Dallas (Texas)

I

Introduction

Dallas (Texas), city in north central Texas. Located on the Trinity River, Dallas is the seat of Dallas County and also lies partly in Collin, Denton, and Kaufman counties. The second largest city in Texas (after Houston) and the eighth largest city in the United States at the time of the 2000 census, Dallas is the center of the largest consolidated metropolitan area in the state. Historically, Dallas has been the transportation and marketing center for the north Texas area. It evolved during the 20th century into a major center of finance, commerce, trade, and manufacturing for the southwestern United States and Mexico.

No one knows with certainty the exact origin of the city’s name. Dallas was probably named for George Mifflin Dallas, vice president of the United States (1845-1849). Historians have also suggested his brother, Commodore Alexander J. Dallas of the United States Navy, and Joseph Dallas, who settled in the area in 1842, as possible sources for the city’s name.

II

Dallas and Its Metropolitan Area

The city of Dallas extends over a land area of 885.5 sq km (341.9 sq mi). The terrain of Dallas is mostly flat and drains into the Trinity River. The compact downtown area is located on the east bank of the Trinity River. Encircled by railroad tracks, downtown Dallas was forced to expand upward and today is the site of many glass-and-steel skyscrapers. The climate of Dallas is continental, with hot, dry summers and moderately cold winters.

Suburbs sprawl out on all sides of the older sections of the city. The far north suburbs are among the most affluent residential sections, containing many estates, stately mansions, and luxurious houses. Dallas has spread into nearby counties, growing primarily to the north and west. In the mid-1990s the suburbs overtook the city in total population, a result of the increased migration of jobs, particularly in the high-tech industries, from the city to the suburbs.

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Downtown Dallas is known for its distinctive contemporary architecture. Near the commercial center of the city is the West End Historic District, a group of 19th-century warehouses converted into shops and restaurants. Also nearby is the Deep Ellum (Elm) area, which was a thriving center of businesses owned by black Americans from the time of the Civil War (1861-1865) until the 1930s. This neighborhood now contains clubs, restaurants, and galleries.

The city’s historic sites include Fair Park, the largest art deco art and architecture district in the world and a National Historic Landmark, located east of downtown; and Dealey Plaza, the site of the assassination in 1963 of President John F. Kennedy and a National Historic Landmark District, located downtown. Other sites are the John F. Kennedy Memorial, designed by American architect Philip C. Johnson; the former county courthouse, designed in the Romanesque architectural style; the present courthouse and downtown library, designed by Chinese American architect I. M. Pei; the Sixth Floor of the former Texas School Book Depository, from which Lee Harvey Oswald allegedly shot Kennedy; and Old City Park, the site of Dallas’s oldest public park and now a museum of the architectural and cultural history of the city and region.

The Dallas metropolitan area is made up of the counties of Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Hunt, Kaufman, and Rockwall. In addition to Dallas, cities with more than 100,000 in population in the area are Garland, Irving, Mesquite, and Plano. Dallas is also part of the Dallas/Fort Worth Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area, also known as the Metroplex. In addition to Dallas and Fort Worth, the Metroplex includes Arlington and more than 80 other towns and communities.

III

Economy

Dallas first acquired regional economic importance during the 1870s when, as a rail and road center, it developed into an important cotton market for the surrounding region and as a leading trade and distribution center. The city rose to national prominence as a financial center in the 1930s, after the discovery of oil in the East Texas oil fields just 177 km (110 mi) east of the city. Dallas bankers financed much of the development of the region.

The Dallas area suffered an economic downturn in the 1980s, but it rebounded in the 1990s. However, growth slowed in Dallas itself during the early 2000s, as most new businesses in the area opened in the suburbs.

Dallas has a diversified economic base. Service industries, including trade, make up the city’s most important economic sector, followed by manufacturing. Dallas remains an important distribution, financial, and insurance center of the Southwest. It is the site of a district Federal Reserve bank and the headquarters of a number of federal regional offices and large insurance and oil companies. Among the area’s most important manufactures are technology-related products, including computers, biomedical products, and electronics.

Dallas has one of the largest concentrations of trade facilities in the South and Southwest. Its location in the north central part of the state and its dense network of railroads and highways enable it to serve as the shipping center for the agricultural and mineral products of the surrounding region, including cotton, cereals, livestock, fruit, petroleum, and natural gas. The passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994 brought increased trade with Mexico. The Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport is one of the busiest in the United States.

IV

People of Dallas

Dallas’s population was 1,006,877 in 1990; by 2000 it had reached 1,188,580. According to the 2000 census, whites constituted 50.8 percent of the population of Dallas; blacks, 25.9 percent; Asians, 2.7 percent; and Native Americans, 0.5 percent. Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders numbered 590. People of mixed heritage or not reporting race were 20 percent of the population; Hispanics, who may be of any race, represented 35.6 percent. In 2006, Dallas’s population was estimated at 1,232,940.

The dominant demographic factor in Dallas, as in the state as a whole, has been the rapid growth of the Hispanic population. The Dallas metropolitan area grew from 2,055,000 in 1980 to 3,519,176 in 2000, with the number of Hispanics nearly tripling to 21.5 percent of the 2000 population. Whites, at 69.5 percent, and blacks, at 13.8 percent, are the two largest racial groups in the metropolitan region.

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