The Advocate ran this map of Dallas from 1900, and I just had to re-post it. While it clearly shows off Oak Cliff — apparently, the Dallas Zoo was once part of Oak Cliff Park, or perhaps WAS Oak Cliff Park, we forget that before the construction of I-35, all those neighborhoods melded together. PS: Many of our major highways were railroad tracks.
In 1900, the City of Dallas comprised a few square miles, and Oak Cliff was still its own municipality.
This map, donated to the Texas State Archives by H.L. DeGolyer in 1944, shows Dallas before White Rock Lake, before paved roads, when horse-and-buggy or steam-powered streetcars were the best modes of transportation.
If you click on the larger version, HERE, you can make out Bluffview (Farquhar) and parts of old Preston Hollow (F. Scruggs), and Park Cities (Mrs. W.M. Caruth). Here’s the story of the village of Letot, which had a population of about 60 in 1900, which is now the area of Lombardy Lane and Harry Hines Blvd:
Letot was at the intersection of Lombardy Lane and the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad, seven miles northwest of Dallas in northeastern Dallas County. It was on the original land grant of J. S. Shelby. Clement Letot, a Crimean War veteran who moved to the region from Illinois in 1876, settled and cultivated a large farm in the area of Calvary Hill Cemetery. By 1878 the Dallas and Wichita Railway had been built from Dallas to Lewisville, and the first stop was in the area of Letot’s farm. A community began to form around the stop, named for Letot. By 1881 the community had twenty-one families, most of whom were farmers, a general store and cotton gin owned by Letot, a post office that remained until 1907, and a nondenominational church that served as a schoolhouse during the week. In 1882 the population stood at 200, and the community had begun to ship cotton and grain. In 1884 Letot had a doctor, a wagonmaker and carpenter, a blacksmith, a teacher, several livestock traders, and a population of forty. By 1890 the population had risen to sixty, and the community had a corn mill. Letot grew to an estimated population of 150 in 1939. The number of businesses also increased from three in 1931 to six in 1939. In 1950 the town had a population of 500 and seventeen businesses. The last listing for Letot is in 1968, when the population was 540. By the 1970s the community was part of Dallas.
Surely there is a typo in those population numbers, 200 in 1882, then 40 in 1884? It’s fun to find familiar street names in this map and know where some of our streets get their names — there really was a guy named Marsh, another named Merrell. Also fun to see how many rent homes were in the area in 1900 — note that houses occupied by renters (designated with a triangle) did not have the renter’s name mentioned. If only J.A. Jones could return to the Dallas of today, he’d have a whole lot more to survey!
