Category: Dallas
bookmark_borderGhosts of DFW music history: Direct Hit Records

It’s 1994, and you’re in the mood for some local flavor. The DFW music scene has come into its own, and Deep Ellum is a hoppin’ place on the weekends. Local music has been taking off on the radio, and the composers and performers of said music are gaining real traction with the teen- and twentysomethings sets. Some bands are even getting signed to national labels and their music is beginning to be stocked in the big name, big box outlets. But on this particular day you’re looking for something a bit less mainstream and a bit more underground in ethos. You pile your things into the car and head out in the direction of the historic Exposition Park strip. It’s in one of those areas where people are supposedly afraid to go thanks to a reputation for being crime-ridden, but this particular carve-out is said to be safe. You pass by Forbidden Books and The Bar of Soap, negotiating the never-ending road construction, and arrive at a small retail store on Parry Avenue, sandwiched inside a row of businesses just across the street from the entrance to the fairgrounds.
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bookmark_borderResources for researching DFW area history
- The Portal to Texas History, especially the included old city directories
- Dallas Morning News and Fort Worth Star-Telegram archives via the Dallas Public Library
- HertageQuest, via Dallas Public Library website (login required)
- Dallas trade journal published by the Dallas Chamber of Commerce, via the Internet Archive
- Jim Wheat's Dallas County Texas Archives site, especially his upload of the 1911 Worley's Dallas City Street Directory, an extremely valuable reference when dealing with pre-1911 Dallas addresses
- Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps via the University of Texas Libraries, covering the period from 1877-1922. Click on the first letter of the city being looked for. Maps of both Dallas and Fort Worth (and other area municipalities) are available.
- Paula Boose's Flashback: Dallas blog and website
- Library of Congress website
- Wikimedia Commons
- Internet Archive, which contains plenty of great resources but can require substantial digging
- limited Dallas Times Herald and other newspaper/newsletter archives, 1920-1921 via NewspaperArchive.com
- The Images of America series of books published by Arcadia Publishing
- Dallas: The Deciding Years - A Historical Portrait by A.C. Greene, published 1973 by The Encino Press
- Dallas Yesterday by Sam Acheson, edited by Lee Milazzo, published 1977 by Southern Methodist University Press
- Dallas Rediscovered: A Photographic Chronicle of Urban Expansion 1870-1925 by William L. McDonald, published 1979 by The Dallas Historical Society
- This Used to Be Dallas by Harry Hall, published 2020 by Reedy Press
- Dallas Filth: Raw Histoire
- Dallas, Texas History
- Deep Ellum
- Memories of Dallas (private group)
- Plano History (& Nostalgia)
- You Were There: A History of Culture in Dallas

bookmark_borderCapri Theatre ticket stubs
bookmark_borderEarly photography studios in Dallas – a walking tour

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