Breakfast at Little Gus’ starts my day off right! Let’s not waste time. Hop aboard “Flying Red” and off we go!
Before we head north over Greenville Avenue, look across Matilda. Do you see the block lined with English Tudor-style brick duplexes? They date from the 1920s and are the only double blockface duplexes of that era remaining in Dallas. The small, front-yard setbacks have a London suburb feel, adding to the area’s charm. Several years ago, La Vista Court became East Dallas’ fourth historic district. There are several more areas in Mill Creek that qualify for historic designation.
As we fly north along Greenville Avenue, we pass over the landmark Arcadia Theater, a popular moviehouse of the ‘20s and ‘30s that is home to numerous musical events.
Greenville Avenue is one of the few pleasant results of strip zoning in Dallas, largely due to luck and timing. When Greenville was built in the ‘20s and ‘30s, storefronts were oriented to pedestrians. At this time, there were no concrete areas in front of the stores.
Instead, the interurban line along Matilda was a major factor in the development of Greenville Avenue. The interurban helped encourage commercial clustering at the corners near the designated interurban stops.
Some of the small-scale buildings have the added charm of then-popular brick or tile detailing. The Brazos Restaurant façade is a good example.
Flying over Lower Greenville (between Ross and Mockingbird), we can spot five of the “100 Best Restaurants,” as identified in D Magazine: Chaplin’s, Brazos, The Grape, Arcadia Bar and Grill, and Saigon.
On either side of Greenville are the single-family neighborhoods of Vickery Place, Cochran Heights and Greenland Hills, located between Greenville and Central Expressway; and Belmont and Lower Greenville, bounded by Greenville and Skillman.
Frame Craftsman cottages give way to English Tudor brick cottages as we approach Mockingbird. During the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, these dynamic neighborhoods fought the widening of Skillman and Abrams, the creation of a one-way couplet on Greenville and Matilda, parking and zoning problems along Greenville, an elevated Central Expressway, and the widening of McCommas across Central. The Greenville Avenue Area Business Association (GAABA), originally organized in the ‘20s to promote the interests of merchants and property owners, recently threw a “bash” at the Granada Cinema ‘n’ Drafthouse to present a conceptual beautification plan for the Greenville Avenue area. The plans call for period light standards, tree planting in consistent patterns, and brick paving designs at major intersections.
Adjoining neighborhoods are cooperating in the planning process, a recognition of mutual self-interest that has grown between homeowners and business interests.
