Oak Cliff, across the Trinity

Oak Cliff was laid out in 1887, when Thomas L. Marsalis and John S. Armstrong bought several hundred acres on the south bank of the Trinity and sold them as an elite suburb, with a steam railway down Jefferson Boulevard to reach it. It incorporated in 1890, voted by eighteen votes to join Dallas in 1903, and has kept an identity of its own since. The Bishop Arts District is its best-known shopping street, and Winnetka Heights and Lake Cliff are City historic districts. 4 guides are listed below.

Nine of the City's nineteen conservation districts are in Oak Cliff, more than anywhere else, from Kessler Park and Stevens Park to the Bishop and Eighth Street blocks and Winnetka Heights' southern edge, so the zoning for many streets here is an ordinance written for that neighborhood, with its own rules on height, setbacks and what a new house must look like. The historic districts go further and review every exterior change. Buying here is also buying beside the Trinity and the creeks that drain to it, so the flood map for the exact address is worth reading before the offer.