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FORMERLY REDLINED NEIGHBORHOOD FACES NEW CHALLENGES

Zoning change sought to preserve Elm Thicket/Northpark character

CLOCKWISE: Sections of Elm Thicket were redlined, a practice that began in the 1930s and lasted (officially) until 1968. (MAP: COURTESY KIRWAN INSTITUTE/ILLUSTRATION BETHANY ERICKSON) Musician T. Bone Walker prepared to drive at Hilliard Golf course for Blacks, which was in the Elm Thicket neighborhood near Love Field Airport. (PHOTO: COURTESY DALLAS PUBLIC LIBRARY/MARION BUTTS COLLECTION) Many longtime residents of the Elm Thicket/Northpark neighborhood worry that without zoning changes, the character of the historic neighborhood will disappear. (PHOTO: BETHANY ERICKSON)

By Bethany Erickson

bethany.erickson@peoplenewspapers.com

Diane Johnson’s dad worked two jobs to pay for the family home where her 109-year-old mother still lives.

From that home, the family has watched the Elm icket/Northpark community for decades.

“A lot of people who lived over in this area — I know my dad, Mr. Masters, Mr. Young — all these people worked at the airport,” she said. “ ey were mechanics; they worked on airplanes. ey did that all their lives until they retired. And it took them working two jobs sometimes to pay for these houses.”

Now, the historically Black neighborhood looks much different. The homes families bought intending to pass on as generational wealth — sometimes generational wealth gained for the first time — are dwarfed as two and three-story structures rise as quickly as the more modest abodes they replaced are demolished.

And it’s pitting neighbors against each other as some fight to preserve the character and history through a proposed zoning change, while others, including home builders, think such a move would stand in the way of progress.

The zoning changes recommended by the Elm icket Authorized Hearing Steering Committee would limit height on new construction, enact lot-size coverage restrictions for new two-story homes, and restrict the types of roofs used in new construction.

Existing records indicate that the freedman’s town of Elm icket (named after the thicket of elms present on the land) was settled by at least 1912, but possibly earlier. Newspaper articles from the 1920s describe “small-but-modest” houses in a thriving community. It was also home to a resort, a baseball field, and the largest barbecue restaurant in Dallas at the time — Eltee O. Dave’s BBQ.

As time marched on, many Black neighborhoods were also subject to redlining, a practice that came into favor in the 1930s as federally-backed mortgages began to be offered.

The Home Owners Refinancing Act of 1933 created the Home Owner’s Loan Corp. (HOLC). Color-coded maps explained the risks for loaning in certain areas.

And it took them working two jobs sometimes to pay for these houses. Diane Johnson

Green was the most desirable — identifying areas where buyers would qualify for a loan of up to 80%. e least desirable was covered in angry red lines — and buyers in those areas would not be eligible for any federal home loans.

Redlined areas were almost exclusively Black.

“Area occupied almost exclusively by negroes with vacant property on all sides,” the HOLC description for the redlined section of Elm icket read.

Postwar expansion ate away at Elm icket. e expansion of Love Field and relocation of Lemmon Avenue between 1953 and 1955 took hundreds of Black homes and land earmarked for Elm icket Park for Negroes and the Hilliard Memorial Golf Park for Black residents. Businesses that employed the residents of Elm icket began to close to make way for the expansion, too.

The residents facing displacement fought — and even sued — the city but ultimately lost their fight against progress.

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