“Dallas Skyline: Late Afternoon From Stemmons Freeway” by Ed Bearden — 1959
by Paula Bosse
Skyline and power plant… (click for larger image)
by Paula Bosse
I think the 1950s Dallas skyline is my favorite Dallas skyline. This lithograph by Dallas artist Ed Bearden shows all the usual superstars — the Southland Life Building, the Medical Arts Building, the Republic Bank Building, the Mercantile, the Magnolia — but it also shows a building that doesn’t often find its way into artistic renderings of the city’s skyline: the Dallas Power & Light plant (which was demolished several years ago and is now the site of the American Airlines Center). It looks really great here, with its familiar twin steamstacks and its oasis-like “spray pond” shimmering in the foreground. In fact, the presence of the DP&L plant is my favorite element of this artwork. The beauty of that workhorse industrial plant gives those fancy skyscrapers a run for their money!
This same view from the Stemmons of today looks like — brace yourself — this.
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Lithograph by Ed Bearden; image from an auction listing on the Live Auctioneers site, here. (Thanks, “Not Bob,” for alerting me to this great artwork!)
See another Bearden skyline seen from a similar vantage point, here.
More on the cool-looking DP&L plant and its twin smokestacks can be found in these Flashback Dallas posts:
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Copyright © 2017 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Do you have any info on the DP&L building downtown? My daughter has lived there off and on for nunerous years. It has a disturbing aura, wondered if there were any tragic stories related to it
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I don’t really know anything about it. I should look into it!
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That’s the skyline I remember growing up in Dallas. Along with the Neuoff plant and P.C. Cobb stadium just down the road.
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