Tenth Street Historic District

The Tenth Street Historic District is Oak Cliff's most important African American neighborhood and is named after the principal street in the area. The district is eligible at a local level under the Criterion in Ethnic Heritage (Black). Although much of the historic district lies within the original plat of Oak Cliff, the district's history is somewhat different from the rest of Oak Cliff. The neighborhood includes modestly scaled residences that have little stylistic ornamentation; nevertheless, these vernacular buildings provide a tangible link to a significant, yet often overlooked part of Dallas' past. Indeed, few historic African American neighborhoods survive in Dallas, and those that do often lack the integrity evident in the Tenth Street Historic District. Many of the buildings have experienced some deterioration, but retain much of their historic character. The Oak Cliff Cemetery is approximately 1/6th of the district and closely associated with the area after its platting in 1890. The period of significance is from the construction of 1890 the oldest extant building to 1944, fifty years ago. The historic district is part of the historic context of Suburban Development in Oak Cliff, Dallas, Texas, 1887-1944.

In 1845, William H. Hord founded Hord's Ridge, a dispersed rural settlement on the site of what would be east Oak Cliff. Hord's slaves were probably the first African Americans to live in the area. Frank Thomas, one of the Black slave children born in Hord's Ridge, lived and worked in Oak Cliff until his death in the 1930s (1891-92 City Directory).

No extant buildings date to the 1840s, although the earliest evidence of activity in the area is the cemetery set aside in 1846 by William Beaty. Found near the northeast corner of the Tenth Street Historic District, Oak Cliff Cemetery is the oldest public cemetery in the area. Because it is approximately 1/6th of the entire land area of the district, the cemetery is included noting its Criterion D exception. Its significance in the district is established after the platting of the subdivision in 1890 and continues through 1944, fifty years ago.
Some freed African Americans probably began living within the bounds of the historic district after the Civil War. The former slaves of William Brown Miller, a prominent cotton farmer in the Dallas region, may have been the first to settle on land included in the district. William Hord also may have made an arrangement with Anthony Boswell, an African American, that involved the transference of the land upon which Elizabeth Chapel A.M.E. Church (Elizabeth Chapel) was later constructed.

In the early 1880s, the Elizabeth Chapel was organized by Boswell and his wife Elizabeth (for whom the church was named). While the extent of African American settlement in the area prior to 1890 is uncertain, the establishment of this local church indicates that a number of families were present. In addition, a school opened in 1886 near present-day 12th and Lancaster streets.

Much of the land in the Tenth Street Historic District was developed by T.L. Marsalis and the Dallas Land & Loan Company. While African Americans were in the area by the early 1880s, extensive settlement probably did not occur until Marsalis platted the neighborhood in 1890.

While the Tenth Street Addition may have been intended as a segregated community, it appears that Jim Crow policies were not institutionalized in Oak Cliff until the early 1900s. For example, W.D. Snead, a white dairyman lived on Betterton Circle just south of the new development. African American Ismael Allen had his barbershop on the north side of Lancaster Avenue near 10th Street -- in a predominately white commercial business district.

Noah Penn was one of the earliest residents of the new addition. He came to Dallas as T.L. Marsalis' coachman. Marsalis later employed Penn to clear land in Oak Cliff, which led to Penn's successful career as a carpenter, contractor and landowner. Penn married Ida Moore, and built two family homes, one of which is a Contributing property in the historic district. Penn was a founder of the El Bethel Baptist Church, and Noah Street was named for him.

Toward the end of the century, the growing Oak Cliff African American population and the tightening grip of Jim Crow combined to create a dynamic, largely self-contained community. Industrial employment could be found at J.G. Fleming & Sons, Oak Cliff Paper Mills just south of the addition on the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad (now Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe). From the early 1890s to the late 1920s, the mill employed local residents, several of whom lived close to the plant on Betterton Circle.

A diversity of trades could be found among their neighbors. S.H. Best owned a grocery store on 10th Street, and the descendants of Anthony Boswell counted among their ranks a teacher, two laborers, a grocer, and a carpenter. Daniel Mason, a Black attorney whose office was on Commerce Street in downtown Dallas, lived at 154 Cliff Street (demolished).

In 1900, Oak Cliff had a population of 3,360, including 538 African Americans, most of whom presumably lived in the 10th Street area. On May 10, 1900, the city of Dallas purchased land for a school for African American children. Originally called the 9th Ward Public School and later the N.W. Harllee School, the early facility was razed in the 1930s to make room for the present Contributing building at 1216 E. 8th Street.

By the early 1910s, the Tenth Street Historic District was almost completely independent of predominately white Oak Cliff. The neighborhood included doctors' offices, a maternity clinic, pharmacies, stores, barber shops, nightclubs, and saloons. The African American-owned business district centered on East 10th Street, running from its intersection with Fleming Street on the east, to the 1300 block of 10th Street on the west.

The formal dedication of the Betterton Circle Addition on February 27, 1904, had expanded the African American enclave south but did not influence commercial enterprises to follow. Hence, East 10th Street continued to be an important commercial hub. This status was confirmed four years later with the construction of the new (present) Elizabeth Chapel A.M.E. Church (1911, 1926; 1030 E. Tenth Street). It quickly became an important landmark in the neighborhood, further serving to focus community social activity on the "commercial" district of businesses, houses and churches.

By the mid-1920s, the historic district's residential and corresponding business district had grown substantially. Grocery stores anchored each end of Tenth Street, with an undertaker, two churches, four businesses and the homes of two ministers filling out the rest of the district.

In 1925, the 2-story brick commercial building at 102 Cliff Street was constructed in the heart of the Tenth Street Addition. The Wabash Drug Store and two other stores were listed as tenants there in the 1930s. The building's 2-story mass and masonry construction made it unusual as most of the commercial structures within the business district were 1-story wood frames. Nevertheless, it remains an important symbol of a once-busy African-American business district.

Unlike the former business district, the residential properties found in the Historic District retain a high degree of overall integrity. Together, they represent much of the Historic District's development.

The simple shotgun house at 211 Anthony Street is an example of a housing type common throughout the southern United States from the 1870s to the 1920s. The narrow building with a front gable and three rooms, one behind the other, was a typical arrangement. These were predominantly rental dwellings for low-income urban laborers.

The L-plan house and the pyramidal roof forms at 207 and 209 Anthony Street are representative of two transitional phases of a lower-middle income dwelling. The L-plan was the earliest of the two forms, with a larger floorplan, more detail and higher construction cost than the shotgun. The pyramidal roof cottage modified this design by incorporating the porch under the main roof.

Larger, more elaborate bungalows would be available to middle-income doctors, workers, and business owners. Rectangular in plan with no central hallway, bungalows often had craftsman or Classical Revival details such as the jigsawn porch railings and square vernacular Doric columns found on the house at 1034 Betterton Circle.

With the end of institutionalized Jim Crow policies, came the slow decline of the historic district's unique commercial district. African Americans were no longer a captive audience for local merchants. Economics often demanded what consumer loyalty could not withstand: a less expensive product.

Interstate 35E was constructed in the 1960s, physically cutting off the historic district from the rest of Oak Cliff, just after it began its social integration with the larger neighborhood. Resultant development pressure has adversely affected the cohesiveness of the residential district. Demolition, rather than new construction or major remodeling, has served as the neighborhood's main adversary. Very few historic commercial buildings have survived, while historic residential construction has retained a large degree of integrity. Less serious problems stem from unsympathetic modifications to some buildings and their generally deteriorating physical condition.

Powerful development pressures are also being exerted by a low-income multi-family housing project to the west. However, recent construction activity within the historic district has been directed at the sensitive rehabilitation of several houses. Clearly, the high level of the architectural integrity of all forms of historic properties -- shotgun houses as well as bungalows and church buildings -- points to the efficacy of their sensitive reuse.

While low and middle-income housing in the Tenth Street Historic District underwent an evolution, each of those evolutionary steps remains evident. With landmark churches and a remaining commercial building, the district still reflects the wide range of economic success enjoyed by a single community comprised of African American doctors, business owners, porters, waiters, and day laborers.
The Tenth Street Historic District is eligible under Criterion A at the local level in Ethnic Heritage (Black). It remains one of the earliest settlement areas for African Americans in Dallas. The period of significance extends from its platting in 1890 to 1944, the fifty-year cut-off at the time of nomination. As a whole, the district retains its integrity and associations as an important African American enclave of Oak Cliff.