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The Cedars is a district in south Dallas Texas (USA). It is adjacent to and south of downtown and Interstate 30, east of Lamar Street, north of Corinth Street, and west of Harwood Street.
[edit] History
The Cedars was originally developed in the 1870s with moderately-priced homes, but by the late 1800s the neighborhood had become one of the premier destinations in Dallas, with stately Victorian homes belonging to wealthy businessmen, lawyers, and politicians dotting the streets. The Cedars was also the home of Dallas' Jewish community, and the neighborhood included the Shaareth Israel synagogue. (Stanley Marcus of Neiman Marcus fame was born in the Cedars.) By the early 1900s, however, light industry and growing population pressures had begun to take the bloom off the neighborhood's rose, and most of the city's wealthiest began to move further north to neighborhoods northeast of downtown. Even as industry, such as the Sears-Roebuck warehouse that now is home of the South Side on Lamar lofts, moved in, fine homes continued to be built, especially for well-to-do members of the Jewish community. But by the 1920s, the massive Victorians of the late 1800s were gone, the synagogue was demolished, and most people moved on. In the 1960s, virtually all of the remaining homes were destroyed by the city for highway projects. Today, only a scant handful of homes (perhaps as few as six) from the neighborhood's original residents survive, none in restored condition, and the area has been taken over by light industry and many low-income residences built in later years.
The area, a haven for artists and other creative types for over 20 years, has recently experienced the beginnings of an urban transformation with new townhomes and apartments and developments such as DART's Cedars Station, the loft/retail development South Side on Lamar, the Dallas Police Headquarters, and entertainment venues Gilley's Dallas and Poor David's Pub. However, development has been constrained by a large (albeit mostly harmless) local homeless population and several homeless shelters, which has led to often acrimonious battles between Cedars landowners and developers, homeless advocates, and the Dallas City Council. With the Homeless Assistance Center (HAC) slated for completion downtown in 2008 and the sunsetting of several day labor locations and housing in the next few years the transformation should accelerate.
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