Dallas Morning News

The Dallas paper began as half of an experiment. The Handbook of Texas says that when A. H. Belo's attempt to buy the old Dallas Herald failed, he sent George B. Dealey to start a new paper. Linked across 315 miles by telegraph, the Dallas News and the Galveston News became the first two newspapers in the country to publish simultaneous editions. To beat the St. Louis papers, which then outsold every state paper in North Texas, the News leased a special train to Fort Worth at once and engaged another in 1887 for McKinney, Sherman and Denison.

What the plaque says

Dallas Morning News THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS On Oct. 1, 1885, "The Dallas Morning News" began publication as the North Texas extension of A. H. Belo's "Galveston News." The two publications were linked by telegraph to exchange information, and they maintained a statewide network of correspondents. Col. Belo's Dallas paper was a success from the start, and by 1900 it exceeded the "Galveston News" in circulation, size and advertising revenue. "The Dallas Morning News" soon acquired its morning rival, the "Dallas Herald," which had been founded as the "Cedar Snag" by James Wellington Latimore in 1849. G. B. Dealey, who had played a major role in the establishment of "The Dallas Morning News" and had served as its first business manager, became president of A. H. Belo & Co. in 1920. In 1926, he bought control of the corporation. Under Dealey's management, "The News" continued its leadership among Texas newspapers. It long has expressed an active interest in local, state, and national affairs, taking a firm stand against the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s, and over the years successfully encouraging integrity in government, efficiency in city management, water conservation, and a strong educational system. "The Dallas Morning News" has been an important part of the heritage of the city and the state. (1985)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza — 0.3 mi
  A plow-company warehouse of 1903, identified by the Warren Commission as the building Oswald fired from, now a museum on its sixth and seventh floors above Dealey Plaza.
• Dallas Museum of Art — 0.9 mi
  A city art museum that began as the Dallas Art Association in 1903, grew up in Fair Park, and has stood in the Arts District since 1984 under a forty-foot barrel vault.
• Dallas Heritage Village at Old City Park — 1.2 mi
  Dallas's first city park, laid out around Browder's Spring in 1876, now a museum of historic buildings moved here from across North Texas, among them Millermore, a cotton planter's mansion.
• African American Museum, Dallas — 2.5 mi
  Founded in 1974 at Bishop College, a free Fair Park museum holding the Sepia photograph archive, African art and A. Maceo Smith's papers, and the story of the Hall of Negro Life.

More markers nearby

• A. H. Belo Corporation — steps away
• Alexander Cockrell_Sarah Horton Cockrell — steps away
• Site of First Ferry and Bridge — 0.2 mi
• Dallas County — 0.3 mi