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SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL DISTRICT
(SWMD) Transformation
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"If you don't know history, then you don't know anything. You are a leaf that doesn't know it is part of a tree." -Michael Crichton | |
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Following the original course of the Trinity River and the Elm Fork branch, in an area just northwest of downtown, lies the Dallas Medical District we know today. Originally planned as an industrial area until 1894, when Parkland Hospital was constructed on Oak Lawn Avenue. A pattern of development began; hospitals, educational facilities, and ancillary medical businesses all began to find a home in the District.
Thanks to the tireless efforts and passion for our city’s history of Evelyn Montgomery, Director and Curator for the Old Red Museum of Dallas County History and Culture, and Robert Prejean, Southwestern Medical District Manager and Urban Planner, a short but powerful read is being published about the history of this complicated area of Dallas. The coming Southwestern Medical District History Book will provide a great synopsis of the ebbs and flows of Harry Hines and its Medical District. A story that will continue to change as new buildings continue to be constructed, new students fill classrooms, and an aging population needs care; the District will evolve with the people that walk it daily. This month's newsletter not only highlights their efforts, but the many struggles and successes that made this District what it is today, and what it can become.
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Using History to Inspire Us | |
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Beginnings and Endings:
Reflections on the SWMD
As buildings are torn down, and new ones erected, a pattern the Medical District has seen time and time again, it offers opportunity for beginnings and new visions. As planning for the streetscape and park transformation along Harry Hines continues, and institutional collaborations work to build the healthy, green space along the corridor, it will usher into the District another new era of development, but one that is improved through nature, and through the input of the individuals that experience it on a daily basis, paving the way for new generations of District users to come, with even newer sets of challenges, along with a wealth of history to consider.
Read more...
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Urban Story:
An Interview with Robert Prejean of the Southwestern Medical District
[Photo taken at the Dallas Historical Society’s Awards For Excellence In Community Services Recipients, Courtesy of 'My Sweet Charity' Online.]
For the past 11 years Bob Prejean has been thinking, planning, or talking about how to create the best Southwestern Medical District; through collecting information and listening to stories, Bob is a wealth of knowledge on the SW Medical District and region. By investigating the past, while understanding an ever-changing world of technology and innovation. It's a marriage of past and present; and when considered, allow the greatest opportunity for positive change.
Read more...
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UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL CENTER | |
The first Southwestern Medical School buildings were located near the original site of Parkland Hospital on Maple Avenue. They were old army barracks made of plywood, with a sign that stated, “temporary quarters". (Image courtesy of UTSW).
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PARKLAND
HEALTH AND HOSPITAL SYSTEM
| The original wooden Parkland Hospital on Oak Lawn Avenue got its first horse-drawn ambulance in 1894. This one was in service when the photograph was taken in 1911. Later, rubber tires were added to increase patient comfort. Dr. John Hicks Florence and family are pictured with nurses here demonstrating the use of a stretcher, (Image courtesy of Historic Mesquite, Inc.). | | |
These five women were part of the UTSW freshman class of 1946. Female students were still fairly rare at this time, (Image courtesy of UTSW Medical Center). | | |
In 1985, Parkland performed an unusual examination, a fertility test for Denba, a gorilla from the Dallas Zoo, (Image courtesy of Parkland). | | |
The equipment at the new hospital was also impressive. These incubators, or “Hess Beds,” were innovative equipment at the time. They used hot water circulating between inner and outer metal baskets to warm babies, (Image courtesy of Children’s Health Archives Center). | | |
Even as medical science moved toward a vaccination for polio, it raged in Dallas in the 1940s and 1950s, terrifying parents and children. The boxlike machine holding the infant is a pediatric iron lung, (Image courtesy of Children’s Health Archives Center). | | | |
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"When I started researching the history of the Southwestern Medical District, I knew little about it and feared there might be little to discover. I was wrong! Though sometimes overlooked in Dallas history, the District had Caddo tribes, pioneers, cattle, illegal gambling, propeller planes overhead, funky roadside architecture, businesses like the Better Monkey Grip Company and the home of Sam Tasby, the man who challenged Dallas to desegregate its schools and give his children an equal education. The book has five chapters before we even get to the amazing origin stories and world-changing accomplishments of the medical institutions!"
Evelyn Montgomery, Ph.D.
Director and Curator, Old Red Museum of Dallas County History and Culture
EvelynInDallas Consulting: History, Museums and Historic Preservation
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A summary of the history book to showcase the efforts of some of Dallas' most dedicated historians, highlighting the fascinating, collaborative initiatives that make the District what is now and still has the potential to become. It is through new alliances and old that usher in some of these transformations we see taking place today, (Map of District courtesy of Robert Prejean).
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The Southwestern Medical District, home to innovative, world-class research and education, has a history of knowledge and challenges that it has built upon. The area covers more than 1,000 acres and employs thousands of people, with a rotation of clinics and hospitals through the years; this District has a significant story to tell.
Photo credit: Courtesy of swmeddistrict.org
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Founded by a man with a dream, John Neely Bryan knew valuable real estate; learn about the place along the Trinity River he envisioned as Dallas. How John Neely Bryan Believed Dallas Into Reality; A story by Evelyn Montgomery.
Photo credit: Credit: Courtesy of The Old Red Museum of Dallas County History and Culture, American Institute of Architects Online.
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Urban Heat Island Management Study (2017)
The 2017 Dallas Urban Heat Island Effect report, a year-long study of the impacts and implications of air temperatures at the neighborhood level, it found that the SWMD represents an urban heat island and is one of the hottest places in the city.
(Featured from TTF Website)
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In our efforts to expand engagement and stay connected, we've expanded to LinkedIn! If you are a current LinkedIn member, please like our new page. You’ll find educational content, best practices, and updates on the District’s transformation.
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