National Register Listing

Colonial Hill Historic District

Bounded by Pennsylvania Ave., I-45, US 75 and Hatcher, Dallas, TX

The Colonial Hill Historic District encompasses more than a dozen late 19th and early 20th-century residential additions is a premiere example of Dallas' streetcar suburbs along an original streetcar route and is associated with the historic context, The Development of East and South Dallas: 1872-1945. Contextually, it relates to the influence of the streetcar on the development of suburban lands in South Dallas; therefore, the district is nominated under Criterion A in the area of Community Planning and Development as one of Dallas' largest intact and most illustrative examples of the classic streetcar suburban pattern. Although much of Dallas developed along streetcar lines in the first half of this century, Colonial Hill is one of the oldest such neighborhoods in South Dallas that still retains its original housing stock with little intrusion. In addition, its street configuration and traffic patterns have remained virtually unchanged from the time streetcars ran the length of Colonial Avenue, from Forest Avenue to its eventual termination at Hatcher Street, and the effect of the streetcar on the layout of the development is well-defined, even today. The district is also nominated under Criterion C in the area of Architecture on the basis of its large grouping of intact historic domestic architecture, consisting primarily of 1-story frame bungalows with a handful of 2-story, frame houses with American Four-square or Classical Revival features. Most of the larger, more elaborate houses face Colonial Avenue, the former streetcar route. Although a number of the additions were platted between 1888 and 1893, during a construction boom that accompanied the arrival of the railroad in 1872 and the development of a network of streetcar systems, nearly all the extant buildings date from about 1903 through the 1930s, reflecting the second period of development. The Colonial Hill Historic District, with its good collection of early 20th-century buildings and readily apparent traffic patterns, is a vivid architectural and cultural reminder of Dallas' early suburban streetcar development.

Local significance of the district:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1995.