Oak Lawn | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Nickname: Gayborhood | |
 Location inDallas Official Unofficial | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Texas |
| Counties | Dallas |
| City | Dallas |
| Area | |
• Total | 12 sq mi (31 km2) |
| Elevation | 479 ft (146 m) |
| Population (2014) | |
• Total | 50,805[1] |
| Population total includes combined population of Oak Lawn and Uptown | |
| ZIP codes | 75201, 75204, 75205, 75219, 75235 (small area) |
| Area codes | 214,469,972,945 |
| Website | http://www.oaklawncommittee.org/ |
Oak Lawn is a neighborhood inDallas,Texas (United States), defined in Dallas City Ordinance 21859 as Planned Development District No. 193, the Oak Lawn Special Purpose District.[2] The unofficial boundaries areTurtle Creek Boulevard,Central Expressway, theCity of Highland Park, Inwood Road, andHarry Hines Boulevard. It is over 12 square miles (31 km2) in area.[3][citation needed] Officially it is bounded by theCity of Highland Park, theNorth Central Expressway,Stemmons Freeway,Woodall Rodgers Freeway, and other roads. The district is within the boundary defined by the City of Dallas law, excluding any existing planned development districts within.[4]
Oak Lawn is one of the wealthier areas of metropolitan Dallas, with the population consisting mainly of urban professionals. The area is peppered with upscale townhouses, condos, apartments, and duplexes. Along theUptown portion on McKinney Avenue and alongTurtle Creek Boulevard, there are many new high-rise condominiums and apartments. It is also a very diverse neighborhood with well established areas of older, single family homes.
For most of the 20th century the southern portion of the neighborhood near the intersection of Cedar Springs Road and Harry Hines Blvd was known as "Little Mexico". St. Anne's Catholic school served as the center for the community. With the redevelopment of the neighborhood beginning in the 1980sLittle Mexico vanished. Only a few structures of this original community remain for most have been replaced by high rise office buildings, luxury hotels, and condominiums. As of 2010, St Ann's Catholic School, which had closed, is now an upscale restaurant.
Oak Lawn became a magnet for the counterculture movement in the late 1960s due to its inexpensive apartments and its proximity to Turtle Creek Park (formerly known as Lee Park and Oak Lawn Park). TheStation 4 nightclub can be found on Cedar Springs Road.
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TheUnited States Postal Service operates the Oak Lawn Post Office at 2825 Oak Lawn Avenue; ZIP Code: 75219.[5]
TheFederal Bureau of Prisons South Central Region Office was previously in Oak Lawn.[6] It has since moved to theU.S. Armed Forces Reserve Complex inGrand Prairie, Texas.[7]
TheConsulate-General of the United Kingdom in Dallas was located in Suite 940 at 2911 Turtle Creek Boulevard.[8][9]
In April 2005 the British government announced that it was closing the Dallas consulate in the summer of 2005; its territory was transferred to the consulate-general inHouston. It was one of 19 British diplomatic missions shut down around that time period.[10] TheForeign and Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom said that the consulates and embassies closed as a way to decrease costs.[10][11]
TheConsulate-General of Mexico in Dallas is also located in Oak Lawn. Alfredo Corchado ofThe Dallas Morning News said that as of 2009, in terms of activity and size of the area Mexican population, the Dallas consulate is considered to be the third most important Mexican consulate afterLos Angeles andChicago.[12]
The consulate moved from 8855 NorthStemmons Freeway to 1210 River Bend Drive in January 2009.[13]
The public schools in Oak Lawn are part of theDallas Independent School Districtand arezoned[permanent dead link] among the following:
TheWilliam B. Travis Academy/Vanguard for the Academically Talented and Gifted is located near McKinney Avenue and Oak Grove Avenue.
In 2014-2015 its student body was 95% low income; despite that it exceeded its "performance targets". Due togentrification, Sam Houston's enrollment declined to 201 students in the 2015-2016 school year while it had 302 students in the 2011-2012 school year.[14]
Irma Lerma Rangel Young Women's Leadership School was previously in Oak Lawn.[15]
TheWalt Whitman Community School (WWCS), an LGBT-oriented private school, was established in 1997 in Oak Lawn.[16] It closed in 2004.
The Oak Lawn Branch of theDallas Public Library serves the Oak Lawn area. In addition to its regular library holdings, it has the only circulating, non-reference collection of LGBT materials in the US.[17]
Central Expressway (US 75) flanks the community on the east.
Spur 366, known locally as Woodall Rodgers Freeway, runs along the southern border of the community. The Lomac andUptown portions of Oak Lawn are served by the freeM-Line Trolley, provided by the McKinney Avenue Transit Authority. TheBlue andRed light-rail lines stop atCityplace Station, right outside Oak Lawn. Just outside Oak Lawn to the southwest isVictory Station inVictory Park, which is served by theTrinity Railway Express, both red and blue lines during special events, and regularly by the Green and Orange light rail lines. The two lines continue to the northwest, stopping atMarket Center Station andSouthwestern Medical District/Parkland Station within Oak Lawn.
Oak Lawn is considered to be the epicenter ofDallas–Fort Worth Metroplex'sgay andlesbian culture. Cedar Springs Road, between Oak Lawn Avenue and Wycliff Avenue, has numerous businesses, retail establishments, restaurants and night clubs catering to theLGBTQ community. The area has some of Dallas' most renownedgay bars andnightclubs, most of which are located along, or close to, Cedar Springs Road. Oak Lawn is contiguous with the Dallas Design District and less than two miles away fromDowntown Dallas.
The area also hosts some of the larger city festivals including the annualHalloween street festival, Dallas' GayPride parade, and Easter in the Park at Oak Lawn Park (formerly Robert E. Lee Park).
In 2014, Dallas's Oak Lawn was voted the number onegayborhood byOut Traveler.[18] In October 2018, Dallas made history when it became the first Texas city to get state recognition for its Oak Lawn LGBT neighborhood.[19]
There is a large concentration of Hispanic owned businesses, restaurants, grocery stores, nightclubs, and retail establishments on the Maple Avenue corridor between the Inwood Road and the North Dallas Tollway.
Oak Lawn is one of the older neighborhoods in Dallas. Continuous redevelopment of the neighborhood has created a mixture of architectural styles spanning much of the 20th century to the present day.
Measuring by structural height, the tallest buildings in or adjacent to Oak Lawn are as follows:[20]
