I’ve got so much to share, I hardly know where to begin! Last week was full of inspiration and exceptional things! I think I’ll start with what everyone in Dallas is talking about…the opening of Dallas’ Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge!
My incredibly passionate and talented neighbors, Jeff Herrington and Randall White, orchestrated Bridge-o-Rama, one of three of the celebrations surrounding the opening; so I was very excited to see the fruits of their labor! The results were nothing less than spectacular!
It was very surreal standing in the center of the amazing construction that I have watched on a daily basis for so long…a construction I will likely never have the opportunity to stand, and walk along, ever again…but plan to drive on many times a week. Watching the Spanish architect, Santiago Calatrava, walk past me as I reveled in the glory of the structure was especially exciting! He was followed by the construction workers that made it all happen
It was the Parade of Giants (featured in an earlier post here), the brainchild of Randall White, that was the highlight for me! These giant structures created by many area artist represented historical figures important to the development of West Dallas. La Reunion curated the project overseen by their executive director, Catherine Horsey…15 artists working with 14 community groups to tell the story of West Dallas.
Father Sebastian Valles led the way in the parade and in envisioning the first Catholic School of West Dallas in the 1930′s.
Mattie Nash was a long time West Dallas community activist and sat on the Dallas City Council from 1991 – 1993…
Victor Considerant was an explorer who founded the French-speaking La Réunion colony in what is today West Dallas… I got a huge high-5 from Victor!
Bettie Odom was a long-time West Dallas businesswoman and restaurateur who for many years was the proprietor of Odom’s Barbecue on Singleton Boulevard. Yum!
Bonnie Parker, of 30′s gangster duo ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ fame, carried a dark cloud over her head…
Clyde Barrow, followed close behind his beloved Bonnie… Clyde is actually buried at Western Heights Cemetery on Fort Worth Ave., just blocks from the bridge…
Judge Harold Barefoot Sanders steered the Dallas ISD through the long process of desegregation…
Of course, Barefoot Sanders had bare feet!
Andrea Flores Cervantes, a Los Barrios Unidos clinic founder, established the first free summer lunch program for West Dallas children and threw many kisses along the parade route…
Hattie Rankin was a church worker who was so moved by the poverty in West Dallas in the 1930s, she started the Eagle Ford Mission…
Judge Jerry Buchmeyer was best known for his 1985 ruling that forever transformed living conditions in West Dallas’s public housing projects…
Julien Reverchon was one of the La Reunion colonists who also taught botany at what today is Baylor University Medical Center…
Rhoda Dragoo, a Methodist deaconess, won the right for Mexican children to attend Dallas public schools in 1915…
Myrtle Davis, a late-20th-century community and political leader, was one of the namesakes of the largest recreation complex in West Dallas…
Sarah Cockrell opened and managed the first bridge over the Trinity River in 1872, linking West Dallas for the first time with all major roads north and east.
I can’t imagine how proud all of these West Dallas leaders would have felt to see this celebration…
This could quiet possibly be my longest post ever, but I just had to share all of these cool works of art!
Did you visit the bridge celebration this weekend? What did you enjoy the most?
Tomorrow I’m going to share my favorite new shop just blocks across the west side of the bridge!
