Tenth Street Historic District: Neighborhood-Led Plan
Support the neighborhood's vision for the future of the Tenth Street Historic District.
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TSRA will continue to advocate for the plan to be adopted and incorporated into policy. TSRA looks forward to working with the City of Dallas.
Tenth Street's Neighborhood-Led Land Use Plan Presentation:
Neighborhood-Led Plan Final Draft:
Read the final draft of the plan by clicking the box below:
Neighborhood Plan Background & Context
In recent years, the Tenth Street Historic District has received national and local recognition from Preservation Dallas in 2018 and the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 2019 when it was identified as an endangered place. Other historic districts, such as Swiss Avenue, Munger Place or Lake Cliff are household names in Dallas. This is not because they are more historic than ours, it’s because they have been preserved and protected more than ours. We want to celebrate Tenth Street and share our vibrant history with Dallas residents, just like the other historic districts in the city.
To preserve and protect the historic character and current residents in Tenth Street, we formed the Tenth Street Residential Association (TSRA) in 2017. Since our inception, we have made incredible strides in furthering our mission. We successfully stopped city funded demolitions of our historic homes, advocated against the City’s discriminatory housing policies, and the neighborhood’s non-profit organization, the Tenth Street Residential Organization (TSRO), was awarded a grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation to continue the neighborhood’s preservation efforts.
During the plan creation process, we conducted two visioning sessions, and a survey to shed light on issues and solutions residents have concerning their neighborhood.
Tenth Street residents envision a neighborhood that promotes growth and development while preserving the historic district. Residents would like to improve the infrastructure, sense of community, and economic development in the neighborhood.
However, an ongoing threat to the viability of our historic structures and current residents is the pressures of rapid development in and around our community. The Southern Gateway Deck Park, the upcoming Harold Simmons Park, and designation of Tenth Street as a Federal Opportunity Zone have caused an increase in speculative land ownership and an increase in property tax rates in the neighborhood. Ensuring that the current residents of our historic district benefit, not suffer from, the neighboring projects is vital to the integrity of our community.
This is why we have created our own neighborhood-led plan. To ensure that we, the direct relatives of our neighborhoods’ founders, first or second generation immigrant families, first time homeowners, and renters who have found a home in the neighborhood, are stewarding the growth of our community and placing our vision for the future of Tenth Street first. For us to benefit from the rapid development around us, we need to present a vision and path forward that is by us. Tenth Street residents envision a neighborhood that promotes growth and development while preserving the historic district. Residents would like to improve the infrastructure, sense of community, and economic development in the neighborhood. These are just a few of the many ideas included in the plan, and we look forward to working with the City on implementing this plan for the future of Tenth Street Historic District and the City of Dallas.
The Tenth Street Historic District (“TSHD”) is one of the two remaining Freedmen Towns in Dallas, Texas. Due to its geographic proximity to Downtown, the neighborhood has been a target for redevelopment since the mid-90s. In order to promote historically compliant development and preserve existing historic structures, the community was designated as a local, state and nationally registered historic district by 1994.
This historic designation imposed building and development guidelines that maintained the historic character of the community, and created a zoning district that regulated lot size and uses for the structures in the district. However, since the creation of the historic district, meaningful housing preservation and economic development initiatives have failed to ‘revitalize’ or stabilize the community. Since the designation of the district in 1994, there has been a lack of consistent policy towards preservation and funding specifically to enact those policies by the City of Dallas in Tenth Street. The Designation Report and Preservation Criteria are available online at the City of Dallas website under Sustainable Development.
The following recommendations are organized into three categories: Stabilize, Support and Strengthen. These categories reflect the different types of goals that the residents expressed for the future of the Tenth Street Historic District.
Download the plan for more information on the recommendations.
The goals and vision outlined by this neighborhood-led plan are attainable and necessary to preserve the Tenth Street Historic District. In the past efforts to revitalize the district have failed because they were not home-grown grassroots efforts that reflected what the residents wanted and needed. This plan can be a model for using historic preservation as a tool to reinvest and stabilize historically underinvested Black and Brown communities. As a historically redlined neighborhood, there are decades of overdue restorative justice pending in this neighborhood. This neighborhood-led land use plan outlines the neighborhood’s vision, necessary steps to strengthen the Historic District and improve the quality of life for all. The residents know what they need, it is time that the City, private and public partners join the community at the table and support Tenth Street in truly embodying the national treasure that it is. Against all odds, (redlining, highway construction, rampant demolition to name a few), Tenth Street and its residents continues to be a neighborhood of fearless fighters. They are here to stay, and they are here to ensure future generations not only stay but build on the vision outlined in this plan that they created together.
Follow the Tenth Street Residential Association (TSRA) online:
Interested in finding out more or to get involved?
Email: tenthstreetRA@gmail.com
Facebook: Tenth Street Residential Association
Twitter: @10th_StreetRA
