The Dallas Skyline: Spot the Landmarks
by Paula Bosse
Mid-Century Big D… (click for much larger image)
by Paula Bosse
The Dallas skyline is always changing, and it’s always been impressive. The late-’50s/early-’60s version above looks quaint by today’s standards, but it’s one of my favorite skyline periods. I’ve never been a huge fan of the Convention Center, but the rest of it? Pretty great.
In order to make way for the George Dahl-designed Dallas Memorial Auditorium/Dallas Convention Center (which opened in 1957), the old Columbian School/Royal Street School (built in 1893) was demolished. At the time of its razing, it had most recently served as the city’s school administration building and as a book warehouse. Here are a couple of photos of the school, long before the bulldozers arrived.
via James Edwards Flanders site
Also interesting was that this land — which the city had been buying up for many years (some as a result of condemnation/eminent domain) also included four pioneer cemeteries. Read more about what happened to those cemeteries here.
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Sources & Notes
Top photo is from a site containing several photos relating to early KRLD radio and TV, with the occasional shot of Dallas streets and buildings, here.
Other sources, if known, are noted.
Images are larger when clicked.
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Copyright © 2016 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Flashback : Dallas 
Great story and that is the skyline I remember growing up in the 1950’s.
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The date of that photo is around 1959.
You can see the Southland Life building which was completed in 1958: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheraton_Dallas_Hotel
But on the left side of the photo you can’t see the Mayflower building which was completed in 1960: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosaic_Dallas
You can see the Mayflower building under construction in one of the other photos at the site you linked: https://i.imgur.com/jsYeeT5.jpg
In the center of the photo you can see work on the addition to the Employers Insurance building. This addition was supposed to be started in 1958 but it looks like it wasn’t completed until 1960: http://goo.gl/bjsBO8 and http://goo.gl/KIJDnb
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Wow! Thanks!
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[…] other day I posted a photo of the Dallas skyline and pointed out that the land occupied by Memorial Auditorium/Dallas Convention Center was once the […]
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No tower behind the Republic National Bank bldg. Has to be ’62 at the latest.
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