Pike Park

Little Mexico had its own schools, restaurants, theaters and churches because Jim Crow laws excluded Mexican residents from most of Dallas, the Handbook of Texas says. Residents fought discrimination at the park's swimming pool until the city agreed to joint use in 1931, after citizens appealed to the Mexican consul. Miguel Martinez opened a cafe in 1918 that became El Fenix. The Dallas North Tollway, begun in 1966, cut the neighborhood in half by 1968, and homeowners who sold to developers were paid an average of $10,000.

What the plaque says

Pike Park The City of Dallas purchased this site in 1912-13 for a neighborhood park. Developed as Summit Play Park, it served a predominately Mexican-American community by the 1920s. The park name was changed in 1927 to honor a former park board member, Edgar L. Pike. During World War II Pike Park was an important gathering place for Mexican-American servicemen, both residents of "Little Mexico" and those visiting the city. It has become the focal point of the community's cultural, recreational, and political interests. Annual festivities, including Cinco de Mayo and Diez y Seis de Septiembre, reflect a proud heritage. La Ciudad de Dallas adquirio este sitio en 1912-13 para un parque vecinal. Construido como Summit Play Park, sirvio a la comunidad mexico-americana en los años 1920. El nombre del parque se cambio en 1927 en honor a un ex-miembro de la mesa directiva de parques, Edgar L. Pike. Durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial el parque fue un importante lugar para reuniones de soldados mexico-americanos, tanto residentes de "Little Mexico" como visitantes a la ciudad. Hoy, el parque se ha convertido en un centro de actividades culturales, recreativas, y politicas. Celebraciones anuales, como El 5 de Mayo y El 16 de Septiembre, reflejan una orgullosa herencia. (1981)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Dallas Museum of Art — 0.7 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.
• The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza — 1.0 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 Heritage Village at Old City Park — 1.9 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 — 2.8 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

• Thomas L. Bradford — 0.3 mi
• Maple Avenue — 0.3 mi
• The McNab Grocery — 0.5 mi
• Dallas Symphony — 0.7 mi