The Cedars is a district in
south Dallas
South Dallas is an area in Dallas, Texas. It is south of Downtown Dallas, bordered by Trinity River on the west, Interstate 30 on the north, and the Great Trinity Forest to the south and east. In recent years the City of Dallas and organizations ...
,
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
(U.S.). It is adjacent to and south of
downtown
''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...
and
Interstate 30
Interstate 30 (I-30) is a Interstate Highway in the southern states of Texas and Arkansas in the United States. I-30 travels from I-20 west of Fort Worth, Texas, northeast via Dallas, and Texarkana, Texas, to I-40 in North Little Rock, Ar ...
, east of Austin Street, north of Corinth Street, and west of the 75 & 345 Overpasses just east of South Good Latimer Expy.
History
The Cedars was originally developed in the 1870s with moderately-priced homes, but by the late 19th century the neighborhood had become one of the premier destinations in Dallas, with stately Victorian homes belonging to wealthy businessmen, lawyers, and politicians dotting the streets. The Cedars was also the home of Dallas' Jewish community, and the neighborhood included the Shaareth Israel synagogue. (
Stanley Marcus of
Neiman Marcus
Neiman Marcus Group, Inc. is an American integrated luxury retailer headquartered in Dallas, Texas, which owns Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Horchow, and Last Call. Since September 2021, NMG has been owned by a group of investment compani ...
fame was born in the Cedars.) By the early 20th century, however, light industry and growing population pressures had begun to take the bloom off the neighborhood's rose, and most of the city's wealthiest began to move further north to neighborhoods northeast of downtown. Even as industry, such as the
Sears-Roebuck
Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...
warehouse that now is home of the South Side on Lamar lofts, moved in, fine homes continued to be built, especially for well-to-do members of the
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
ish community. But by the 1920s, the massive
Victorians of the late 19th century were gone, the
synagogue
A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...
was demolished, and most people moved on. In the 1960s, virtually all of the remaining homes were destroyed by the city for highway projects. Today, only a scant handful of homes (perhaps as few as six) from the neighborhood's original residents survive, none in restored condition.
In addition to light industry, the area has been a haven for artists, musicians and urban dwellers for over 20 years. It has recently experienced the beginnings of an urban transformation with new townhomes, renovated warehouse lofts and apartments and developments such as
DART
Dart or DART may refer to:
* Dart, the equipment in the game of darts
Arts, entertainment and media
* Dart (comics), an Image Comics superhero
* Dart, a character from ''G.I. Joe''
* Dart, a ''Thomas & Friends'' railway engine character
* Dar ...
's
Cedars Station, the
loft/
retail
Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and t ...
development
Development or developing may refer to:
Arts
*Development hell, when a project is stuck in development
*Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting
*Development (music), the process thematic material is reshaped
* Photograph ...
Southside on Lamar,
Opening Bell Coffee & Music Venue Hosts to numerous Local and National Music Acts since March 2003http://babybackshak.com Baby Back Shak] the Dallas Police Headquarters
FULL CITY ROOSTER Coffee Roasting StudioCedar Performance European Automotive Repair (www.Cedar-Performance.com) Cedars Union
The Cedars Union is a 501 (c) 3 non-profit arts organization located in the Cedars neighborhood of Dallas, TX
Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metr ...
, and entertainment venues
Alamo Drafthouse
The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is an American cinema chain founded in 1997 in Austin, Texas, which is famous for serving dinner and drinks during the movie, as well as its strict policy of requiring its audiences to maintain proper cinema-going etiq ...
, Mac's Southside, Lee Harvey's, Industry Alley Bar, Gilley's Dallas and Poor David's Pub.
In June 2015, Cedars was the site of a
shootout
between
Dallas Police Department officers and a mentally disturbed man who attacked the police headquarters building. The suspect, James Boulware, was the only casualty of the incident.
Government and infrastructure
The
Texas Department of Criminal Justice
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) is a department of the government of the U.S. state of Texas. The TDCJ is responsible for statewide criminal justice for adult offenders, including managing offenders in state prisons, state jails, ...
(TDCJ) operates the Region II Parole offices and the Dallas I and Dallas III district parole offices in the Cedars.
Notable residents
*
Education
Public schools
The
Dallas Independent School District
The Dallas Independent School District (Dallas ISD or DISD) is a school district based in Dallas, Texas (USA). It operates schools in much of Dallas County and is the second-largest school district in Texas and the seventeenth-largest in the U ...
assigned the neighborhood to the following schools:
* Martin Luther King Learning Center
* Billy Earl Dade Middle School
*
James Madison High School (originally Forest Avenue High School)
City Park Elementary School in Cedars, named for its location across Old City Park, first opened in 1919, and served the community until it closed in 2012. As of 2013 it is used as an after-school program's classroom location. In 2014 the nonprofit Vogel Alcove began leasing the school building, providing day care and preschool to homeless children.
Transportation
Trains
Light rail
*
DART
Dart or DART may refer to:
* Dart, the equipment in the game of darts
Arts, entertainment and media
* Dart (comics), an Image Comics superhero
* Dart, a character from ''G.I. Joe''
* Dart, a ''Thomas & Friends'' railway engine character
* Dar ...
: and
**
Cedars Station
**Google Street View
map
Highways
*
Interstate 30
Interstate 30 (I-30) is a Interstate Highway in the southern states of Texas and Arkansas in the United States. I-30 travels from I-20 west of Fort Worth, Texas, northeast via Dallas, and Texarkana, Texas, to I-40 in North Little Rock, Ar ...
*
Interstate 45
Interstate 45 (I-45) is a major Interstate Highway located entirely within the US state of Texas. While most Interstate routes which have numbers ending in "5" are cross-country north–south routes, I-45 is comparatively short, with the ...
References
External links
Cedars Neighborhood Association
{{Coord, 32.7702, -96.7998, type:landmark_source:enwiki-googlemaplink, display=title
Neighborhoods in South Dallas