The more interesting of the two negatives records the view from one of the higher floors of the old Oriental Hotel, facing west in the direction of the Trinity River. The building at the center of the image is the Emanu-El Synagogue, opened in 1892. Farther off in the distance are the Padgitt Bros. and Tenison Bros. buildings, both companies major players in the industrial history of early Dallas. Both specialized in wholesale saddlery and related accoutrements, and the Padgitt Bros. company in particular survived all the way up until 1966. To the right, one block over between Commerce and Main Streets, are the St. George Hotel, which opened in 1875; the North Texas Bank Building, which included the offices for both Dexter's Fire Insurance and the Dyer Bros., insurance agents for Mutual Life of NY; and farther off can be seen the Fidelity Mutual Life and the Trust Co. building. In front of the hotel is a smaller building boasting signage for multiple businesses, one of which is the Bank Saloon, and about a block further to the east, between Commerce and Jackson near Murphy Street, is the old Gulf Col. & Santa Fe Railroad line. A train car bearing the name of the Hicks Stock Car Co. is sitting idle on the line. And, finally, at the extreme left of the photo, visible beside the Padgitt Bros. building, is Jackson Street.
Here is a detail of the buildings in the distance, with the contrast adjusted to make signage more easily readable. Towering behind the Padgitt Bros. building is the Old Red Courthouse, just erected in 1892 and not quite so old at the time. I haven't been able to determine the identity of the smoke-emitting building off in the distance. I initially thought it might be the Wholesale smoked meat building near the southwest corner of N. Austin and Elm Streets, next to the Sanger Bros. wholesale shoe department; or perhaps the Dallas Lithograph Company. It could also have been the Keating Implement & Machine Co. at N. Jefferson (present-day Record Street) and Elm.
Here is a composite of pages 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 17, and 18 of the 1892 Sanborn fire insurance map of Dallas, stitched together and rotated to approximate the perspective of the photographer. The location of the St. George Hotel is indicated with a red border.
The second photo is considerably less interesting but still historically valuable. The street running across the image and the buildings shown are consistent with a view facing Jackson Street, taken from the same vantage point as the first image but oriented slightly more toward the southwest. I'm not sure what the building in the upper right corner is. One might assume it to be the courthouse, but that's not possible given its location and silhouette. Perhaps someone more familiar with construction in early Dallas can provide some insight.
So when were these two photos taken? A bit of research into the area provides some clues. The surviving Sanborn fire insurance maps suggest a time frame between 1892 and 1899 based on the building positions and block layouts. The absence of the structures in front of the Emanu-El Synagogue on the 1899 map, and the absence in the photo of the expanded livery structure shown on that same map, are two such examples. More importantly, the Linz building, which originally stood at the corner of Main and Martin Streets, began construction in 1897 and opened in 1899. Its complete absence in the first photo confirms a provenance of 1897 or earlier. But the best indicator of the time frame can be seen on the signage adorning the North Texas Building off in the distance at 217 (present-day 905) Main Street. Later photos of this building advertise the I. Reinhardt & Son insurance company, but the sign visible in the first photo advertises the Dyer Bros. A consultation of period city directories turns up an 1891-92 listing for the Dyer Bros. in the Central Bank Building at the corner of Elm, Live Oak, and Ervay Streets. But two years later, the 1893-94 Morrison & Fourmy's General Directory of the City of Dallas records them as being at 217 Main, which is consistent with the advertisement seen in the photo. By the publication of the very next directory volume in 1894, the Dyer brothers were no longer in the city of Dallas, having relocated to the then-independent city of Oak Cliff. This places the photos somewhere within a time frame of 1892 to 1894. However, the Oriental Hotel opened for business on October 9, 1893, and the two photos shown here were clearly not taken from ground level. So the time frame here is between late 1893 and 1894. And judging from the apparent snow on the ground, very early 1894 may be more likely.
Here is the view as of the present day, taken from the former location of the Oriental Hotel in March 2026. That location is now part of the AT&T Discovery District, and the portions of Akard and Jackson Streets that pass through it are today open only to pedestrian traffic. Things have certainly changed a lot in the past 132 years.
