Dealey Plaza

Dealey Plaza , named after George Dealey, is a city park in the West End Historic District of downtown Dallas, Texas. It is sometimes called the "birthplace of Dallas", and was the location of the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963. The Dealey Plaza Historic District was named a National Historic Landmark on the 30th anniversary of the assassination, to preserve Dealey Plaza, street rights-of-way, buildings, and structures by the plaza visible from the assassination site, which have been identified as witness locations or as possible locations for the assassin. 1981), 411 Elm St. – Now known as the Dallas County Administration Building, this seven-story structure is where Lee Harvey Oswald fired the shot killing President Kennedy from the sixth-floor window at the building's southeastern corner at N. Houston St. The 1901 building houses the Sixth Floor Museum. 1985), 509 Main St. – The original Records Building occupies half of the city block between Elm and Main along what was formerly Record St., now part of Founders Plaza to the east. The building features cut limestone with Gothic detailing and was completed in 1928. 1986), 501 Main St. – The Criminal Courts Building is a Renaissance Revival edifice of eight stories constructed between 1913 and 1915. Its primary facade faces Main St., and it has a secondary facade facing N. Houston St. and Dealey Plaza. It is on the southwest quadrant of the block immediately adjacent to the original Records Building and separated from the Records Annex by the annex's loading dock. 1976; SAL #8200000203, 1981; RTHL #6811, 1977), 100 S. Houston St. – The Romanesque Revival courthouse building was constructed between 1890 and 1892 as the county's sixth courthouse. The building is situated on the east side of S. Houston St. directly across from Dealey Plaza on the block between Main and Commerce. Also known as the "Old Red Courthouse", it is constructed of Pecos red sandstone and Little Rock blue granite. The three-story building features two columns of Texas granite at each of the four entrances with a central main column. The building now houses the Old Red Museum of Dallas County History & Culture.

Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Yards, West of N. Houston St. between Elm St. and Pacific Ave. – Six railroad tracks running from north to south converge into four at the Triple Underpass. Five curved rail spurs have since been removed and replaced with parking. The yard, which extends west and north of the School Book Depository, includes the Interlocking Tower and a small office or shed. 1978; Dallas Landmark Historic District #H/2, 1975) with the single exception of the U.S. Post Office Terminal Annex which is outside of the boundaries of that district. The Kennedy Memorial and Plaza is the only contributing property not in existence at the time of the assassination nor in view of its site.

;Non-contributing buildings

Sixth Floor Museum Visitor Center Building, N. Houston St. adjacent to Texas School Book Depository – The Visitor Center is a one-story brick building north of the School Book Depository extending along N. Houston St. toward Pacific Ave. The building, constructed in 1989, is designed to mimic the materials and architectural elements of the School Book Depository from which it is connected with a stone and glass hyphen. A free-standing brick elevator tower connects the center to the Sixth Floor Museum in the depository building. The building is out of view from the assassination site, but it does have an open porch overlooking the Grassy Knoll.

The plaza was completed in 1940 as a WPA project on the west edge of downtown Dallas, where three streets converge, Main Street, Elm Street, and Commerce Street, to pass under a railroad bridge known locally as the "triple underpass."

The plaza is named for George Bannerman Dealey (1859–1946), a civic leader and early publisher of The Dallas Morning News, who had campaigned for the area's revitalization. Monuments outlining the plaza honor previous prominent Dallas residents, and predate President John F. Kennedy's visit by many years. The monument honoring President Kennedy, in the form of a cenotaph, is one block away.

John F. Kennedy assassination

thumb|upright|left|Warren Commission diagram of plaza

thumbnail|The path of the motorcade. North is almost directly leftward.

Dealey Plaza is bounded on the south, east, and north sides by buildings at least tall. One of those buildings is the former Texas School Book Depository building, from which, both the Warren Commission and the House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded, Lee Harvey Oswald fired a rifle which killed President Kennedy. 30 minutes after the shooting, Kennedy died at Parkland Memorial Hospital. There is also a grassy knoll on the northwest side of the plaza. At the plaza's west perimeter is a triple underpass beneath a railroad bridge, under which the motorcade raced after the shots were fired.

thumb|National Historic Landmark plaque at Dealey Plaza.

Today, the plaza is typically visited daily by tourists. The Sixth Floor Museum now occupies the top two floors of the seven-story former Book Depository. Since 1989, more than six million people have visited the museum.

Oliver Stone recreated the Kennedy assassination at Dealey Plaza for his 1991 film JFK. His producers had to pay the Dallas City Council a substantial amount of money to hire police to reroute traffic and close streets for three weeks. The production spent $4 million to restore Dealey Plaza to 1963 conditions.

The National Park Service designated Dealey Plaza a National Historic Landmark District on November 22, 1993, the 30th anniversary of the JFK assassination, roughly encompassing the area between Pacific Avenue, Market and Jackson streets and the former railroad tracks. Therefore, nothing of significance has been torn down or rebuilt in the immediate area. A small plaque commemorating the assassination is located in the plaza.

Visitors to Dealey Plaza today will see street lights and street signs which were in use in 1963. Some have been moved to different locations and others removed entirely. Buildings immediately surrounding the plaza have not been changed since 1963, presenting a stark contrast to the ultra-modern Dallas skyline which rises behind it.

Over more than half-a-century, Elm Street has been resurfaced several times, street lane stripes have been relocated, and sidewalk lamp posts have been moved and added. Trees, bushes and hedges have grown, and some traffic sign locations have been changed, relocated or removed. On November 22, 2003, the 40th anniversary of the assassination, the city of Dallas approved construction project plans to restore Dealey Plaza to its exact appearance on November 22, 1963. The first phase of the restoration, which cost $700,000 for repair work and plumbing along Houston Streets, was completed on November 22, 2008, the 45th anniversary.

Grassy knoll

thumb|The Grassy Knoll and Bryan pergola on the north side of Elm Street

The grassy knoll is a small, sloping hill inside Dealey Plaza which became of interest following the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy. The knoll was above Kennedy and to his right (west and north).

This north grassy knoll is adjacent to the former Texas School Book Depository building along the Elm Street abutment side street to the northeast, Elm Street, and a sidewalk to the south, a parking lot to the north and east and a railroad bridge atop the triple underpass convergence of Commerce, Main and Elm streets to the west.

thumb|The wooden picket fence atop the grassy knoll, and the Triple Underpass with the highway sign, which at the time of the assassination read "Fort Worth Turnpike Keep Right", as seen in the [[Zapruder film. The knoll is where many conspiracy theorists believe another gunman stood.]]

Located near the north grassy knoll on November 22, 1963, there were several witnesses, three large traffic signposts, four sidewalk lamp posts, the John Neely Bryan north pergola concrete structure including its two enclosed shelters, a tool shed, one concrete wall high connected to each of the pergola shelters; ten tall, wide, low-hanging live oak trees; a , wooden, cornered, stockade fenceline measured at approximately long; six street curb sewer openings, their sewer manholes and their interconnecting large pipes; and several tall bushes, trees and hedges.

The term "grassy knoll" was first used to describe this area by reporter Albert Merriman Smith, known as Smitty, of UPI, who was riding in the press "pool car" following behind Kennedy's car and had use of the car's radio-telephone. In his second dispatch from the car just 25 minutes after the shooting, he said, "Some of the Secret Service agents thought the gunfire was from an automatic weapon fired to the right rear of the president's car, probably from a grassy knoll to which police rushed." These words were then repeated on national television by CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite in his second CBS bulletin on the shooting.

Smitty, who was the main UPI reporter covering the presidential motorcade and was seated in the front seat of the sixth car known as the White House Pool car or the wire car, He then entered the nearby book depository building to find a telephone with which to file his report. Abraham Zapruder's film contains footage of the two women near Kennedy's presidential motorcade but no footage of the grassy knoll. The Associated Press used a copy of Moorman's Polaroid photo in its reporting of the events at Dealey Plaza during JFK's assassination.

Gallery

Image:View from Reunion Tower August 2015 01.jpg|Dealey Plaza (2015) as viewed from Reunion Tower. Shown are the Texas School Book Depository and the "grassy knoll" in the upper center, the seven-story Dal-Tex Building, and the Dallas County Records Building.

Image:DealeyPlazaAbove.jpg|A similar view of Dealey Plaza from the mid-1990s also includes the Art Deco Terminal Annex Federal Building in the lower-right foreground, the former Dallas County Courthouse made of red sandstone, and the Dallas County Criminal Courts Building adjacent to the Dallas County Records Building.

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Notes

References

External links

live webcam, EarthCam, from the southeast corner window of the sixth floor in the former Texas School Book Depository
MU.edu: Dallas to Dealey: The History of Dallas and Dealey Plaza.
MU.edu: The Man Who Named the Grassy Knoll, by Gary Mack of the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza.
Dealey Plaza: scaled map by Donald Roberdeau.
Assassinationscience.com, Composite panorama of Dealey Plaza, by John Costella, using Zapruder film frames, Dallas Police Department photos taken in 1963, and photos by Jack White.