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Advocate, © 2021, is published monthly by East Dallas – Lakewood People Inc. Contents of this magazine may not be reproduced. Advertisers and advertising agencies assume liability for the content of all advertisements printed, and therefore assume responsibility for any and all claims against the Advocate. The publisher reserves the right to accept or reject any editorial or advertising material. Opinions set forth in the Advocate are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the publisher’s viewpoint. More than 200,000 people read Advocate publications each month. Advertising rates and guidelines are available upon request. Advocate publications are available free of charge throughout our neighborhoods, one copy per reader. Advocate was founded in 1991 by Jeff Siegel, Tom Zielinski and Rick Wamre.

BIZ BUZZ

Preston Hollow neighbor MARK CUBAN is entering the pharmaceutical business with the launch of the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Co. The company wants to produce 100 generic drugs by the end of 2021.

CBRE GLOBAL INVESTORS purchased Sherry Lane Place, an office building in Preston Center, for $120 million. The building was renovated in 2020, and CBRE plans to revamp it further with a COVID-19-conscious design.

CITY HALL

The Dallas City Council recently approved creating a Veterans Affairs Commission. The 15-member advisory body will evaluate programs, policies and practices meant to help veterans acquire housing, employment and mental health assistance.

EDUCATION DIGEST

—The Dallas ISD Board of Trustees approved new calendars for the 2020-2021 school year to limit learning loss. Each school will choose to adopt the intersession, school-day redesign or updated base calendar.

— Ursuline Academy celebrated its 147th anniversary in February. The Preston Hollow school opened in 1874, with six sisters from the Galveston Ursuline community teaching seven students in a four-room house.

coming & going

[+] DOUGHERTY’S PHARMACY is moving to a new location in Preston Royal Village and is set to open in mid-March with an oldfashioned soda fountain, state-of-the-art clinical laboratories and a drive-thru.

[+] Chef Ivan Orkin brought his famous ramen to BLUE SUSHI SAKE GRILL in Preston Hollow Village. The dishes, including the tonkotsu and spicy red chile ramen, became available as takeout in mid-February.

[+] The Friends of the Dallas Public Library is asking for donations in honor of Hillcrest High School alumna Karen Blumenthal, the journalist and author who died last year. Donations will help fund the NEW FOREST

GREEN BRANCH LIBRARY.

Pest control

THE BEETLE COMING FOR OUR TREES

This striking insect could wipe out tens of thousands of trees in Dallas. The emerald ash borer, which has a 99.7% mortality rate for ash trees once infestation takes hold, has cost other cities millions of dollars. Chicago, for example, is spending at least $95 million to deal with destruction the bugs caused there. The pernicious beetle has reached Tarrant and Denton counties, and while it hasn’t been detected here yet, the City of Dallas is planning for its arrival.

The emerald ash borer is native to northeastern Asia and was first detected in the United States in 2002. Since then, it has reached 35 states. The bug can annihilate virtually 100% of ash trees within five years. Losing thousands of trees could have a warming effect on our city, already a “heat island,” where an overabundance of paving can cause temperatures to be 10 degrees higher than nearby areas, says Brett Johnson, an urban biologist for the City of Dallas. Besides that, thousands of dead trees would create increased risk of fire and destruction from timber falling onto homes and businesses.

The Texas Forest Service has recommendations to slow the spread and mitigate damage. The city must inventory all of its ash trees before deciding whether to remove and replace as many ash trees as possible over five years, or take a reactive approach and cut down trees after they die.

There’s also the possibility of treating the trees with insecticide. City Council could create a plan of attack by the end of this year. —By Rachel Stone

Dallas-reared blues icon Aaron “T-Bone” Walker prepares to drive at Hilliard Golf Course for Blacks in 1952.

WEDGING IN ELM THICKET

REMEMBERING DALLAS’ FIRST BLACK GOLF COURSE

The Dallas Park Board unceremoniously announced in 1954 that the city’s municipal golf courses were desegregated.

L.B. Houston, who was the city’s parks director, told Leo Shead, who was president of the Dallas Negro Golfers Association, that there was no rule prohibiting Black residents from hitting the links.

We don’t know who was first to try it at Stevens Park, Cedar Crest and Tenison golf courses, but previously, Black people were not permitted to play them except on occasionally designated days.

Golf already was very popular among Black residents thanks in part to the city-owned Hilliard Golf Course on Lemmon Avenue, which opened with nine holes in 1950. Previous to that, Black Dallasites could play on the six holes added to Moore Park in the 1930s. But Hilliard was billed as the first municipal golf course for Blacks in the South when it opened.

The 65-acre course was never meant to be permanent, and it only lasted about four years.

The city built the course on land it had acquired for expansion of Love Field airport.

Prior to 1954, there was still Elm Thicket Park, which separated Highland Park from Elm Thicket/ North Park, an almost entirely Black neighborhood that started as a freedmen’s town around the end of the 19th century.

That neighborhood is quickly vanishing due to a frenzy of teardowns and new homebuilding.

The city took back Elm Thicket Park and Hilliard Golf Course in 1954, after reducing the course from nine holes to five, to expand the runway at Love Field. And only then was it decided that Black folks were allowed to play any of the municipal courses.