Downtown Dallas is filled with historical sites, most notably Dealey Plaza, where President John. F. Kennedy was assassinated.<\/p>\n
Across from Dealey Plaza, in between Elm Street and Main Street, sits the Dallas County Records Building, which has a rich history. From the outside, it resembles its original form, but inside, it’s modernized with hints of what it looked like in the past.<\/p>\n
“This building is really three buildings,” said District 3 Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price.<\/p>\n
After nearly five years of renovations and $200 million later, the Dallas County Records Building reopened in 2022.<\/p>\n
Built in 1913 and 1955, the original complex served as a county jail, criminal courthouse, commissioner’s court and records building.<\/p>\n
The historical preservation committee required the designers to keep the outside the same. Inside, it is completely different, but there are hints of the past and relics to preserve history.<\/p>\n
“There’s no need to destroy history. The history is what the history is,” said Price regarding a water fountain on the first floor from the Jim Crow area that shows ‘white only’ and ‘colored.’ Initially, there was controversy around keeping the fountain.<\/p>\n
Upstairs on the 7th floor, where Price’s office and conference room are located, is where the old jail used to be.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m the only one, I guess been around here long enough to remember where the old jail was, and it was several floors,” said Price, who has been a commissioner for 40 years.<\/p>\n
He said prior to 1924, the county handled its own executions before the state took it over in Huntsville.<\/p>\n
“You’re standing in the capital murder room,” said Price. “This one here is the old execution room for the old jail.”<\/p>\n
The space holds a significant meaning to him, especially since he’s the chairman of a couple of county jail committees.<\/p>\n
“I know that history. This room provides this history and I think that\u2019s a greater challenge for me every day, being the benefactor for whatever went on in this county,” said Price.<\/p>\n
The building housed Clyde Barrow, the infamous outlaw who committed crimes with Bonnie Parker. <\/p>\n
A marker, in what’s now the county nursing area, marks where his cell used to be. <\/p>\n
Jack Ruby also stayed in a cell at the old jail. Ruby killed Lee Harvey Oswald after Oswald assassinated President Kennedy. <\/p>\n
“This is where the Jack Ruby trial happened,” explained Price in the area that now serves as the Dallas County Commissioner’s Court.<\/p>\n
Judge Sarah Hughes also served in the courthouse. She was a three-term Texas House representative, who became a state judge and later was appointed as a federal district judge by President Kennedy.<\/p>\n
She welcomed Kennedy to town on Nov. 22, 1963, and according to an article from the University of North Texas College of Liberal Arts & Social Services Oral History, ‘was as shocked as anyone else by his assassination.’<\/p>\n
Most notably, she swore in Lyndon B. Johnson at Love Field aboard Air Force One.<\/p>\n
The building on 500 Elm St. holds many other historically significant stories, a structure wrapped in rich history, Price said, is important to preserve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Downtown Dallas is filled with historical sites, most notably Dealey Plaza, where President John. F. Kennedy was assassinated.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":84533,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,7290,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-84532","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-county","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-tx","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114899705050432629","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}