Winnetka Heights

Russell Realty advertised the neighborhood in 1911 as Dallas' ideal suburb, Heritage Oak Cliff says. Early advertisements promised high ground with distant views, artesian water, sewers, telephones, electric lines, paved streets with curbs, building restrictions and a streetcar ride to downtown. After World War II, large houses were cut into apartments, and decline continued through the 1960s until young owners began restoring them. They formed a neighborhood association to organize the work and seek protective zoning as a historic district, the first in Oak Cliff to win it.

What the plaque says

Winnetka Heights Promoted as Dallas' ideal suburb, Winnetka Heights was platted in 1908 on a tract of land that was originally included in the midway addition to the city. The neighborhood's developers, outstanding men who made other significant contributions to the growth of Dallas, were L. A. Stemmons, T. S. Miller, Jr., R. S. Waldron and J. P. Blake. The majority of houses in Winnetka Heights were constructed by 1915. During the early years of the neighborhood's development, the prairie school and bungaloid styles of architecture were predominant. Later homes reflected influences and variations of the bungalow theme. Dallas Mayor J. Waddy Tate is listed among the many prominent civic, business and professional leaders of the city who lived in Winnetka Heights during the 1920s and 1930s. Characterized by a strong neighborhood identity, the area remained virtually intact following World War II, despite increased urban development and changing growth patterns throughout Dallas. Today Winnetka Heights serves as a reminder of the city during the early part of the twentieth century. (1982)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza — 3.2 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 — 3.9 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 — 4.0 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 — 5.3 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

• Tyler Street United Methodist Church — 0.4 mi
• La Reunion — 1.2 mi
• W. H. Adamson High School — 1.4 mi
• Western Heights Cemetery — 1.4 mi