Community History Exhibits Published

We recently wrapped up our Dallas Neighborhood Stories project in partnership with the Dallas Public Library (DPL) with three digital Community History exhibits published to DPL’s blog, Booked Solid. The communities in focus were West Dallas, South Dallas, and Red Bird.

We began each community history effort in late 2019 with one full day of archiving at the local library branch, which led to multiple follow-up interviews and one and one meetings with longtime community members. This project is a small piece of a process that will take years, even generations of Dallasites, to truly give justice to each neighborhood’s robust history. 

Check the exhibits out at each link below - and be sure to share with folks who might be interested!

West Dallas Community History 

South Dallas Community History

Red Bird Community History

The contributions, which range from documentation of West Dallas residents’ struggle against lead contaminated soil to memorabilia from Carter High School in Red Bird, will help to reshape a narrative that has long been dominated by the history of white Dallasites. This work is an effort to strengthen awareness of our city, celebrate the diverse places that give it character and texture, and create platforms for active dialogue about its history and future. 

The West Dallas portion of the project was featured in KERA News.

With these small exhibitions, we hope to encourage more people to record their personal history with the Library and help expand the collection.

See a preview from each neighborhood below:

This project was funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities and Humanities Texas. 

Joppa Neighborhood Stories

Joppa, sometimes spelled Joppee, or Joppie, is Hebrew for “beautiful” or “new beginnings”, and is also the name of one of the Dallas’s few preserved freedmen's towns that remains today. Sitting just north of I-45 and Highway 12, it is nestled between the Trinity River and the Union Pacific rail lines, with the Great Trinity Forest just to the east and the Joppa Preserve to the south. The other side of the river has seen millions of dollars of investment in golf courses, an equestrian center and a neighborhood park expansion. Joppa is primarily shotgun houses that have stood in the neighborhood for generations. Currently, about 500 people live in Joppa

Land grant certificate granting Robinson F. Smith a portion of the land where Joppa is now located.
Texas Land Grant. Dallas, Texas: 1837. https://s3.glo.texas.gov/ncu/SCANDOCS/archives_webfiles/arcmaps/webfiles/landgrants/PDFs/3/3/7/337356.pdf

The land where Joppa currently sits was once inhabited by Native American tribes. When people of European descent colonized the area, they divided up the land, creating “land grants” transferring ownership of Native American land into private hands. The Joppa neighborhood is on land that was granted to Robinson F. Smith and Lorenzo Van Cleve, who were each “given” 800 acres of land in 1845, in exchange for their service in the Army of Texas. The surrounding area was also divided up amongst former soldiers of the Republic of Texas - just north of R.F. Smith survey was the Dugland McFarland survey, and north of that another Lorenzo Van Cleve survey. Over time, that land was further divided up amongst family and other colonizers. 

Joppa area settled by freeman Henry Critz Hines
During the Civil War, southern white owners of enslaved people sought ways to ensure that enslaved people would not become free. While Texas was a southern state that upheld slavery, it did not see a lot of fighting or much presence from Union soldiers. Southern Confederates saw Texas as a potentially safe place to resettle, lay low, or send enslaved people until the war was over. Henry Critz Hines was an enslaved person sent as property from Missouri or Alabama to Texas for protection until the end of the Civil War. He was sent to the Miller Plantation, a plantation on the Lorenzo Van Cleve survey north of today’s Joppa. In addition to the Plantation, the Miller’s also ran one of a few local ferry companies that shuttled people across the Trinity. After the end of the Civil War and the declaration of the Emancipation Declaration, many formerly enslaved peoples who had been on the Miller Plantation stayed in the area. In the early 1870’s, the Houston and Texas Central Railroad was built, making its way north from Houston, reaching Dallas in 1872. It’s believed that it was around this time that Henry Critz Hines settled in Joppa. Historian Donald Peyton said in a 1991 Dallas Morning News article that “when the slaves were freed, Miller gave Hines the ferry which was used to cross the Trinity River. The railroad had been built and the ferry was becoming outdated. But Hines still prospered.” Soon after other formerly enslaved persons at the Miller Plantation or other East Texas plantations came and settled in the area. 

Establishment of New Zion Missionary Baptist Church
Churches have always been an important part of the Joppa community. New Zion Missionary Baptist Church was founded in 1882 by Reverend and Sister Haverty, Deacon and Sister J. Floyd, and Deacon and Sister Pierce, at a home on the corner of Ervay and Colonial. The church relocated to its present location in Joppa in 1888. According to the New Zion’s current website “The church building once served as a schoolhouse, a temporary pediatric clinic for our children and a voting place for this precinct.” Gethsemane Missionary Baptist Church is known to be the second oldest church in the neighborhood.

It was around the time of the New Zion’s relocation to Joppa that the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railroad was constructed, arriving near Joppa in 1886 with Miller’s Station. While the area remained agricultural, the new local infrastructure brought increased development, including the establishment of Honey Springs, a nearby town settled around a H.&T.C. station of the same name. An article in the Dallas Morning News indicates that in 1888, Henry Critz, the founder of Joppa, was living in nearby Millers Switch. A 1930 article written by the grandson of W.B. Miller wrote that Critz continued to operate the Miller Ferry until 1890, when a flood washed out the landing. The Miller’s Ferry Bridge was built soon after, making the ferry service obsolete. 

Early Dallas map showing homes, churches, and infrastructure. Street, Samuel M. Sam Street's map of Dallas County, Texas. Dallas, Tex.: Sam Street, 1900. Map. https://www.loc.gov/item/2005625344/

Families continued to make their home in Joppa. The Sam Street’s map from 1900 indicates that there were at least 7 families in that area at the time, including the Harrel’s, the Pierce’s, the West’s, the Curry’s, the Horn’s, and the Allison’s. 

Mrs. Laura Belle Foster and Mr. P.H. Foster (center and left) and their family. Photo courtesy of Mrs. Delveeta Thompson, Mrs. Foster’s grand daughter, right.

Neighborhood Organizing
Over the coming decades more residents continued to settle in Joppa. Neighborhood organizer Laura Belle Foster (nee Davis) first moved to Dallas in 1924. After a time away to attend college in California, Mrs. Foster returned to Dallas for good, moving to Joppa when the South Central Expressway expanded and displaced her family and other residents in the Black neighborhood of Queen City. In addition to raising 2 children, she taught Sunday School at Mt. Moriah Baptist Church, was on the Board of Directors of the Dallas Negro Chamber of Commerce, served on the Board of Equalization for the Wilmer-Hutchins Independent School District, among many other civic commitments. Under the Dallas Negro Chamber and led by Mrs. Foster and her husband P.H. Foster, in 1948 the South Central Civic League was organized to fight for community programs and services, stating:

THE OBJECTIVES ARE AS FOLLOWS:

1. To get better bus services.

2. To get traffic signs for our schools.

3. To get better mail services.

4. Annexation to the city of Dallas

5. To get better sanitation for our community,

6. To get fire plugs for our safety

7. To get water for our community 

Ms. Shalondria Jackson, current President of the South Central Civic League, shares a story about Melissa Pierce

Mrs. and Mr. Foster and their daughter made Joppa’s first street signs out of lumber they purchased, digging holes and installing them throughout the neighborhood.In addition to the fight for city services, Mrs. Foster and other residents fought for civil rights. Mrs. Foster's grand-daughter Mrs. Delveeta Thompson described that fight in her text “Joppa History Report”:

Many residents suchs as the Crowders, Lovely, Sorrells, Miles, Hosus, Blacks gathered together to support these efforts with their biggest battles for the school and the right to vote. Laura Belle has Commissioner Jim Tyson, Senator Oscar Mauzy, City Officials Mike McKool and Royce O. to assist in their right to vote and later assisted in getting our long established polling places at the oldest church, New Zion Baptist Church.

The Joppa area in 1930. Image courtesy of the City of Dallas

Joppa Schools 
From when it was formed in 1927 until the district was dissolved in 1970, Joppa was in the Willmer-Hutchins Independent School District. Black students were not allowed to attend white schools and had to attend schools for Black students, which districts were not eager to build or invest in. For many years there was no official school building in Joppa. New Zion Baptist Church was used as a school, or students walked to another neighborhood, sometimes having to cross through dangerous conditions to get there. Mrs. Thompson described how Joppa’s school, the Melissa Pierce School, came to be:

My mother and my uncle, they ended up with a lot of students from this neighborhood having to walk the railroad track over into South Dallas. They used the church partly as a school for the community, but when my mother and uncles and those that grew up with them out here, were actually walking the train tracks, they were going to high school then would had asked Southern Pacific Railroad to hold the trains up during the time that all of the students from this community around my, my group, my mother and my uncles age would have to walk the tracks so that they could walk safely over and then they will stop the train so they could return safely back to the neighborhood. That really lit the fire, that there was a school that was needed in this neighborhood. So for my grandmother explaining it to me, then Ms. Melissa Pierce, knowing that this is what needs to be done. My grandmother rather went to the Wilmer Hutchins school board and asked them for a school. And of course in that day it was not going to happen, and it didn't happen. They did tell my grandmother, unless you come up with the land, we're not building your people a school at the time….Mr. Hitt was the superintendent and the president of Wilmer Hutchins school board. The building sat on Illinois not far from here. And my grandmother would get people together on their days off and sit under a couple of trees with pallets, what they call pallets, you know throw blankets of quilt and have lunch and sit in trying to get them to get them a church, a school, you know, or a building for them. Not not just to keep having it in the church, but to be actually able to have an official school building. So needless to say, when they did say buy the land and then we'll build it - my grandmother said put it in writing. You know, Ms. Melissa Pierce was present, so Ms. Pierce. told my grandmother: "Definitely I can donate the land." And so that's how it came about. All of the land for the school building as well as a football, baseball field so the kids wouldn't have to worry about not having enough room for those particular activities. 

According to Mrs. Thompson, Melissa Pierce was a formerly enslaved person whose family acquired land after emancipation. The Sam Street’s Map has a Pierce family in Joppa, indicating they were one of the earliest settlers of the area. A 1948 Dallas Morning News article described a new 4-room brick building that would be built for Black students of the district, and would consolidate four segregated schools. The Melissa Pierce School was dedicated on September 28th, 1952. The City of Dallas’ National Historic Registry application for the Melissa Pierce School says that:

The building was constructed to accommodate grades 1-12 and those who attended the school recall that the smaller building contained the elementary grades. The classrooms in the larger building, with the attached gym/auditorium, were for middle/high school students. Two areas which were later added on for classrooms, one to the side of the gym and the other to the side of the smaller classroom building, have since been demolished.

Unlike white schools, the Melissa Pierce School started in October instead of September to accommodate local White farmers who wanted Black students to be available to pick cotton in the late summer. Parents didn’t want their children’s education to be interrupted. In 1954, the Dallas NAACP organized parents in the Joppee community to demand admission for students into the all-white school, Linfield Elementary. They were denied by the Principal of Linfield stating the Texas Education Agency called for segregated schools. 

The Joppa area in 1940. Image courtesy of the City of Dallas

Joppa annexed into City of Dallas 
In the late 1940s and 50s, the City of Dallas annexed a number of towns and unincorporated areas around Dallas. The nearby town of Honey Springs was annexed in 1946. Joppa was annexed into Dallas October 3, 1955. Despite being part of Dallas, Joppa continued to be part of the Wilmer-Hutchins school district. Joppa resident Edgar Green described his experience with being bussed to WHISD after grade-school:

I went to elementary and some junior high (at Melissa Pierce). Then finished my junior high at Bishop, Bishop Heights, and my high school and at Kennedy. I went, some of my elementary was, at the A.L. Morney down in Hutchins. You know, bussed, I was always bussed, but not to the white school, the black schools. Then when desegregation came, then they took some of the black kids to the white school and some of the white kids to the black school. 

In 1970, facing potential federal prosecution for failure to integrate WHISD schools, the Wilmer-Hutchins ISD board adopted a plan to integrate the district by August of that year. Melissa Pierce School was “phased out”, with the lower grades sent to Wilmer and Hutchins elementary schools. The building was subsequently auctioned off in 1972. In August 1970, more than 1,000 white residents of the Wilmer-Hutchins district who were unhappy with the prospect of integration, fought for the annexation of southern Wilmer-Hutchins district into the nearby, mostly white, Ferris school system. The southern half of Wilmer-Hutchins was 90% white, while the northern half was 90% Black. In November of 1970, the motion was approved, Wilmer-Hutchins ISD was dissolves - the southern half of the school district was absorbed by Ferris ISD, and the northern half absorbed by Dallas ISD.  

The Joppa area in 1962. Image courtesy of the City of Dallas

Ms. Claudia Denise Fowler shares a story about Ms. Charlie Mae Jackson

Infrastructure
The South Central Civic League continued to fight for improvements in the neighborhood. Up until the 1970s, residents would carpool to public transportation. The neighborhood organized to get bus service along Carbondale, which would take residents to the end of the Ervay Streetcar line in South Dallas, or to downtown. In an interview, Mrs. Delveeta Thompson describes the work of Mrs. Charlie Mae Jackson, who led the South Central Civic League from the 1990s to 2000s, to improve infrastructure in Joppa. A 1955 street map shows that the neighborhood was practically divided in half, connected only via Carbondale Street. Edgar Green describes the division: “Fosters crossing Honey Spring Branch - that's the river, the creek that runs through here, they called this Honey Springs. You know, believe it or not, before that you had to come out and go down Burma road and then go down here to Carbondale to go to the other side. We only had, you know, one way to get to the other side.” Mrs. Foster worked with residents to have a direct connection built between the two halves of the neighborhood. And on May 15, 1999, a plaque was placed near Gethsemane Missionary Baptist Church, declaring it “Foster’s Crossing” in dedication to South Central Civic League leaders Laura Belle Foster and P.H. Foster. Although Mr. Foster passed away before the project was complete, Mrs. Foster was able to see the street and travel Foster’s Crossing herself. 

Foster’s Crossing wasn’t the only infrastructure improvement residents have fought for in recent years. For decades, crossing the train tracks at Linfield was the only way in or out of the neighborhood. Throughout its history, at-street-grade crossing of the trains proved not only a nuisance but a danger to Joppa residents. In the 1990s, residents organized to get bond funding from the City to build a bridge over the train tracks. Mrs. Delveeta Thompson wrote of the push for the new bridge:

This was due to the loss of many lives of loved ones needing an Emergency Medical Unit/Paramedics Assistance, but they were detained for long periods because a train moving 100 plus freight cars, switching freight cars or what we and our ancestors experiences as non-moving freight cars with a waiting period of 30 minutes to one hour and 45 minutes. Southern/Union Pacific showed no compassion nor have any regard to the life-threatening situations of husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, grandparents nor children and uncles/aunts.

Program for the opening of the Linfield Bridge. Courtesy of Mrs. Delveeta Thompson

But the bridge project was delayed, faltering a few times until in 2007, the neighborhood celebrated the ribbon cutting ceremony of the Freedman’s Town Memorial Bridge, which provides another connection to Joppa, over the railroad tracks. And while the bridge was hard fought, some residents don’t feel that the solution fully addressed the problem. 

I would have said that ain't wide enough, how are pedestrians supposed to get across it? I would have said that because it's common sense. But when people don't involve enough people or where people that might have some knowledge about some things that you might not have knowledge about - you don't get to pool all that knowledge together to come up with a good viable situation, a solution. And that's what I think happened to the bridge.

Program for the unveiling of the Joppee Historical Marker Ribbon Cutting Ceremony. Courtesy of Mrs. Delveeta Thompson

Joppa Today
In the past decade the neighborhood has continued to see change. Over 100 new homes have been built, bringing new residents to the area. While the Melissa Pierce School remains closed, residents would like to see it returned to a community use. Since there is no school in the community, students go to school at South Oak Cliff, Roosevelt, or other schools throughout Dallas. In 2015, South Central Park, with a gazebo and splash pad was opened. The following year the neighborhood celebrated the unveiling of its historical marker at the park. The South Central Civic League continues to operate to this day, fighting for the neighborhood. In addition to working toward building a community multipurpose center and putting in place a neighborhood stabilization overlay, fifth generation Joppa resident and current Civic League president Shalondria Galimore was a vision for the neighborhood:

What we're trying to do now is to further stabilize what we actually have and to preserve what we have now. We want to be at the table when economic development comes in to see what that looks like and what's best for the community. I think that we need mixed income in the community to help stabilize because Joppa will not be able to survive on the present income or the present voting role that we have actually at this time. We need to work with the companies that are around us that have been neighbors that have tried to be friendly neighbors, and to let them know what our thoughts and desires are and how they can help us attain or further sustain those goals that we have.

Community History Harvest at the Dallas West Branch Library

Residents of West Dallas are invited to join us on Saturday, April 27th at the Dallas West Branch Library from 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm for a community history harvest. This will be the first event in our collaboration with the Dallas Public Library to further the digitization and oral history aspects of the Neighborhood Stories program.

Folks from across the area are invited to share photos, documents, and oral histories about their community, to be recorded and digitized for the Dallas Public Library’s public collection. Participants will also receive digital copies of their photos and documents, preserving these important artifacts for future generations to learn from.

In consideration of time, we ask that residents bring up to five artifacts to be digitized. Examples of items to bring include:

• Family or school photos

• Yearbooks

• Menus from local restaurants

• Property surveys or maps

• Church programs

We are looking forward to learning from and with the residents of West Dallas’s neighborhoods about the local history and how their communities experienced change during the Civil Rights period and beyond. The topics to be explored include the role of city planning, development, and school desegregation with the ultimate goal of understanding how historic inequities have shaped the communities we see today. The collective neighborhood history gathered from the archival event, interviews with community members, and our research about the area will culminate in an exhibition at the Dallas West Branch Library.

[bc] encourages any individuals and organizations who are interested in participating in this effort to reach out to Lizzie MacWillie, Associate Director, who will lead the project. Stay tuned for future updates on the details of this digitization event.

This project has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor.

[bc] Receives Common Heritage Grant from the NEH

We are excited to announce that we have been awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to partner with the Dallas Public Library for a new project which will further the digitization and oral history aspects of the Neighborhood Stories program through events and exhibitions in the neighborhoods served by the Library’s Polk-Wisdom, Dallas West, and Martin Luther King Jr. Branches.

This collaboration builds off of several years of work by [bc] to collect and preserve Dallas’s local histories as they relate to changes in the physical and cultural form of the city. Through oral histories and physical artifacts like photos and documents, the project will document how these changes have had an impact on Dallas’s historic communities of color and how residents experienced cultural and demographic shifts in their neighborhoods during the Civil Rights period and beyond.

Topics to be explored include city planning, development, and school desegregation. Ultimately, [bc] hopes to advance a greater understanding of the way in which historical inequities have had a role in shaping the communities we see today. Given various efforts currently taking place across the city to better understand issues of racial equity and how future development may impact vulnerable communities, the project will leverage this momentum to engage Dallasites in a re-examination of local histories.

Project activities will begin in 2019. [bc] encourages any individuals and organizations who are interested in participating in this effort to reach out to Lizzie MacWillie, Associate Director, who will lead the project.

Stay tuned for future updates on the dates and locations of digitization events in these three locales.

This project has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

buildingcommunityWORKSHOP Launches Freedmen’s Town Storytelling Project

Residents of North Texas Freedmen’s Towns will Document Community Histories

buildingcommunityWORKSHOP ([bc]) has been awarded a National Parks Service African American Civil Rights Grant to launch a new project focused on North Texas Freedmen’s Towns. The “Freedmen’s Towns Stories” project aims to support residents of Dallas’s historic Freedmen’s Towns and their descendants in telling the stories of the changes their communities faced during the Civil Rights Period through oral history, cross-generational interpretive storytelling, and text-based multimedia products.

[bc] has partnered with noted architectural historian Dr. Kathryn Holliday, Founding Director of the University of Texas at Arlington’s Dillon Center for Architecture, along with UTA College of Architecture, Planning, and Public Affairs students, and the Writer’s Garret, the first nonprofit literary center in North Texas, which has connected over 2 million writers, readers, and audience members over the past 23 years, to build local capacity through this endeavor. Over the course of the project, [bc] and its partners will train and provide support to residents in conducting historical research, navigating archives, historic storytelling in written and oral formats, and recordings oral histories.

“Since 2012, [bc] has worked with residents of the Tenth Street Historic District—a historic former Freedmen’s Town—to assist residents preserving and celebrating their community’s rich history. With this grant, we will further advance this important work, engaging communities and residents across the region,” says Thor Erickson, President & Managing Director of [bc].

As a community design center with expertise in translating technical information into an accessible graphic format, [bc] will create manuals that will aid additional urban North Texas Freedmen’s Towns in the task of historic storytelling. These resources, as well as the oral histories and written stories collected through the project, will be hosted in a new online repository, which will be built over the course of the project period. This website will establish a new online presence for urban North Texas Freedmen’s Towns’ collaborative efforts.

The project’s launch coincides with a timely need. As construction continues on the Southern Gateway project, which will bring a multimillion dollar deck park to the neighborhood, Dallas’s Tenth Street Historic District faces imminent redevelopment pressures.

Several historic structures recently received demolition orders as residents have witnessed steadily increasing outside interest in neighborhood real estate. These events have catalyzed a number of local conversations about historic preservation, equity, and their intersection.

Freedmen’s Towns Stories will build resident capacity to preserve the local histories of these oft-overlooked communities. By training residents to undertake these efforts, the project will further equip the many residents who are dedicated to this endeavor.

Disclaimer:

Partially funded by the African American Civil Rights program of the Historic Preservation Fund, National Park Service, Department of the Interior. Any opinions, finding, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material do not constitute endorsement or necessarily reflect the view of the Department of the Interior.

About [bc]:

The buildingcommunityWORKSHOP is a Texas based nonprofit community design center seeking to improve the livability and viability of communities through the practice of thoughtful design and making. We enrich the lives of citizens by bringing design thinking to areas of our cities where resources are most scarce. To do so, [bc] recognizes that it must first understand the social, economic, and environmental issues facing a community before beginning work. (www.bcworkshop.org)

Making Little Free Libraries

Read more about [bc]'s Little Free Libraries!

One year after five Dallas Police Officers were killed in Downtown Dallas, we celebrated the opening of five libraries in their memory. We hope you take a book or leave a book at one of the five locations. Read in Peace. 

Thank you to filmmaker Mark Birnbaum for volunteering his time to make this video. 

Building Equity in the Lower Rio Grande Valley

See more posts about LUCHA and our work in the Rio Grande Valley. 

Building equity in the Lower Rio Grande Valley is a critical part of many of our projects. Together with our partners we are working to increase housing opportunities for low-income residents and to build adequate drainage infrastructure for new and existing neighborhoods, civic engagement, and capacity through design. We invite you to learn more about four of our specific projects: sustainABLEhouse, Drainage Equity, LUCHA, and Public Design Impact Initiative, all of which are working hard to achieve these goals. 

Neighborhood Stories Kickoff in Elm Thicket

Learn more about  People Organizing Place and Neighborhood Stories.

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[bc] and the City of Dallas Planning and Urban Design Department have joined forces to bring Neighborhood Stories to the historic neighborhood, Elm Thicket, a Northwest Dallas community located near the Dallas Love Field airport. On Saturday, February 4th, residents and community leaders gathered at the K.B. Polk Recreation Center to kick off the much anticipated project. The event encouraged residents to share memorable stories, impactful historic events, and most of all, to celebrate their culture, identity, and history. Among some of the residents who shared their story was Mr. Thomas Buffin, a current resident who has lived in the neighborhood for over 75 years. Some of the events remembered included the geographical evolution of the neighborhood, the birth of local churches and businesses, the creation of the Dallas Love Field airport, and the desegregation of public schools. 

Stay connected with us as we uncover the untold story of Elm Thicket, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube!

Bridging the Gap: Connecting Nonprofits and Designers

Learn more about our Public Design Impact Initiative!

"Sometimes community groups have this need and designers want to do meaningful work and they don't know how to connect with each other."  Learn how [bc] Bridges The Gap between nonprofits and designers through our Public Design Impact Initiative.

The Public Design Impact Initiative (PDII) is a program to match nonprofit & community groups with local design professional services. This program guides selected projects through a community-engaged design process and partners communities and designers to build the knowledge and experience of both to better serve others.

The PDII 2017 Request for Proposals is OPEN! Are you a nonprofit or community group in the Rio Grande Valley in need of design? Would architecture, planning, landscape architecture, or design expertise help with a project you've had in mind but not the resources to move forward? We encourage you to submit a project proposal! Proposals are due Thursday, February 2nd, 2017.

Know Your Neighborhood Film

Learn more about our Storytelling efforts here.

At bcWORKSHOP, we believe neighborhoods are the fundamental building block of our cities. Our newest short film, Know Your Neighborhood, explores how neighborhoods are defined, how we value them in Dallas, and methods we can use to better know our neighborhoods.

Bonton + Ideal Released

Learn more about Bonton + Ideal and Neighborhood Stories.

The newest film in our Neighborhood Stories series, Bonton + Ideal, was released free online today. The film focuses on these two South Dallas neighborhoods, and illustrates the many policies enacted that aimed to isolate the community socially, economically, environmentally, and physically.

Told through the eyes of long-term residents, Bonton + Ideal tells the history of two neighborhoods thathave been tied together since their initial development during the era of segregation. Built on land in the Trinity River’s floodplain, the neighborhoods have battled the effects of massive flooding, concentrated public housing projects, and racially-motivated bombing campaigns.

The film’s director, Craig Weflen, says, “these stories give Dallas residents a chance to examine the consequences of flawed policies. Beyond Dallas, the challenges faced by Bonton and Ideal are the same sorts of challenges that have been faced by other neighborhoods across the American South. This is an opportune time to reflect on the way we’ve built our cities, and ask ourselves whether these conscious decisions have resulted in just, equitable living environments.”

Bonton + Ideal premiered on KERA’s Frame of Mind series in December 2015, and has screened publicly across Dallas, and nationally, over the past five months.

Bonton + Ideal is “a must-watch for anyone who cares about the history of Dallas and how it developed as two cities: One for whites, another for blacks,” says Mike Drago of the Dallas Morning News, adding that, “the context of such overt hostility is prerequisite to getting your head around all the neglect and misery that followed.”

Urban Garden Profiles

Learn more about our Storytelling work here!

We're excited to share these two profiles of Urban Gardens in the Dallas area. The top video profiles Paul Quinn College's We Over Me Farm, and the second video profiles the Texas Worm Ranch. The videos were produced with the folks from Citizen D.

Bonton + Ideal Trailer

Visit the Bonton + Ideal website.

We're excited to share the trailer for our newest Neighborhood Stories film Bonton + Ideal! The film premiered on December 24th, 2015 on KERA's Frame of Mind program. Since the premiere, the film has been accepted to the Big Muddy Film Festival in Carbondale, Illinois, and the Interurban Film Festival in Denison, Texas. Watch the film's official website for more details about local screenings as they become available. Later this spring, the film will be published online for free - be sure to keep your eyes open!

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What people are saying:

• The Dallas Morning News calls Bonton + Ideal, "a must-watch for anyone who cares about the history of Dallas and how it developed as two cities: one for whites, another for blacks."
• Check out Art & Seek's Q&A with director Craig Weflen on Bonton + Ideal, Neighborhood Stories, and storytelling.

Public Design Impact Initiative: 2015 Project Selections

Learn more about the Public Design Impact Initiative.

Pictured Above: The first community meeting for the Forest Hills Neighborhood Association PDII project to design a comprehensive landscape plan for the medians of three boulevards in their neighborhood.

In February 2015 an Request For Proposals was released to invite Dallas/Fort Worth nonprofit organizations and groups to submit project proposals to be matched with pro bono design services. From this RFP, we received many excellent proposals, and in March, a jury of nonprofit, community and design leaders convened to review and provide recommended the following project selections for 2015.

2015 PROJECT SELECTIONS

Feed by Grace
Feed by Grace (FBG) operates Unity Park, providing Fort Worth’s homeless a safe haven from the drug dealers and violence of the street. Recently, donors have gifted structures to serve as a classroom and community building in the park, an outdoor pavilion, and outdoor signage. Naturally, we are excited about these gifts, but they have presented some unexpected challenges. 

In this project, FBG envisions professionals: a) analyzing the park site, the footprints of proposed classroom, pavilion, and community buildings, other hardscape (signage, flagpole, picnic tables) and the general traffic flow in the park, b) recommending best placement for the proposed structures, c) presenting solutions to accessibility concerns that will be cost-conscious while in compliance with the city’s permitting requirements, d) presenting solutions to assure a safe and pleasant outdoor environment around the structures, and e) designing attractive yet hardy landscaping.

FBG envisions this grant providing professional help in creating solutions to accessibility through a porch, ramps, or other inventive means. FBG would also like assistance in landscape design to assure a pleasant outdoor environment around the proposed buildings and accessibility features. Through the grant, these services would assure our disabled neighbors could easily participate in courses and services meant to help them transition back into the larger community. The landscaping will improve the park’s aesthetics and further develop positive relationships with local businesses.

Forest Hills Neighborhood Association
Initiate an urban forest approach to maintaining and improving the medians in the Forest Hills neighborhood. The objectives are to ensure that the right trees are planted [currently and in the future]; in the right space and in the right way. The medians in our three boulevards [San Rafael, Forest Hills & Breezewood] have a total of 20 unique parcels with a variety of trees and shrubs. 

According to the U.S. Forestry Service: “Urban forests, through planned connections of green space, form the green infrastructure system on which communities depend. Green infrastructure works at multiple scales from neighborhood to the metro area up to the regional landscape.” As dynamic ecosystems, urban forests help clean the air, add economic value and connect people to nature. Our goal, as next door neighbors to White Rock Lake and Park and the Dallas Arboretum, is to be good stewards of our urban natural resource through the maintenance and improvements to our medians.

Old East Dallas Association of Neighborhoods
Plans for alternative infill townhouses for the typical residential lots (50’ by 140/150’) located near the Old East Dallas historic districts, in neighborhoods that were formerly single-daily and now are zoned MF-2. The current development model maximizes paved areas with limited to no permeable surfaces or landscaped areas. This typically replaces a small house surrounded by permeable lawn and landscape. Infill housing is needed to preserve economic diversity and affordability within the community.

The current development trends have greatly increased impermeable surfaces, and this has increased stormwater runoff contributing to flooding issues. Although the City is currently increasing storm piping to accommodate increased density in the area, this issue will only grow more severe as development density continues. Some existing housing lots are now listed within a flood plain, and this requires purchase of expensive flood insurance every year. Our goal is to provide a model that addresses increased storm water and also creates a more sustainable development model integrated with the streetscape and surrounding historic development patterns, including diversity of housing types and affordability.

Sharing the Deepwood Story

Learn more about Neighborhood Stories, and visit the film's website.

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It’s been an awesome few months for Out of Deepwood! Since the community sneak preview at the Trinity River Audubon Center in September, the film has played in several film festivals. On October 15, Out of Deepwood premiered to the general public as part of Dallas VideoFest 27, as part of a block of films hosted by the South Dallas Cultural Center, which included 50 Years, The New South Dallas, and Dawn. This was a great experience for us, giving us an opportunity to bring this story to a wider audience, while still focused on southern Dallas.

Following Dallas VideoFest, we released the film free online, and were excited to receive an Award of Merit from the Best Shorts Competition. Even more exciting, we had the opportunity to share this story across the nation in February, as we were accepted to the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Missoula, Montana, and the Big Muddy Film Festival at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

DVDs of the film are currently for sale at the Trinity River Audubon Center for around $5. We are committed to providing this film for all who want to see it, so the DVDs are being sold at-cost for those who would like a physical copy of the film.

Currently, we are participating in the Audience Awards, an online film competition that awards prizes based on the votes that a film receives. Be sure to vote for us over the next few days, but also take the opportunity to view some of the other great work featured in the competition!

We look forward to continuing to share this story as an example of neighborhood activism leading to real, positive change.

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What people are saying:

• "'Out of Deepwood' Powerfully Recounts Southeast Dallas Neighbors' Fight Against Massive Illegal Dump." - Sharon Grigsby, Dallas Morning News
• “If you watch one 23-minute documentary about a former illegal Dallas dump today, make it director Craig Weflen’s terrific Out of Deepwood." - Robert Wilonsky, Dallas Morning News
• “A solid look at a well-kept secret both beautiful and horrendous.” - Gary Dowell, Theater Jones
• “Invaluable perspective on the events, old and new, that have greatly impacted the city, south of downtown.” - Chris Mosley, D Magazine

Improving the Recovery Process

Learn more about our disaster recovery projects RAPIDO and DR2.

In Texas, disaster recovery takes far too long and is marred by inefficiencies and high costs. Instead of re-inventing disaster recovery programs after every disaster, we need to plan for recovery before a disaster strikes, allowing for faster recovery time with less money invested to build greater value. In 2009, the Texas State Legislature passed legislation creating a demonstration project to design a better system. The Legislature needs to act again to expand this Texas solution.

Given our work with the RAPIDO Demonstration Project in the RGV and Disaster Recovery Round 2 in Houston, we joined with our partners and created a video outlining what needs to change in our Texas disaster response programs.