Hamilton Park

Hamilton Park, originally an all-Black subdivision, is ten miles north of Main and Akard streets in downtown Dallas, Dallas County. Two developments usually are associated with the founding of Hamilton Park. In 1950 several Black residences in the South Dallas area were bombed. In a January 1953 bond election the decision to demolish housing in Black neighborhoods for the expansion of the municipal airport, Love Field, was approved. Although these events were important, several home builders had attempted to relieve the housing shortage well before the bombings began. They worked with the Dallas Negro Chamber of Commerce (now the Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce) to publicize African Americans' desperate overcrowding in the city. But strong opposition from adjacent White landowners defeated the largest and most attractive projects, and Blacks rejected a 3,000-acre "riverbottom" site 5½ miles northwest of downtown.

Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.