Around D-Town

By: Staff Writer

 

Downtown Dallas has many recognizable districts such as West End, Art District, City Center, Convention Center, Farmers Market, Government District and Main Street. One of the most overlooked districts is the Convention Center which holds some of the most interesting and informative sites in Dallas.

The Convention Center District provides people with public art to indulge in knowledge. One of the many attractions is Pioneer Plaza. It features 70 bronze steers and three bronze trail riders by artist Robert Summers.

A must see site is Dallas City Hall. It is one of the most distinctive and iconic structures in town. The inverted wedge shaped building was designed by I.M. Pei a prize winning architect. City Hall features a 7 acre plaza with distinct interesting sculptures by Henry Moore.

In between City hall and Pioneer Plaza is a cemetery dating back 154 years to a time when Dallas was a tiny North Central Texas town, those buried here paved the way for the city's future. Each person played a part in shaping Dallas into the cosmopolitan city it is today. Historians believe the first burials, those of two small children, took place sometime between 1846-1849, before it was officially set aside as a graveyard by joint collaboration of the Masons & Odd Fellows fraternal organizations in 1857. Dallas Pioneer Park Cemetery is the final resting place of six Dallas Mayors, three War of 1812 Veterans, nine heroes of the Texas Revolution, twenty-nine Civil War Veterans and numerous other city & county officials of the earliest governments of Dallas County. 

The epitaphs and artworks of the monuments honoring loved ones long gone meant something to those left behind. The markers that have withstood the years, elements and vandals remain as a tangible link to Dallas' past.