A Flying Visit To Frisco
Sightseeing in Dallas-Fort Worth in 2004
05.05.2004 - 22.05.2004
View
Summer, 9-11-2001 - and then the 2nd time down the ICW
& Bermuda
& 2004 Peripetic Summer
on greatgrandmaR's travel map.
On 5 May 2004, after we recovered a bit from our last harrowing trip up the ICW, Stressful Spring we took a trip up to Ellicott City to get our accumulated mail from our oldest daughter who had been taking care of that for us. We also got to watch our grandson at a Coach Pitch Little League game.
Grandson at coach pitch batting lefty
and on May 14th, we went up to the Mercedes diesel mechanic to have my car repaired. We visited my mother and drove through Baltimore.

Statue in downtown Baltimore
Baltimore has lots of monuments. One nickname is the Monumental City. This photo is of the statue of John Mifflin Hood, early president of the Western Maryland Railway. Mr. Hood played an important role in shaping the Western Maryland Railroad (it became a "Railway" after 1911) into a strategic "bridge line" that linked the Port of Baltimore with western points. During his stewardship, Western Maryland passenger trains also used the Pennsylvania Railroad line from the west, stopping at Pennsylvania Station, to reach the Western Maryland's Hillen Station in downtown. The statue is unusual because few statues were ever commissioned to honor men of the railroad industry. Some people think it should be at Pennsylvania station instead of here.
Sunday May 16, 2004 Flying out
We decided to fly to Frisco, Texas to visit our youngest daughter.
Note: This Frisco is not short for San Francisco. Frisco was originally a retail and shipping point for farmers, and had a number of cotton gins and grain elevators. It still has some near the downtown area and the first time my daughter and SIL drove towards town, they did not believe that the area near the railroad tracks (which was the first place they came to) was an appropriate place to live because it looked so seedy and industrial.
Frisco Main Street
Frisco was originally named Emerson, after Francis Emerson, who owned the farm where the townsite was located. Emerson, who was a banker, had promised to place a national bank in the town if it was named after him, but the bank was never established. Because the name Emerson resembled that of Emberson in Lamar County the name was changed in 1902 when the post office was established . So the town was named Frisco City after the St. Louis, San Francisco and Texas Railway Company, known as the Frisco system. Later the name was shortened to Frisco. Let that be a lesson to all you bankers. If you promise a bank, be sure you follow through.
There were several trips a day from BWI to DFW and since we didn't have any hotel reservations to deal with, we could do the trip quite reasonably by flying on non-rev on passes from our Miami airline pilot daughter. These passes cost her $50 for First Class tickets (we reimbursed her). She listed us (you have to be listed to fly even non-rev) on the 6:24 am flight.
We drove up to spend the night of 15 May with our oldest daughter that lives in Ellicott City, and she waked us up at O-Dark 30 in the morning and took us to the airport and dropped us off so that we were there more than a hour before the flight. We did get aboard and took off on a rainy overcast day.
taking off

Coming in to DFW airport at 8:24 am

Water towers sprout from the landscape

Dallas neighborhoods

Water tower coming to land at DFW

Road coming in to airport 8:29 am
We had a nice breakfast on the flight, and landed at 8:39 am local time.

Coming in on the taxiway 8:39

Terminal building 8:41 am

Landing Bridge 8:41 am
Our Texas daughter picked us up at the airport.
Our first item of business was to tour her house. They moved last year and this is our first visit. She has been watching a LOT of Trading Spaces and Changing Rooms - they've got paint effects
Sponged paint effects in the family room

Paint effects in the dining room
her daughters room is covered with butterflies,

Butterflies in our granddaughter's room
and she's got a baseball diamond painted on her son's bedroom wall.

Ballfield mural in TX grandson's room
When our son-in-law and the kids got home from Sunday School, we had lunch

and then went to our grandson's T-ball game. (T-ball is the level before Coach Pitch as this grandson is a couple of years younger than our oldest daughter's son.) Our son-in-law was coaching first base and then he switched to third base and our daughter took over at first

daughter coaching first base

son in law at third

Grandson and son-in-law at third
The T-ball game was in a large recreational park.

Warren center lake with children playing catch
Warren is a 110 acre parkland with a lake which was originally used to water cattle in the late 60s. The lake is 8 acres and 16 foot deep and is stocked with large mouth black bass, channel catfish and sunfish. Fishing is catch and release. There is no swimming. There is a paved trail around the lake where people ride bikes or skateboard or jog.
Monday May 17, 2004
The next day, we started our normal routine for the week. After breakfast, our daughter walked her son to school along with their boxer, with her daughter in a stroller. Bob usually walked with them.
Walking to school
Then we set out to tour Frisco. First we drove to PetSmart where we got dog food and she drove us out to the first location where the TV show Dallas was filmed (before the place burned down and they moved to filming at South Fork).
The first five shows of the TV series "Dallas" back in April 1978 used aerial footage of the "Southfork ranch"
which was an actual ranch building on the Brinkman Ranch in Frisco, Texas. Then the house they used burned down. The owner hastily started to rebuild it.
Semi finished section
But the producers of the show needed to have the some footage of the ranch house before he could finish it. Or they didn't think it could be finished in time so the location was changed to "Southfork" in Parker TX. The owner of the Brinkman ranch just stopped rebuilding at that point and has left it half finished. My daughter saw it and thought it was some kind of open air pavillion.

Half rebuilt ranch house - Frisco
There is an inset in the picture so you can see that you can look right through the house. You can drive by the ranch which is still a working ranch,

gate


part of the ranch
and you can see the house from the road. The "Southfork" ranch in Parker TX IS open to the public - however this one is not.
Our daughter said that there were a lot of scupltures in Frisco including one of some longhorns. So we drove around and saw some of them
Origins-Early ranching



Cowboy

Shawnee Trail sign

Shawnee Trail
including this one of a stampede. I don't think the cowboys and steers are as well done as the ones in Dallas, nor do I think the horses are as good as the ones at Los Colinas.

Longshot of the stampede

Stampeding longhorns sculpture in

Modern road behind sculpture

Frisco stampede sculpture

Steers breaking through the wall

Bas relief steers with daughter and granddaughter

Bas relief showing the lightening stampeding the steers


granddaughter
Cattle Drive is located in Central Park and is a tribute to the late 19th century cattle drive and life on The Shawnee Trail, which was the first north-south cattle trail in Texas that came through this area. Gaylord Properties, the developer of Frisco Bridges, intentionally designed the 7.3-acre park in the shape of a longhorn.
She also drove us over to Plano to see where her husband works.
Son-in-law's office

grounds of his workplace
They rent some of the land out for a horse farm so that they can have an agriculture use permit.

Plano water tower

Star Center
In the afternoon, Bob and our daughter walked back to school to pick up our grandson and I stayed home with our granddaughter. Then we went to another T-ball game.

walking in to T-ball
In this game, most confusingly, the other team also had red shirts, but they have white pants instead of tan. Our SIL was coaching again.
Our granddaughter slept completely through this game (I guess we wore her out at the Stampede). Afterwards our grandson wanted to eat at Wendy's so that's where we had dinner.
Bob and the cat
Tuesday, May 18, 2004
Our daughter doesn't like the style of her fireplace which she feels is too modern.
Living room fireplace
So after the walk to school, we set out to go to an architectural salvage yard in Dallas.

Daughter and granddaughter walking through the yard

birdhouse from scraps

lamps
so we went to see what was available.


Mantle


Mantles
After that, we drove around downtown Dallas

Reunion Tower

Dallas Morning News backed by the Belo building
The Dallas Morning News developed from the Galveston News which was founded in 1842 by Samuel Bangs. Alfred H. Belo acquired control of the Galveston paper and wanted to expand to Dallas. When efforts to purchase the old Dallas Herald failed, Belo sent George Bannerman Dealey to launch a new paper, the Dallas Morning News which began publishing October 1, 1885. Linked across 315 miles by telegraph, and sharing a network of correspondents across the state, the Dallas Morning News and the Galveston News were the first two newspapers in the country to publish simultaneous editions. The News is also currently the only major daily in Dallas. Its closest and longest-lived rival, The Dallas Times Herald, went out of business in the early 1990s. This building faces Ferris Plaza on its south side. Above the front doors, engraved in large letters, is an admonition from longtime News Vice-President and General Manager George B. Dealey, which reads:
Build the news upon the rock of truth and righteousness. Conduct it always upon the lines of fairness and integrity. Acknowledge the right of the people to get from the newspaper both sides of every important question.
Dallas Morning News building

Flying horse from Pioneer Plaza
When you see the red horse, you know you are in Dallas. I tried to get a photo of the red Pegasus sign with a horse in the Pioneer Plaza group but the angles are wrong to get a sculpture horse's head together with the pegasus sign. A cowboy and horse was the best I could do

Cowboy and Pegasus
The "Pegasus" building was designed by Sir Alfred Bossom as the headquarters of the Magnolia Petroleum Company, predecessor to Mobil Oil (which is now part of Exxon). It was the tallest building west of the Mississippi. But by the time I visited in 1997, the building was dwarfed by the surrounding buildings, and the sign stopped rotating, and had been turned off. In 1997, the building was converted into a 330 room luxury hotel catering to the business traveler. The restored elevator lobby features a decorated gold leaf on a plaster ceiling and elevator doors that feature the Pegasus logo. As a part of the Dallas Millennium Celebration, the Flying Red Horse neon sign was rebuilt and relit at midnight to bring in 2000. The original sign has been put on display in a shed at the Dallas Farmer's Market.
We went over to Pioneer Plaza and looked at those longhorns which I saw for the first time in 1997 when I was at a convention in Dallas. Pioneer Plaza is the world's largest bronze sculpture of its kind and it depicts a cattle drive of 3 cowboys and 50 steers. Each piece was created by artist Robert Summers of Glen Rose, TX. This 4.2-acre plaza in front of City Hall and the Convention Center at Young and Griffin Streets was originally the site of the Shawnee Cattle Trail, begun in 1854. Fort Worth is really the 'cow town' in this area - Dallas OTOH is major center for oil and gas. Therefore, some felt that this sculpture was inappropriate to be in Dallas. But when in 1991, local businessman and philanthropist, Trammell Crow decided that this was the site for this park he apparently overruled all opposition.
From the parking lot
There is a small parking lot at this park (which is free).

Pioneer Plaza

Daughter and granddaughter - against the tide
Touching the bronzes is discouraged (and if it is hot, you will only try it once) and sitting on them is not allowed.


Pioneer Plaza Longhorns


Looking back toward city


Pioneer Cemetery with my granddaughter



Bob looking at the sculptures

Steers from above

Reunion Tower from street level
We went up Reunion Tower for lunch and met the Mayor Laura Miller of Dallas on the way down. I do not even remember seeing Reunion Tower on my first visit to Dallas. This is especially astonishing because it is considered a signature building for Dallas and is 560 feet tall observation tower which is the 15th tallest building in Dallas. I also think it is amazing that it was constructed as a part of the Hyatt Regency Hotel. I've never heard of a tower associated with a hotel before. Another fact that was a bit surprising to me is that the Reunion tower is named for its location in the Reunion area, which was a settlement of French immigrants in the 19th Century.
The tower is constructed of poured in place concrete. Surrounding this top is a geodesic dome formed with aluminum struts. At the intersection of the aluminum members are 260 lights that are kept turned on most of the evening hours. However, at certain times during the evening, the lights flash to different patterns for a special light show.
The three levels at the top of the tower house different functions. The lowest level is the observation deck, known as The Lookout. Visitors can see the territory surrounding Dallas from indoor and outdoor areas. The outdoor area offers a 360 degree walk that is covered by the upper levels. Great views of the Dallas Skyline can be seen, as well as the skyline of Fort Worth, Las Colinas, and other groupings of buildings throughout the city. A nominal fee is charged to visitors. The fee is quite a bit less than other towers I've visited. On the second level is Antares, which is a full service restaurant operated by the Hyatt Regency Dallas. Antares offers lunch, dinner, and a Sunday brunch in an elegant and contemporary atmosphere. The Dome, a cocktail lounge, is located on Reunion's highest level.
Arena from the car
We didn't park at the hotel, where the parking is $10 for 3 hours. Instead we parked at the Reunion lot for $3.00.

Parking lot

Parking Ticket
It is possible that this lot is not available if the Reunion arena is in use, and the lot is a bit rough and is semi-paved, but that's significantly cheaper. We walked a little bit over the pedestrian bridge to get to the Tower, and we might have walked less at the hotel. But not enough to make me want to pay an additional $7.00. It wasn't as if we had to walk up the tower.

walking from the parking

Signs

View going up the elevator

Old Red from Reunion Tower
In 1890, the construction of a courthouse (the 6th in Dallas and the 5th at this location) was begun at Main and Houston Streets. It was designed by M. A. Orlopp in the Romanesque style (I guess that is why it has turets) and originally had a clock tower. It was constructed of iron, brick and red sandstone so that it would be fireproof. It was finished about 1893. In 1919, the clock tower, which rivaled Big Ben, was removed because it was feared that the winds had made it unstable. By 1938, there were some people who thought the building had become obsolete and it should be torn down. It is now one of the oldest buildings in downtown Dallas-very different from most of the modern architecture, and is being restored as a historic landmark. The ambitious goal is to have at least one courtroom as it was originally and to put the clock tower and grand staircase back in place. Old Red is currently (2004)serving as a visitor's center (as the courthouse has been moved to a more modern building) and is to house the Old Red Museum of Dallas County History & Culture.

Court buildings from Reunion Tower
The building in the center of the picture (red brick with white trim is apparently the Dallas Criminal Court building. It was built in 1913 and served as the county jail for a period of time. Apparently Bonnie and Clyde were held here until their escape. They were later ambushed and killed in Louisiana and returned to Dallas where around 30,000 people came to view Clyde’s body and 40,000 to view Bonnie. Behind and on the right side are records buildings. The Texas School Book Depository (Sixth Floor Museum) is just on the edge of the photo on the left. Founder's Plaza and Kennedy Memorial Plazas are completely hidden from this perspective. I was mistaking the brick building on the other side of the street for the TSBD, but is the DalTex building. Some conspiracy theories have the JFK assassin on the roof of this building.

City Hall and Convention center area

Plaza in front of Belo Building from Reunion Tower

Dealey Plaza and School Book blg from Reunion

Reunion Arena from Reunion Tower
We parked next to Reunion Arena to go to Reunion Tower. I was somewhat taken aback to see that cameras are not allowed inside.


Looking into the distance (camera reflected)



Two views of my granddaughter

My maverick steak sandwich

American Airlines Arena from Reunion Tower
The exterior of American Airlines Center is made of brick, limestone and granite and inside it is 840,000 square feet.

Restaurant

View and reflections

One of the important aspects of Dallas is it's architecture. There are several websites which tell about the date built, architects and details of the buildings in downtown Dallas, I think the building in the center with the triangular top is one of I.M. Pei's Dallas buildings Fountain Place. I can't be absolutely sure of the identification of the other buildings, but in the general area with Fountain Place one might be able to see the Fairmont Hotel, the Dallas Museum of Art, Lincoln Plaza, and/or the Trammel Crow Center.

Downtown Dallas

From the elevator going down

Heliocopter landing on roof nr Reunion Tower park
Then it was time to go back to Frisco and get our grandson from school.
It was finally warm enough to go swimming at
the pool across the street from our daughter's house.

swimming pool
This time we ate dinner at

Dickey's

Barbecue Pit.

menu

eating dinner

Frisco water tank

Old Frisco Water tower
Wednesday, May 19, 2004
On Wednesday after the walk to school, we drove to Ft. Worth
Farm to Market road signs

Edited panorama of the street from the car

Exchange Street
and parked in the free lot,

Armour sign at the end of Exchange Street

Bob, daughter and gdaughter from parking lot

Sign advertising Cowboy Cooking
and passed Stockyard Station (with railroad tracks through the center).

Ticket booth and water tank

Railroad water tank

Engine turning


Longhorns


Longhorns prior to cattle drive
and then went to the visitor's center,

Bob and daughter and granddaughter -Visitor's Center

Billboard painted on the side of a building

Star on Walk of Fame

Chisholm Trail marker
We did a little bit of shopping in the Stockyard Station

Grapevine /TarantelaTrain

Engine coming into the station

Newer engine in the station

Train pulling into the station

Train carriage

Bob, our daughter and granddaughter on a bench
After that we watched the cattle drive. I went across the street and took pictures of them from over there.



Looking down Exchange Street - Fort Worth

Longhorns on Exchange Street

Drover on horseback


Cattle drive passes by in Ft. Worth

We had lunch at Riskey's Steak House

Bob and daughter and granddaughter by Riskey's Steak House

Finchers from Risckey's

Hotel from across the street

Riskey's poster

Interior

Granddaughter with crayons

Chicken Fingers and fries

Special $5.95 - beef patty, cantalope and potatoes
Our granddaughter would pose on the horse merry-go-round, but wouldn't ride it.

BBQ and stagecoach ride

posing with the horse


Three kinds of transportation in front of Rita's

Man paying for parking
Then we headed back to pick up our grandson from school. That night we had dinner at La Hacienda


They have games to play in the waiting room, and our granddaughter played with a bead game.


Wagon wheel chandelier

Then afterwards, our grandson got on the horse in the coin operated horse and carriage and our granddaughter consented to ride in the carriage.

grandson and granddaughter
Thursday May 20, 2004
On Thursday, we went to local hardware stores and lumber yards to see what kinds of mantle pieces our SIL could get to redo the mantle piece in his family room.
Guest room at our daughter's house
Other than that we rested

Bob relaxing
and played games, and our grandchildren went to the pool again.
Friday, May 21, 2004
As usual, while Bob and our daughter walked our grandson to school, I did email. After breakfast, we headed back downtown to Dallas to Old City Park which was closed on the day I took the city tour on my previous visit in 1997. Originally the City Park was set up in 1876 for the centennial. Now Old City Park has 38 structures built between 1840-1910 which have been brought in and set up on this site.
After we parked, we walked around the Park
Depot

Main Street store with advertisement

Store on old Main Street

Doctor's Office 1890

Law Office on Main Street

Bank on Main Street

Popcorn Wagon at Elm and Main Streets

1847 Miller Log Cabin
This square notched log structure, which is now in Old City Park in Dallas was built in South Oak Clibb by William Brown miller and his slaves. It is typical of the houses built for temporary shelter on the frontier in Texas. It is constructed of oak and cedar, and has local limestone for the chimney.


The buildings served as a home for the Millers for about 15 years nad then had a second life as one of the earliest schools in Dallas County. It is furnished primarily with Texas-made items.as it would have appeared when the early pioneers set up housekeeping.

granddaughter at Old City Park kiln

Kiln

Our daughter and granddaughter went in the 'tipi'

Cellar House 1875

Barn 1891

Gate

Necessary House

Approaching Miller Playhouse 1908
The playhouse was built from logs cut on William Brown Miller's land on the banks of the Trinity River. He built this crude log structure in 1908 for his granddaughter Evelyn. The ceiling was raised in 1920 because Evelyn had grown too tall for the original height of the building. The pictures had to be taken through glass because it would be too easy for people to reach in and touch or worse take the objects inside

Inside Miller Playhouse
There were a lot of school children there on field trips, which was an advantage in one way, in that houses such as Millermore were open in the morning. for the school groups when they are usually closed at that time of day.

Porch Millermore House

Parlor in Millermore House

View from Millermore

Room in Millermore
We saw gardens and a pottery shed (the costumed potter gave our granddaughter a small souvenir),

Potter at Old City Park
stables with horse, a blacksmith (and farrier), and giant mules,

Giant Jacks with Bob, and daughter

Windmill at Old City Park
Victorian houses,

Victorian home

George House, 1900
sheep shearing,

Sheep shearing
and house with a garden and chickens.

Chickens

First Person Interpreter Sign

First person interpreter

Scarecrow and pavillion
Then we looked around for a place to have lunch. The school children have brought their sandwiches and have a picnic but we have not. There's no food for sale in Old City Park. We first looked in the International Market.

Two views of the International market
We eventually found a place called City Park Deli which used to be a Blimpie, and we ate there.


Menu Board

Pseudo Blimpie
When I was here in Dallas before, a bus tour took us to a coupe of blocks of Victorian houses. I have always been fascinated by Victorian architecture, so I wanted to come back. We went to Old City Park, because that was where I thought it was, but it was not. It was really the Wilson and the Beilharz Blocks.
Beilharz Block sign
The Historical Sign for the Wilson Block says:
"Swiss native Jacob Nussbaumer, a colonist in the Pioneer La Reunion settlement of the Dallas area, purchased this land prior to the Civil War. In 1898, his wife Dorothea and children sold it to her niece Henrietta Frichot Wilson (1864-1953), the daughter of La Reunion settlers. Henrietta and her husband Frederick P. Wilson (1863-1923) built their residence at this site in 1899 and later constructed six additional homes as rental property. Together the houses were the center of a residential area known as the Wilson block of Swiss Avenue. The neighborhood was the home of many early Dallas leaders, including Charles D. Hill, who became one of the area's prominent architects, and Dr. Theodore L E,. Arnold, an early Dallas ophthamologist whos son Charles pioneered in microphotography. The various architectural styles represented in the historic Wilson Block reflect Victorian and Queen Anne influences. The homes feature similarities in composition, including frame construction, clapboard siding, decorative shingle patterns, gabled roofs and intricate ornamentation. Today the Wilson Block serves as a reminder of Dallas' rich heritage and early development."
The homes here, restored on the outside, are leased to local non-profit organizations for offices.
Victorians of Beilharz and Wilson Blocks



Detail from one of the houses

House in the Swiss Avenue section

Beilharz Block house 1997

Same house in 2004

1997 photo from the bus

2004 photo of the same house
We had dinner at the Texas Land and Cattle Restaurant.

Sunset

Texas Land and Cattle at sunset

Inside decor

Painting in the restaurant

Daughter and granddaughter
Saturday, May 22, 2004
We packed and then our daughter drove us back to DRW where we took the 1300 flight home. We got on the plane OK (we have to wait until all the passengers who paid for tickets get on board) This was the flight that was the most open (vacant seats), although it filled up during the week.
Taxiway taking off 2:37 pm

DFW from the air


Flying from DFW
We had a nice lunch on the plane (first class is nice). After we landed and got our luggage, we got a van back to our daughter's house in Ellicott City, picked up our car, and drove home. We had dinner at Pizza Hut on the way.

Bob going to Pizza Hut
Posted by greatgrandmaR 11:26 Archived in USA Comments (0)