JFK's motorcade route, Neon Bull horns, and a skyline built on oil money
Dallas grew from a river-crossing trading post into a banking and oil hub, its skyline a monument to money made from crude rather than cattle (that's Fort Worth's job, just down the road). Dealey Plaza carries the weight of November 22, 1963, still marked by white X's on the pavement where Kennedy's motorcade passed. The city's Arts District is the largest urban arts district in the country, built almost entirely in the last few decades — a deliberate, expensive rebrand from "oil town" to "culture town." Deep Ellum's warehouses, once cotton mills and jazz clubs, are now murals and music venues. And the giant lit-up Pegasus sign atop the old Magnolia Hotel has watched over downtown since 1934, older than most of the buildings around it now.
