Texas Theatre
231 W. Jefferson Blvd., Dallas, TXThe Texas Theatre, 231 W. Jefferson Boulevard, in Dallas, Texas, is nominated to the National Register under Criterion A, at the national level of significance in the area of Politics/Government and at the local level of significance in the area of Recreation/Entertainment. The 1931 Texas Theatre is significant at the local level as a theatre of the "movie palace" era, an atmospheric theater based upon the designs of John Eberson, a nationally known theater designer. The Texas Theatre was designed by W. Scott Dunne, an architect who designed numerous atmospheric theaters across the state of Texas. As places of recreation, these theaters expressed the importance of the emerging movie industry and the public's desire for an escape to new experiences and places.
The Texas Theatre is significant at the national level as the site of the arrest of Lee Harvey Oswald on November 22, 1963. Oswald was apprehended by the Dallas Police at 1:51 pm, just over an hour after the shooting of President John F. Kennedy and half an hour after the shooting of Dallas Police Officer J. D. Tippet eight blocks from the theater. Oswald was seated in the auditorium when the police apprehended him following a short struggle in front of several witnesses. The arrest of Oswald led to a series of events and media coverage unprecedented in the history of the United States, spurred by the shooting of Oswald in the basement of Dallas City Hall two days later by Dallas nightclub owner Jack "Ruby" Rubenstein. On November 29, 1963, President Johnson established the President's Council on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, also known as the Warren Commission. The Warren Commission Report, published on September 24, 1964, was the subject of intense scrutiny and criticism which spawned an immense amount of speculation and theory associated with the President's assassination and Oswald's role in it. The role that Oswald played in the President's assassination has been the subject of thousands of books and articles in part because Oswald, who was shot two days after President Kennedy was killed, was never thoroughly interrogated or tried in court for the crime of assassinating the President, leaving many unanswered questions to speculation. Along with the site of Kennedy's assassination, Dealey Plaza, the Texas Theatre serves to remind and to help reconcile the events in Dallas on November 22, 1963, and after. Because of its direct association with well-documented events of national importance as a property that has achieved significance within the past 50 years.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 2003.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.