{"id":900890,"date":"2026-06-29T13:58:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T13:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/900890\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T13:58:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T13:58:21","slug":"this-historic-dallas-museum-just-reopened-after-a-14-year-hiatus-bringing-a-beloved-1930s-gem-back-to-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/900890\/","title":{"rendered":"This historic Dallas museum just reopened after a 14-year hiatus \u2014 bringing a beloved 1930s gem back to life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/FotoJet-2026-06-29T144943.883-1024x680.jpg\" class=\"wp-block-post-featured-image\" alt=\"Image shows a fox wildlife exhibit.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"680\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a data-force-follow=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/secretdallas.com\/author\/colby-smith\/\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1782741501_646_556af78e12ad1cf6182ac1c5f5b7d35984e6ef73b60c69c3dec5f87ca6a70570.jpeg\"  class=\"avatar avatar-40 photo\" height=\"40\" width=\"40\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>After a 14-year hiatus, the historical Dallas Museum of Natural History has reopened in Fair Park. Throughout the World Cup, the museum will be open for<strong> limited tours and public access on Sundays<\/strong> in an effort to revive Dallas Fair Park programming. <\/p>\n<p>Coinciding with the<strong> U.S. centennial<\/strong>, the Dallas Museum of Natural History was<strong> founded in 1936<\/strong>. The natural history museum housed an extensive collection of Dallas-area flora and fauna featuring Texas wildlife habitats, taxidermy fauna, and dioramas. For generations, the museum was a frequent destination for field trips. <\/p>\n<p>The historical museum will reopen for a limited time, offering tours on Sundays from <strong>3 pm \u2013\u00a09 pm <\/strong>throughout the World Cup (<strong>June 28, July 5, July 12, July 19<\/strong>) Viewings are <strong>free <\/strong>to the public. <\/p>\n<p>Also returning is the museum\u2019s longtime curator and exhibit director, <strong>Walt Davis<\/strong>. Having grown up visiting the museum, the artist and naturalist would go on to <strong>curate the museum\u2019s exhibits for 15 years <\/strong>\u2013\u00a0overseeing the construction of the dioramas and painted landscapes. A year after the museum closed, Davis penned a book about the museum\u2019s history. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt reminded me of my first visit here when I was 3 years old,\u201d said Davis on its re-opening this past Sunday, where over 500 people showed up. \u201cIt was a <strong>part of the childhood of thousands of people<\/strong>, and several of them came in Sunday and were so happy to see it open again\u201d. <\/p>\n<p>A fellow longtime resident of Fair Park is also returning. <strong>Old Mill Inn<\/strong>, one of Dallas\u2019 oldest restaurants, is reopening as<strong> fully operational bar, restaurant, and patio<\/strong>. Under <strong>Isaac Rousso<\/strong> \u2013 best known as an award-winning concessionaire of State Fair of Texas, the Old Mill Inn is presently<strong> open for previews during the World Cup<\/strong>. The revived inn will open in its full form late summer ahead of the State Fair. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a 14-year hiatus, the historical Dallas Museum of Natural History has reopened in Fair Park. Throughout the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":900891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,9177,16610,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-900890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-america","tag-dallas","tag-exhibition","tag-gallery","tag-texas","tag-tx","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116833755796723162","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900890","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=900890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/900891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=900890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=900890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=900890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}