Show us some love on North Texas Giving Day!
North Texas Giving Day is Tomorrow!
Help us carry out our mission to fight for the historic places of Dallas by supporting us with a special gift during North Texas Giving Day tomorrow! It will greatly help us with our important work that we do every day to help save the historic places that make our city special. You can schedule your giving now or you can give from 6 a.m. until midnight tomorrow. Just click on the button below to give!
Save the Date!!
Preservation Achievement Awards will be November 18
Many of you have probably wondered what was happening wit the Preservation Achievement Awards this year. Well, wonder no more as we have decided to go virtual with the celebration and will hold it on Wednesday, November 18. Join us from the comfort of your home to learn about the twenty projects and people who will be winning awards this year. More details will be coming soon on registering for the event.
The Historic House Specialist seminar has been scheduled!
Save the date! Our fall session of the Historic House Specialist will happen virtually and will be held on December 18th. More information will be coming soon to register for HHS!
Has your online research hit a brick wall?
Have you done all the research you can online and now need to access information housed at the library but the physical building is closed? The Dallas History & Archives Division, located on the seventh floor fo the main branch of the Dallas Public Library, offers virtual research at this time. Email them with the information on what you are researching and they will look up information for you!
PRESERVATION ISSUES
Vision for Historic Preservation – The Office of Historic Preservation held four meetings this month to present to the public The Vision: Keeping an Eye on Historic Preservation in Dallas. During the virtual presentations, Murray Miller, the Director of the Office of Historic Preservation outlined the Vision to expand the sphere of influence within which historic preservation has traditionally operated in the City. The Office of Historic Preservation stated that the Vision’s key drivers underscore the importance of efficiency, relevancy and balance in advancing the “shift in thinking” towards a robust historic preservation program at the City. The Office also presented the Vision to the Landmark Commission last week. Click here to view information on the Vision. There will be more to come on the Vision as the Office of Historic Preservation continues to work on refining it.

Fair Park – Fair Park First presented a draft of their update to the Comprehensive Plan for Fair Park to the Landmark Commission last week. The plan is still being finalized for a fall release to the public. The update includes more landscaping in Fair Park, the potential recreation of missing historic buildings, expansion of existing buildings, and the creation of a Community Park near the Dos Equis Pavilion.
Director's Letter
David Preziosi
Tomorrow is North Texas Giving Day! We are so pleased to participate again this year in this program sponsored by the Communities Foundation of Texas. They have done a tremendous job of growing North Texas Giving Day, which has generated millions and millions of dollars for nonprofits across North Texas helping them to carry on their missions, including Preservation Dallas. We have been keeping track of our results during North Texas Giving Day since 2014 and since then we have received over $55,000 from wonderful supporters like you! That has been an amazing help to Preservation Dallas over the years and we hope to continue that trend tomorrow with another wonderful day of giving. I know it is hard to decide whom to give to with so many wonderful nonprofits and I hope that Preservation Dallas will be on the top of your list!

Normally, this month I would be writing about all sorts of fall activities in the works and touting the upcoming Fall Architectural Tour. Sadly, we still have to wait to be gathering in person. We decided to postpone the Fall Architectural Tour to the spring so that we can hopefully do it in person. Our virtual Preservation Achievement Awards will be coming up in November and are looking forward to that. We have been working on the planning for the new format and have a virtual production company working with us to handle the technical side of the virtual event so that everything will run smoothly. And we still have a few Summer Sizzlers programs left! See the events section below for more information on those. Irene put together a really great slate of programs this year that have been really interesting and well-received. The virtual turn out for those has been great and just about the same as when we were doing it in person.

This month I am also celebrating eight years with Preservation Dallas! I can’t believe how quickly time flies. A lot has happened in those eight years including rolling out new initiatives, growing membership, expanding programming and fighting numerous preservation battles large and small. There is never of a shortage of things to do around Preservation Dallas and I am so appreciative of our active and engaged board, dedicated volunteers who serve on our committees and help with our events, and the work of our wonderful staff members Irene, Danelle and Donovan when he was with us. This organization can’t function without all of the above and be able to accomplish as much as we do with the limited resources we have. It is certainly a team effort and what a great team we have!

Hopefully the cool weather will be coming soon to take us into fall and a strange fall this will be with everything from rearranging football games to no State Fair. Like so many of you, I’m really going to miss not getting to attend the Fair this year!
EVENTS
All in-person events have been postponed with COVID-19;
however, here are some virtual events to attend:
Summer Sizzlers: Kaufman County's Poor Farm
September 22, 6pm
The Kaufman County Poor Farm is believed to be the only one left in Texas still owned by the County.  The property includes a stock pond, original 19th century buildings such as the two-story barracks & dining hall, trustee dormitory, silo, water well and well house, blacksmith shop, chicken house, barns and cellar. Twentieth century buildings include the Superintendent's House, chapel, and other outbuildings as well as the old jailhouse. The site's history began in 1879 when the county recognized a need for a dwelling for the indigent, ill and insane. Since then it has been home to indigent residents, jail inmates, and transients and was later used as an epidemic camp in 1900. Pam Corder of Kaufman County will delve into the history of this poor house turned poor farm still standing. Click here to register.
Summer Sizzlers: Wrestling with Fire: Destruction and Resurrection of Dallas' Sportatorium
September 29, 6pm
Built in 1935, the Sportatorium was an octagonal-shaped sporting arena located at Cadiz and Industrial that was Dallas’ home for wrestling matches as well as other sporting events and a growing number of music performances such as the Big D Jamboree radio show.  Brandon Murray of the Dallas Public Library, will focus on the historical context of the Sportatorium’s destruction due a five-alarm fire in the early morning in May 1953, the legal battle with the state over a land dispute, the arson investigation, and the later conviction of those deemed responsible. The Sportatorium was rebuilt in September 1953 and lasted through several decades and myriad wrestling events as professional wrestling grew in popularity before suffering the ultimate fate of demolition in 2003. Click here to register.
Summer Sizzlers: Defend the Adobes
October 6, 6pm
(rescheduled from Sept 1)
Sandro Canovas, a bi-national third-generation brick maker turned adobero, will talk about how the combination of gentrification, the imposition of new adobe appraisals in Presidio County, as well as the existing cultural amnesia have become a threat to the conservation of the local architectural patrimony built with Adobe and the permanence of the Adobe tradition in the border region. Click here to register.
Support Preservation Dallas While Shopping!
Did you know that when you shop at AmazonSmile, they donate to Preservation Dallas? Click on the logo above to get started!
Preservation Dallas participates in the Tom Thumb Good Neighbor program. Link our Good Neighbor number to your Tom Thumb loyalty card and a percentage of your purchases will be credited towards us! Our number is 11352. Enroll your card here!
Preservation Dallas participates in the Kroger Community Rewards program. Enroll your Kroger Plus card with Preservation Dallas as the benefactor. Our number is TX617. Enroll your card here!
Please Welcome our New Members!
Contributor
Evy Kay Washburne

Sustainer
Amy Schaffner

Individual
Andrew Edmonson
Luis A Pina

Student
Katie Cross
Thank you to the following members for renewing!
Buddy Apple & Brad Nitschke
Cathy S. Apple
Ann Bagley
Debra Barrios
Celeste Clayton
Robert Croysdale
Erin Granberry
David A. Gravelle
Mike & Lynette Hajduk
Debora Hunter
Donald P. Moxley
Sally & Thomas Perryman
Marcel Quimby
Olive Schad
Michael Seay
Troy R. Smith
Aaron & Elizabeth Trecartin
This newsletter is sent to all current and past members, and those interested in preservation in Dallas. To become a member or to renew or upgrade your membership, please click below.
CORPORATE PARTNERS
Funding has been provided to Preservation Dallas from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and Humanities Texas as part of the 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act of 2020.
Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed by Preservation Dallas does not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Preservation Dallas | 2922 Swiss Avenue | Dallas TX 752518