Tax Credit Program Highlight: Dallas High School

History

The Dallas High School Historic District encompassed some of the oldest buildings on school district property, which remained in continuous use until September 1995. The district was one of the oldest intact educational facilities in Dallas and a prominent landmark, until a 1998 fire decimated most of the structures. The four-story Classical Revival Auditorium and Classroom building, built in 1907 and designed by local firm Lang and Witchell and constructed by Chrisman and Nesbit, survived the fire. The Auditorium building features a two-story auditorium space surrounded by classrooms with Corinthian columns and unique brick vent houses on each side, used for air intake when the boilers were coal fed.

Rehabilitation Project

The high school operated as magnet schools under other names until 1995, when it was sold by the school district to a private developer. Other buildings from the historic complex were later lost to a large fire. Previous attempts to reuse the building were unsuccessful until the current owner purchased the property in 2015. The school building has now been fully rehabilitated and serves as leasable office space. Much of the building had been gutted, but remaining historic features were carefully repaired. The auditorium, with restored plaster work, serves as the reception and main gathering space for an architecture firm that leases most of the building. A glass elevator is now located in place of the stage. Remaining original windows were retained and repaired, while hundreds of new wood windows were custom built for the project. A small addition was made to the rear to create an accessible entrance from the parking lot.