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Home - City Guide - Dallas - Key Attractions | ||
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Key Attractions Dealey Plaza & the Sixth Floor Museum It is impossible to come to Dallas without hearing about the 22nd November 1963. President J F Kennedy was assassinated as his car passed by the 'grassy knoll' at Dealey Plaza, having been shot from the sixth floor of what was then the Texas School Book Depository building, now the Sixth Floor Museum. The Plaza is simply an outdoor grassy area on the north side of Elm Street, surmounted by a white stone, unadorned platform where people go for a few quiet and thoughtful moments. The museum, which is the most visited attraction in Dallas, gives full details of JFK's life and times, a minute-by-minute account of events on the infamous day, exhibits, over 400 photographs, video footage and an audio tour. The actual JFK Memorial is downtown on Main Street and Market Street, at the Dallas County Historical Plaza, and was designed by New Yorker Philip Johnson, a Kennedy family friend. Visitors who want to know more, should visit the Conspiracy Museum, 110 South Market Street (tel: (214) 741 3040; website: www.conspiracymuseum.com), for a fascinating look at assassinations, cover-ups and the theories surrounding other famous US presidential and related killings, including JFK's. 411 Elm Street Tel: (214) 747 6660. Fax: (214) 747 6662. E-mail: jfk@jfk.org Website: www.jfk.org Transport: West End station or Union Station. Opening hours: Daily 0900-1800. Admission: US$7 (audio tour US$3 extra). Fair Park Fair Park's 111 hectares (277 acres) was created in 1936 for the Texas Centennial Exposition. There is too much to do in one day or even several days, as it comprises museums, concert facilities, theatres and other venues. It is best to choose what to actually visit in advance and combine that with a stroll through the park, as the central promenade has murals and sculptures. The African-American Museum, 3536 Grand Avenue (tel: (214) 565 9026), fully details African-American art and history from pre-colonial times to the present day, through four vaulted galleries, with permanent and temporary exhibitions. The Museum of Natural History, 3535 Grand Avenue (tel: (214) 421 3466; website: www.dallasdino.org), has 60 dioramas of Texas flora and fauna, Texas dinosaur exhibits, including a huge protostega sea turtle around 90 million years old, as well as various temporary exhibitions. The Science Place and IMAX Theater, 1318 Second Avenue (tel: (214) 428 5555; website: www.scienceplace.org), also incorporates the Planetarium - all in a hands-on complex with over 350 exhibits. The Park also contains the Dallas Horticulture Center (tel: (214) 428 7476), Cotton Bowl Stadium (tel: (214) 638 2695), Hall of State (tel: (214) 421 4500; website: www.dallashistory.org), Dallas Aquarium (tel: (214) 670 8443; website: www.dallas-zoo.org), Age of Steam Railroad Museum (tel: (214) 428 0101; website: www.startext.net/homes/railroad), Texas Vietnam Veterans War Memorial (tel: (972) 579 9430) and the Fair Park Music Hall (tel: (214) 565 1116). The Women's Museum, 3800 Parry Avenue (tel: (214) 915 0860; website: www.thewomensmuseum.org), is the newest opening. 1300 Robert B McCullum Street Tel: (214) 670 8400. Fax: (214) 670 0265. Website: www.fairparkdallas.com Transport: Bus 11, 12, 50 or 60. Opening hours: As per individual attraction. Admission: Free; individual admissions will apply. Dallas Museum of Art The permanent collection galleries at the Dallas Museum of Art are spacious, allowing full appreciation of the exhibits, which covers different types of art from ancient to modern times from the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia. Of particular significance is the Wendy and Emery Reves Collection of Impressionist paintings. The Ten Treasures, chosen by members of the museum staff, provide a fascinating cross-section of the museum's range of exhibits. Three of the current ten are The Iceberg (1861), an oil on canvas painting by the American artist Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900); a nineteenth-century carved wooden pair of mythical animals from the Sarawak region; and a Mayan stone carving called 'Eccentric flint depicting a crocodile canoe with passengers'. The museum shop itself is worth a visit for unusual gifts and souvenirs. 1717 North Harwood Street Tel: (214) 922 1200. Website: www.dm-art.org Transport: McKinney Avenue Trolley. Opening hours: Tues-Sun 1100-1700 (until 2100 Thurs). Admission: Free. Fountain Place This square is attractive in itself in such a landlocked city, with its impressive water displays and its calming trees and streams. There are 172 'blubber fountains' (low dome-shaped fountains), while the Central Court Fountain has 360 fountain heads. Around 2.25 million litres (0.5 million gallons) of water pass through the plaza and at night coloured lights play on the shimmering cascades. The huge, 60-storey glass building is in fact part of the design too and is based on a prism, a favourite theme of architect I M Pei, who also designed the glass pyramid outside the Louvre in Paris (France, that is, not Texas). There are other designs by Pei around the city and discovering them makes a good theme for an unusual exploration in itself. The Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla Street (tel: (214) 670 3011), which houses Henry Moore's largest bronze sculpture, is one example. The Morton H Meyerson Symphony Center, 2301 Flora Street (tel: (214) 670 3600), is another. 1445 Ross Avenue, at North Field Street Tel: (214) 855 7766. Transport: DART bus or trolley or McKinney Avenue Trolley to Ross Avenue. Opening hours: Daily 24 hours. Admission: Free. Wilson Block Historical District The Wilson Block is an entire block of houses on Swiss Avenue, which Henrietta and Frederick Wilson acquired in 1899. They proceeded to build six homes on the land. The Preservation Center, based in the Wilson House, their own Queen Anne home, is open to the public and introduces the district through walking tours, film and a resource library. The district contains many houses from the same period, another particularly striking one being the Arnold House. Further out along Swiss Avenue, beginning at block 4800, is another historic district, the Upper Swiss Avenue Historic District (website: www.sahd.org), from La Vista to Fitzhugh Avenue, with more early twentieth-century mansions in various styles such as 'gingerbread', 'prairie' (after the school of architects developed by Frank Lloyd Wright) and Italianate. 2922 Swiss Avenue Tel: (214) 821 3290. Fax: (214) 821 3573. E-mail: info@preservationdallas.org Website: www.preservationdallas.org Transport: Bus 1 to Live Oak Street or 19 to Gaston Avenue. Opening hours: Tues-Fri 1000-1600, Sat 1000-1400. Admission: Free. |