Sydney Giesey/The Daily Campus
(Sydney Giesey/The Daily Campus)
Alex Burton has lived on Kessler Parkway in Oak Cliff for the past 40 years. He remembers the way nearby Ft. Worth Avenue used to be.
“That was the playground of Dallas,” Burton said.
He said there were bars, strip joints and several gambling places along the avenue. It was the main road leading into downtown Dallas and the life-blood of the city.
The addition of Interstate 30 changed everything, pushing traffic away from Ft. Worth Avenue. The once vibrant atmosphere slowly began to fade until it became a hodge-podge of run-down buildings, apartments, service stations and motels.
“The whole character of that particular strip has changed enormously,” Burton said. “It just sat there for years and done.”
As of now, the Sylvan Thirty land is an empty field. Everything on it has been demolished. All that remains is a sign that reads, “Alamo Plaza Hotel there.”
Jackson said his company made a commitment to Preservation Dallas, a non-profit dedicated to saving some of the communities finest landmarks, to keep the Alamo hotel sign and somehow integrate it into the site.
Sanders drove past that intersection almost every day for 20 years. H
e took his daughters from Desoto to school every day at Trinity Street Christian Academy in the heart of Oak Cliff. This was the first time he had been in the area in about a year.
“It was somewhat of a shock to see it all gone,” Sanders said in an interview at the Chase Bank across the street.
Now that he isn’t driving his girls to school anymore, Sanders said the Sylvan Thirty site would give him a reason to come to Oak Cliff.
“I’m not in this area often, but if I knew it was here, I would certainly