The Moving Gingerbread Houses

 The moving gingerbread houses (c.1890s) didn't move far, but it can be confirmed that they moved from where they were originally. Another piece of the puzzle was also revealed. As in any state, but Texas especially, land is like Fort Knox and it's prized dearly. It wasn't hard to figure out that the reason for the move of two old houses and a railroad depot and rail car was for the land they occupied. Call it progress. Some still do.  I'm not so sure that progress wasn't more about trying to preserve face for  the miscues of  others over the years.

There is no doubt that the new office buildings going up on the land will complete the look for  civic services for the city. The real question is why the city built the original building on the same block as the old railroad station and the two historic houses built when Garland had not yet  seen its first fifty years. However, what ever the real reason, the moves have been made and the excavating equipment was puffing smoke with every blade of dirt pushed out of the way to put in a foundation for a three story building today.

The houses looked sad as they faced where they once lived.     

c.1890s

Gingerbread Architecture

Garland's Moving The Furniture Around

At the new location when placed on foundation

It's still a very historic building regardless where it now sits.

A recent trip to Garland to an antique dealer found the unexpected. The old railroad station and train Pullman car that had been a historic landmark and the two turn-of-the-century gingerbread houses were gone from their original location.  The land had been cleared and leveled. Obviously, the buildings had been moved and I set out to find the new locations. It didn't take long to find the rail station and Pullman car. They had been moved a few blocks north and west next to the Dart station where the old DGNO (the local short line) had its engineers and crews office on Walnut Street.

The Dart station was the northern end of blue line but now is extended into downtown Rowlett. So the exposure of the old rail station will be a good asset in their new location. Finding the old houses was a bit of a letdown because I never did find where the houses had been moved. That will have to wait until a later time. Perhaps, a good warm winter day or early spring shoot.

It appears that Garland is doing the same as downtown Plano did after the red line came to Collin Country. That downtown Plano project was such a success that a second wave of growth is underway. Downtown Garland is moving these  properties at the right time and it will only add to the overall growth of the Metroplex. I'm always glad to see well planned furniture moves cities make to improve the overall scheme of things. At the same time, I am a historian-at-heart and do not like to see historic buildings demolished or relocated for the most part. On rare situations, it becomes history within itself if done right. Garland seems to be on the right track (pardon the pun).

When you stop to think about it, Dart from downtown Dallas now goes to downtown Garland and Rowlett, downtown Plano, downtown Carrollton on the green line, and with the addition of the "A" train, downtown Denton in Denton County. With the orange lines, and connections to the TRE, downtown Irving  and downtown Ft. Worth, or staying on the orange line and DFW terminal A is just a year away. While Las Colinas is available now.

The amount of distance that can be covered with Dart from downtown Dallas is astonishing when you think about it. Sometimes, moving the furniture around makes for an expanded living area. And like a furniture move in the house, sometimes, you trip on the relocated furniture, but eventually get used to the rearrangement. Anyone visiting Dallas and can't find anything to do, isn't looking very hard.



 

The Story Tellers of White Rock Lake

If trees could talk, there are a few trees at White Rock that have probably seen it all from  their growth  stand. It occurred to me not long ago that another severe ice storm like we just dodged, or straight-line winds could bring these old story tellers down to the ground and reduce their massive, scared trunks to firewood.

There is a story about the old Pecan tree that stands on the Cole farm in Highland Park that is decorated every year. KERA has run the story as fillers many times over the course of its creation. But  people that live around the lake; regular visitors to the lake or even a one-time visitor visiting family here in Dallas looking for some place neat to sight see, also notice some of these old haunting trees with their rabbit-holed trunks. Their twisted, sometimes sawed off, even bent, and mangled branches have their own character that are just as old as the Cole pecan tree, if not older in some cases.

The project sprang up when I was looking for something of significance to shoot at White Rock Lake. First, one thinks of buildings. Some good, some bad, but they have been shot over and over and over .Eventually, the list came to be titled, "old trees"  The odd thing is that during the summer, when leafed out, it's easy to miss some of the character of the tree itself. But, in late fall and early winter when the leaves start to fall and branches are bare, one can see the real beauty of the tree from an age stand-point. The character just blossoms.
Here are just a few of what I found today.

The trunk is split from the base up the trunk for nearly 15-feet.I would guess that a lightening strike hit the tree more than just once.



The trunk is straight but it has been mutilated by weather, disease or lightening.

Another tree that has overcome lightening strikes, wind damage, and who knows what else.

These old trees have a ghostly character that only age can bestow on this old story-teller. The wood would be interesting to inspect. Old wood like this is filled with so much character, no wonder people search the planet for old trees like these for a variety of reasons. Many, just walk by the old tree and never notice its character at all.
 

Unusual Road History

It began as a note to myself while the construction on the White Rock Lake Dam and Spillway was underway about two years ago. That note said that I should remember to do a post on the dam and spillway after the construction was complete.  My attention had been drawn to an unusual  piece of granite that was inscribed some time in the past. It was just sitting there along  a sidewalk partially leaned up against a wrought iron railing. It looked a bit odd compared to the typical historical marker that the State of Texas uses to mark historical points of interest. One of those was about 15 feet farther up the sidewalk that gave the history of White Rock Lake Dam and Spillway but the white granite marker was even more interesting to me. It also had a half-mooned bowl that could be a water fountain or  who knows what else. It was just plain cool. The inscription was indeed historical and it was clear that the marker was going up at the dam and beloved spillway that has drawn people to view the dam after a major rain storm for years. It is an impressive site.


"Central National Road of the Republic of Texas was created by the Texas Congress on Feb.5,1844 to establish a five-man commission to select a right of way, see that it was cleared, and supervise the building of necessary bridges." 1

1."CENTRAL NATIONAL ROAD," handbook of Texas Online (http://www.Tsha.online.org/handbook/online/article01),accessed November 24,2013.Published by the Texas State Historical Association.

Placed by the Daughters of the American Revolution

The history of White Rock Lake

The new renovation to the dam and spillway

When Things Go Awry

The  Oxford Dictionary declared the word of the year to be  Selfie.  That just says it all.  It shows how self-centered we have become as a society. Otherwise, the word would not have made it into the Oxford under the rules of usage.

Yesterday, another small airport fooled a pilot and he landed his very big plane. Recall a day in July in 2012, when two Florida runways on the same heading fooled another pilot and he too, sat his very big military aircraft down on a very small and short runway. Or many years ago when a commercial pilot landed on a short and narrow taxiway at the old Denver Stapleton . So if I can remember three  such situations in 40 years, there must be more, maybe ( don't always believe everything you read). But here's a run down on this latest one.

Once upon a time, a giant cargo plane named Atlas Air 4241, also known in aviation parlance as GTI4241.Giant, departed an airfield (LIBG) in the heel of Italy known as Grottaglie/Taranto headed to JFK in New York. It is a modified Boeing 747-400 Quad. It's a little more than a 10 hour flight. Upon leaving New York, at 07:26 PM EST,  it was heading west to McConnell AFB, Kansas.

 McConnell, (KIAB) is a very large facility. To the north end of the airfield is also Cessna Aircraft facility. To the west side of McConnell is attached the Boeing Aircraft Company facility (Spirit) where the Boeing 787 is assembled. Atlas Air is also known as Boeing's Dream lifter that hauls huge sections of fuselage pieces from Italy to the Kansas facility. These  three facilities are snuggled in the curve of the Kansas Turnpike which is also Interstate Highway 35 from the first exit in Kansas

Atlas Air 4241 Giant landed in Kansas at 09:26 PM CST last night and quickly found out it wasn't Kansas anymore. A nightmare was what it was. The craft had landed at Colonel James Jabara  airport(KAAO) in error. It is 9 miles north of McConnell and it gets worse. The runway is in the 6100 feet length range while the Giant needs 9100 feet to become airborne with a full load of cargo and fuel.  The plane sat on the runway overnight. 

Finally, after watching two guys, one  in bright yellow top and the other in a full suit bright yellow, wait under the nose wheel while the engineers give the go-ahead. The men finally clear the runway and get out of jet blast range, the Giant heads down the runway at Col. Jabara's Airport. And finally, without eating up the 6100 foot runway and who knows how much grass.......while still on the runway, she lifted skyward to the relief of many people. Earlier a few cargo containers were trailered to be land delivered to McConnell.  It was 13:16 PM CST , the craft made a longer than scheduled journey south and then brought her inward to an approach at McConnell. It could have been a bad day but people tend to pull together when times get tough.

There was another Giant in Charleston, S.C. at Charleston  AFB scheduled to McConnell around 3:10 this afternoon, but the flight plans disappeared and the departure board showed no sign of the flight.
While the fleet did have a couple of flights over the Atlantic from Belgium and from Brazil, nothing else was showing.

With Selfie being the world of the year, wonder how many Selfies  are made in the cockpits? 






 

Dallas Prepares for the 50th Anniversary of the Assination of President John F. Kennedy

Originally, I had wanted to attend the 50th Anniversary ceremonies to be held on Friday, November 22. Of course, the city limited who can attend. Never-the-less, in this day and age, I understand the city's concerns I just don't understand why they stop people from remembering someone that changed this country. Especially on such a historical day. Jackie's dress won't be released to the public for viewing until 2116 or some date I won't live to see. I could have seen this one, however.

So yesterday, I tried to stay away from downtown but my car just kept steering me to go take a look at Dealey Plaza, although I have seen it hundreds of times before. I was surprised to see empty parking meters within a block on Houston Street. When I started to drop quarters, I was even more surprised. Twenty-five cents gets you 12-minutes of time on the meter. Now I know why the meter spaces were empty. One hour of time was a big $1.20 for up to two hours (if I dropped another $1.20 behind the first). It's not bad overall. Some of the garages get more as do some of the lots for all day parking. The Sixth Floor Museum was charging $5.00 at their lot.

It was a good thing. There was a group of Asian businessmen touring with their American host. People were thick. Some guy coming down Elm Street near where the "X" is marked on the street was blowing his horn at the tourist. My mother would say, "there is always one in the crowd to put a bad image on all the good." People did look up from their conversations and I did see a few shake their heads.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, the fences and barriers start to go up. The extended weather forecast for Friday doesn't look good, either. Cold, windy with gust to 25 Mph, rainy. If you believe in Karma, then Mayor Mike Rawlings has got some bad Karma for limiting who can come to the ceremony! I have only met him once. Tom Lepert , was a more likable  figure. As a former CEO of Turner Construction, the man knew how to plan, budget, build and lead. While Mayor Rawlings  is okay as a person, the best way to describe him is that the former CEO of Pizza Hut left off the peperoni on his pizzas.

Yes, I said earlier that I understood why the ceremony had to be limited to some degree. But to me, it's like putting the cart before the horse.

Looking at The Texas Book Depository from Commerce Street

50 years ago, the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge wasn't there.

 

Competition Begins for Slots at Love Field

The settlement of the Justice Department's law suit in the American and U.S. Airways merger is hardly 48-hours old and already Delta Airlines says that they want the two slots that Southwest Airlines will give up at Love Field.

Delta Connection arriving Love Field