Zang and Beckley
by Paula Bosse
Gulf’s “No-Nox” gas just 18¢/gallon…
by Paula Bosse
This photo shows the Oak Cliff intersection of N. Zang Blvd. and N. Beckley Ave. The 1953 Dallas directory shows L. B. Poche’s Oak Cliff Tire Co. at 1101 N. Zangs and K. R. Hollis’ Gulf service station at 1102 N. Zangs (this was before that “s” in the street name was eliminated).
The photo comes from the exhaustive tome Dallas-Fort Worth Highways, Texas-Sized Ambition by Oscar Slotboom. His caption for this photo (found on page 98 of the PDF here):
This undated view shows the predecessor of IH 35, US 67, aligned on Zang Boulevard through Oak Cliff just south of downtown at the intersection with Beckley Avenue. The three highway shields show that this alignment also served US 77 and US 80. The narrow streets leading into downtown were unable to handle increasing traffic after World War II, making freeway construction a top priority.
Zang Boulevard was originally called “Zang’s Boulevard” (later just “Zangs Boulevard”) after J. F. Zang. When it opened in 1900, it was the only direct road between Dallas and Oak Cliff.
Dallas Morning News, Oct. 26, 1900
In 1967, it was beginning to be a problem, with mixed messages from the city on what the street was actually called, illustrated by the photos below, which ran with this caption: “Harry Gaston, Oak Cliff real estate and insurance man, points out the ZANGS street sign in the north 700 block of the boulevard at Canty Street. A look of bewilderment adorns his face, however, when he discovers the ZANG (no S) sign on the opposite end and other side of the same north 700 block. City records show ZANG as the correct spelling… a reorientation program for the public and some great big headaches for map makers.” (Oak Cliff magazine, Nov. 1967). In June 1968, the city officially dropped the “s,” and it became, simply, “Zang Boulevard.” (The full article about this is linked below in the Sources & Notes section.)
Nov. 1967
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Sources & Notes
Top photo is from Oscar Slotboom’s Dallas-Fort Worth Freeways website, which is pretty amazing. If you’re interested in the evolution of Dallas’ highway system, you will be glued to this site which is full of incredibly detailed information.
Photos of the beleaguered Mr. Gaston wondering what the street was actually called is from Oak Cliff magazine, Nov. 1967, Periodicals Collection, Dallas History and Archives, Dallas Public Library. The article that ran with these photos — “Zang(s) Problem(s) Confuse(s) Chamber(s)” by Phyllis Dischman — is here.
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Copyright © 2017 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved
Flashback : Dallas 
Okay.,. that Texas Freeways site is amazing! I’ve got to get to work, but you can bet I’ll read that cover-to-cover…
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I know! And the whole book is available as a FREE download! Thank you, Mr. Slotboom!
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Can you verify the orientation of the photo above? Thought the building to the left is the attorney’s building, but after comparing them I’m not so sure
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Things have changed a lot at that intersection, but I think the tire company building was at the northeast corner of Zang and Beckley — its address was 1101 N. Zang. The attorney’s building (at 1045 N. Zang) is at the — by a stretch of directions — the north*west* corner.
The 5-sided tire company building can be seen shaded in pink at the left edge of the 1922 Sanborn map here: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/sanborn/d-f/txu-sanborn-dallas-1922-504.jpg
The attorney’s building can be seen near the top (pink, right of center) of *this* 1922 Sanborn sheet (note that this sheet has north to the left): http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/sanborn/d-f/txu-sanborn-dallas-1922-503.jpg
I *think* that’s right.
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The building at the tip of the triangle had a Neon sign the was a Matador& Bull in motion when I lived across the street at 6 yrs old 1959 it advertised El Fenix which is still behind this building facing Colorado Blvd.
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How cool. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a moving El Fenix neon sign before. I’d love to see a photo of it sometime!
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So, if the County Commissioner’s Court decreed that the name of the road was to be “Zang’s,” then why the heck did the City Council (or more likely some local bureaucrat) decree that the name would be “Zang?” If it was his road back then, why isn’t it his now?
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[…] 6. ZANG & BECKLEY […]
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Are there photos of the toy store that was there in at least ‘49, ‘50 and ‘51, on the southern triangular point of the Beckley and Zangs intersection. It was Toydale. The owner’s first name was Dale. Thank you-Cathia
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Hi Cathia. I can’t find any info on Toydale (except for a small chain of stores with that name in the early ’50s in Fort Lauderdale, FL). I am unable to find complete city directories for those years. If anyone has info or photos, please let us know!
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Thank you Paula for asking readers for info about the old Toydale store. My mother worked there sometime during ‘48 to ‘52 and I remember visiting the store. Of course it was a great time to get to visit.
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