s. Dallas Area Rapid Transit bus route 39 traversed much of the length of this road; however, in 2022, bus route 103 replaced it.

References

  1. "Dallas".
  2. "About|The Oak Lawn Committee".
  3. "Oak Lawn Special Purpose District." City of Dallas. p. 1. Retrieved on November 19, 2011. "PD 193 is established on property generally bounded by Woodall Rodgers Freeway, North Central Expressway, the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railroad, the city limits of the City of Highland Park, Bordeaux Avenue, Inwood Road, Denton Drive Cut-off, Maple Avenue, Cedar Springs Branch Creek, Harry Hines Boulevard, Oak Lawn Avenue, and Stemmons Freeway but excluding existing PD's within those boundaries. The size of PD 193 is approximately 2619.92 acres."
  4. "Post Office Location - OAK LAWN." United States Postal Service . Retrieved on December 4, 2008.
  5. "South Central Region Office." Federal Bureau of Prisons. Retrieved on January 1, 2010. "SOUTH CENTRAL REGIONAL OFFICE FEDERAL BUREAU OF PRISONS 4211 CEDAR SPRINGS RD DALLAS, TX 75219"
  6. "RO South Central." Federal Bureau of Prisons. Retrieved on June 1, 2015. "US ARMED FORCES RESERVE CMPL GRAND PRAIRIE, TX 75051"
  7. Uden, Tim. "BUG Britain & Ireland: The Backpackers' Ultimate Guide." BUG Backpackers Guide. 2005. 16.
  8. "British Consulate, Dallas, Texas." Britain in USA. Retrieved on January 30, 2009.
  9. 1 2 Allen, Margaret. "Dallas' British Consulate to close in money-saving move." Dallas Business Journal . Friday April 1, 2005. Retrieved on May 9, 2009.
  10. "Britain to close to High Commission in Nassau Archived July 28, 2009, at the Wayback Machine ." Caribbean Net News . Friday December 17, 2004. Retrieved on January 9, 2009.
  11. Corchado, Alfredo. "Mexico removing Dallas consul general." The Dallas Morning News . Saturday August 15, 2009. Retrieved on August 27, 2009.
  12. Resendiz, Julian. "For consulate, it's a big step Mexican officials say move to new building will go smoothly." The Dallas Morning News . June 18, 2009. Retrieved on August 28, 2009.
  13. Nicholson, Eric. "Will Gentrification Destroy Dallas' Public Schools, or Will It Save Them?" Dallas Observer . Monday November 2, 2015. Retrieved on June 24, 2016.
  14. Swartz, Mimi. "Going Public" ( Archived 2015-12-26 at the Wayback Machine ). Texas Monthly . February 2005. Retrieved on December 26, 2015.
  15. Fowler, Jimmy. "School's out." Dallas Observer . November 13, 1997. p. 1 (Archived 2010-09-01 at the Wayback Machine ). Retrieved on September 22, 2014.
  16. "Library Pride aims to boost LGBT collection" http://www.dallasvoice.com/library-pride-aims-boost-lgbt-collection-10130015.html Archived 2012-10-29 at the Wayback Machine
  17. "Out Traveler Awards 2014: Best Gayborhoods". 8 December 2014.
  18. "How did Dallas' Oak Lawn community get its start? Curious Texas investigates". Dallas News. 2019-03-14. Retrieved 2019-06-21.
  19. "All buildings | Buildings". Emporis. Retrieved 2013-12-05.[ dead link ]