Dealey Plaza - Park and Recreation Department Subject Files

Archives Collections Finding Guides and Inventroies

Scope and Contents

Correspondence, memoranda, materials invoices, and orders regarding the construction of Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas 1940 - 1942.

Dealey Plaza is a 3.07 acre park in downtown Dallas, Texas, known both as the site of the founding of Dallas in 1841 and also the site of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 11, 1963. In 1841 frontiersman John Neeley Bryan built a log cabin on the site, on a bluff overlooking the Trinity River. The bluff was later altered in 1928 through subsequent landscaping and flood control improvements of the Trinity River by the United States Army Corps of Engineers and other entities. The area was further developed as "The Front Door of Dallas" between 1935-1942 as a vehicular park and a triple underpass constructed in part by workers from the federally-sponsored Works Progress Administration and the National Youth Administration. Until the development of Dallas' highway system, Dealey Plaza served as the major gateway to the city from the west. In 1963 President Kennedy was assassinated in the heart of the Plaza. In 1993 the United States Department of the Interior designated Dealey Plaza a National Historic Landmark District.

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Dealey Plaza - Park and Recreation Department Subject Files, 1940-1941, Dallas Municipal Archives, Office of the City Secretary, City of Dallas, Texas.

Acquisition Information

Transferred from creating department.

Processing Information

The Collection was described by John Slate, City Archivist.

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Detailed Description of the Collection