Crooked Tree Coffee

What is perhaps the best coffee house in Dallas is on Routh Street in the State Thomas neighborhood. It's not a main thoroughfare, if fact it's kind of hidden around a corner in a neighborhood of single-family houses from the late 19th Century. It's set up like a house inside too with tables, sofas, books and even a piano. The off-the-beaten-path location doesn't keep customers away, it seemed busy throughout the day Monday. I know because after stopping by in the morning, I returned to fetch my hat in the afternoon. It was still there, sitting on the floor unnoticed by students typing away on their laptops, taking advantage of the wi-fi. Crooked Tree Coffee.

A Walk Through State Thomas

State Thomas is clearly a success story in terms of urban revitalization, but I'm not sure it's one known about much beyond Dallas. I took the opportunity to walk around the area today, with a particular interest in looking at some of the historic houses. 

If this neighborhood was like my former Pittsburgh neighborhood of Deutschtown, there would be a concerted effort to keep commercial uses out of residential buildings. In Deutschtown there's even an effort to keep commercial uses out of some commercial buildings. This is misguided at best and more accurately detrimental to a vibrant urban neighborhood. 

Walking through State Thomas, it is refreshing to see many office and light retail uses in buildings built for residential purposes. It neither detracts nor seems to keep residents from wanting to live there. 

Another thing that hasn't been welcomed in neighborhoods like Deutschtown is higher-density development. Yet here in State Thomas most of the newer development is at a far higher-density than the blocks with single-family homes. Restaurants, nail salons and coffee shops are mixed in, helping to make State Thomas a great place to live. Like Deutschtown, State Thomas is within walking distance to downtown. 

It is worth remarking that what can be lost on older neighborhoods like Deutschtown with more to work with is obvious in State Thomas.

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The Urban Neighborhoods of Dallas

Victorian-Era Home in Dallas

Dallas has a history stretching back to the mid- 19th Century, but the boom of the 1980s seems to have changed it forever. The metropolitan area is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States. It's also the core of the largest inland metropolitan area in the United States that lacks any navigable link to the sea.

Given its also located on a prairie without geographic confines or natural barriers, its a wonder there are any skyscrapers ar anything that grew to reflect in some way the typical notion of a city with a downtown core surrounded by neighborhoods. But its my understanding that has been the criticism of Dallas, that there's no downtown. It's also one the city is working hard to overcome. 

The area is undergoing a transition as dozens of residential conversions and new high rise condos bring more permanent residents downtown. The number of residents downtown has doubled in the last decade to reach just shy of 30,000. Moreover the nearby neighborhood of Oak Lawn has had a ten percent increase in population since 2000 and has about 40,000 residents. 

Buildings in Downtown Dallas

An improvement over Oak Lawn is an area on the opposite side of Turtle Creek/Katy Trail known as Uptown. The number of vacant lots here is far fewer and the neighborhood is both more walkable, without the pedestrian threats of busy streets such as Lemmon and Oak Lawn Avenue which cut through the neighborhood of Oak Lawn. 

Most of the buildings in downtown Dallas and the surrounding neighborhoods are from the past 40 years. It's also apparent from the buildings the area has become more dense over time. In the example of Oak Lawn, there are scattered single-family homes from the period of 1910-1930 around on large lots. One can assume the area was once primarily filled with these "streetcar suburb" type homes. As they have been demolished, apartment and condominium complexes have been filled in, in many cases without much thought towards planning. Instead of facing the street, many are lined along a narrow alleyway and sit four deep on the lot. 

I've long been an advocate of an organic building process that lets structures be replace piecemeal slowly, but the two neighborhoods give me pause. It seems clear that in the uptown area, structures have been cleared and replaced in large sections. The result is a better consistency and street scape. Of course this would not be the case if the structures had been replaced with the same type of structures, or at least the same orientation.

The other interesting neighborhood is known as State Thomas, which according to Wikipedia contains the largest collection of Victorian-era homes remaining in Dallas. These are mixed in with a variety of very attractive newer condominium buildings, with commercial uses such as restaurants mixed in. 

Another neighborhood that has been brought to my attention is known as Oak Cliff. It seems to have a number of advocates out there. I paid a visit myself and from my initial inspection, I can say with relative certainty the Wikipedia statement about State Thomas is not at all accurate. Perhaps it would be true should you add the word "restored" before "Victorian-era." 

From what I know, these neighborhoods, plus downtown are the most urban neighborhoods in the city. With a little luck, one of them will soon be home.