Dallas: Major Convention Center — 1963

by Paula Bosse

City of dreams, city of motels… (click for larger image)

by Paula Bosse

Here’s an interesting shot of the downtown skyline: from an unidentified motel (possibly along Harry Hines?).

This cover of a 1963 Dallas Chamber of Commerce magazine carries the headline “Dallas: Major Convention Center” — that year Dallas was named the #3 convention center (Chicago and New York held the top two spots) in a survey conducted by the trade publication World Convention Dates based upon the number of conventions booked — Dallas had 405 conventions booked, as of July, 1963. The previous year Dallas was ranked #9, so that’s quite an improvement. The GOP was even considering the city as the site of their 1964 Republican National Convention (which, considering the events of November, 1963, is an odd thing to contemplate).

Why was Big D so popular? An advertorial in The Dallas Morning News listed a few reasons:

…clear, dry weather; cosmopolitan atmosphere; numerous modern and attractive hotels and motels – with more being built every day; a marketplace with wares from over the nation and world; fun things to do and see including cultural, sports and theatrical offerings; a world-wide shopping center; easy accessibility via gleaming highways, freeways and an airport which ranks 10th in the nation. (DMN, Oct. 6, 1963)

So… pretty much the same things you hear today (except our highways might not be quite so gleaming — but our (new) airport ranks a lot higher than #10). All these years later, Dallas remains near the top of the convention-attracting cities in the United States. (I have a feeling the motel seen in the photo above did not have such a rosy future….)

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Sources & Notes

Image shows the cover of the June, 1963 issue of Dallas, the magazine of the Dallas Chamber of Commerce; found in an old eBay listing. (If anyone has any old copies of this magazine they would like to divest themselves of — or loan out for a short time — please contact me at the email address in the About/Contact tab at the top of this page.)

One Comment to “Dallas: Major Convention Center — 1963”

don jacks says:

May 17, 2019 at 12:46 PM

Research Challenge? Looking east from Harry Hines? Doesn’t seem right. Harry Hines ran north/south of down town. Enlarging the photo shows a viaduct in the background. It also appears that there is a small levee behind the motel and a car driving on it. The buildings look like an industrial park location. I think there is a box car on the right. Researched photos on pinterest that showed a similar 1963 skyline looking from the east. Maybe from hwy 183 or Irving Blvd? The motel probably been torn down by now. But I still would like to know where photo was taken from. I’ll keep digging.
Seems strange, but that would not be the motel I would show if I were doing a PR campaign for “lots of motels” in Dallas.

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