A Texas Landmark in Oak Cliff gets Restored and Renovated

Once  the heart of the southwest Dallas community—a  grand, palatial gathering place marked by a brightly lit sign that spelled T-E-X-A-S, touting top-of-the-line acoustics and appurtenances, the Texas Theatre was opened at 231 West Jefferson Boulevard  with fanfare on April 21, 1931, by billionaire  Howard Hughes.  The Texas Theatre was the product of long time Oak Cliff resident and entrepreneur, C. R. McHenry. His dream was  to build a theater with state-of-the-art projection and sound equipment.

     The theater was a popular site for over 30 years when it was rocketed to national notoriety. On November 22, 1963, at approximately 1:45 p.m., nearly 15 Dallas police officers converged on the Texas Theatre in search of a man who had entered without paying. That man was Lee  Harvey Oswald—President John F. Kennedy’s accused lone assassin. President Kennedy’s assassination marked a violent end to the Age of Camelot and forever scarred the American psyche. As the Texas Theatre rocketed into the international spotlight, an urgency to hide, deny and destroy it tore its way through Dallas. Shortly thereafter—in what is coined locally  among preservationists as the most comprehensive architectural cover-up of the Twentieth Century—the theater’s vibrant designs, false bridges, towers and campaniles, decorative wood railings, and star and cloud  painted  ceilings were sealed from public view under a mass of lath  and spray applied plaster.

    Failing to keep audiences in an increasingly competitive theater market, United Artists closed the theater in 1989. The theater changed hands a few times and survived a five-alarm fire in 1995.

     In 1996, Pedro Villa rescued the theater from demolition when  he learned of plans to convert it into a furniture warehouse.  However, as Villa’s resources were exhausted, the theater closed. The tattered and torn building remained vacant for three years, succumbing  to vandals, stray animals, and hostile weather.

   Even then, however, Michael Jenkins of Dallas Summer Musicals  (DSM) believed the Texas Theatre could be Oak Cliff’s “crown jewel”. As such, DSM made a proposal to the City of Dallas in latter 2000 to develop the theater into a community performing arts center. DSM, along with the City of Dallas approached the Oak Cliff Chamber of Commerce and its philanthropic arm, the Oak Cliff  Foundation, with a plan to manage the theater if the foundation would purchase it.

   In 2001, the Oak Cliff Foundation was awarded $1.6 million from the City of Dallas Neighborhood Renaissance Partnership Program to purchase and renovate the theater. The foundation agreed to raise additional funds to complete the renovation and contract  Dallas Summer Musicals to manage the performing arts center.  Unfortunately, the Oak Cliff Foundation purchased the theater just a few weeks before 9/11, which has hindered the fundraising process.

    Nonetheless, in 2002, Komatsu Architecture, Inc. and Phoenix I Restoration  and Construction, Ltd. were selected for the project based on their substantial experience in historic renovation and restoration of old courthouses, performance halls, and movie theaters. Together with DSM and the Oak Cliff Foundation,  Komatsu and Phoenix created a master plan to first renovate and then restore the  Texas Theatre. To  date, approximately $1 million has been spent toward select  demolition,  electrical, plumbing and other “bare bones” essentials.