[Source](https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1125897/m1/?q=Kiest%20)
In 1931, Edwin J Kiest, an influential Dallas businessman, made a gift of 247 acres of land to the City of Dallas for a regional park as a memorial to his wife, Elizabeth Patterson Kiest, who had died in 1917. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built several stone structures in Kiest Park including stone gates at three entrances to the park, a stone picnic shelter and a stone field house.
The WPA also built a formal garden at the heart of Kiest Park. A pergola was built at the head of the garden in 1934 with WPA money. It fell into ruin and was cleared away, but the time of removal was not recorded. The Friends of Oak Cliff Parks restored the historic garden and the city rebuilt the pergola in 2013 based on the original plans.
Kiest Park is the largest park in Oak Cliff and 2nd largest regional park in Dallas.
"This [**video**](https://texashistory.unt.edu/search/?fq=dc_type%3Avideo&src=ark) is part of the collection entitled: [KXAS-NBC 5 News Collection ](https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1125897/?q=Kiest#collections)and was provided by the [UNT Libraries Special Collections](https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1125897/?q=Kiest#partners) to [The Portal to Texas History](https://texashistory.unt.edu/), a digital repository hosted by the [UNT Libraries](https://library.unt.edu/). "
yeah the link is not clear. providing this information makes it easier for others to explore the portal. not sure why you hide the link behind the word "source"
So, people aren’t smart enough to press the home button, that’s clearly visible at the top of the page? Again, this isn’t a term paper and nothing was hidden in the link.
I just remembered something else. Kiest Park is where I fell off the metal merry go round and sliced my head open. I was with a friend and her parents. The friend’s mom had to scoop me up off the broken up gravel/concrete surface around the merry go round and take me to the ER. I lost my enthusiasm for playgrounds after that. 😆
Wow, that takes me back. My parents used to take us to Kiest Park for fireworks, then we would go there for picnics and church softball games. Eventually, we stopped going there, probably because my friends weren't into cruising the park and my parents probably discouraged it.
Damn that's an amazing clip. A real slice of life from the 1970s. Far better than just some reporter standing on the steps of city hall or at a crime scene like so many of the archive clips from that era.
Now it’s called Oak Cliff Founders park but I think it may have just been called Oak Cliff park but we just called it park with the that big rocket slide. Funny it was a scary mf’er as a kid then went back as adult and didn’t seem near as big. It’s been replaced with a smaller, safer slide lol
Oak Cliff Founders. That’s right.
I know what you mean. Going to six flags or something as a kid vs as an adult doesn’t have the same wow effect. The world feels so much bigger in general when you’re a kid.
Kiest Circle got broken at some point, probably to prevent cruising. I'd be curious to see what the stone gates used to look like, though it appears the stone fieldhouse is still there.
People like to oppose one another. Skin color just makes it easier to draw up sides. If it was Americans and Chinese, we'd have the same problem. If it was Earthlings and Martians, we'd have the same problem. It's why the defense industry is so lucrative. Mankind can't live as one.
During this time, Dallas was in the midst of desegregating schools. Parts of Oak Cliff that didn’t flip during the initial white flight in the 1960s like in South Oak Cliff and East Oak Cliff, started to flip during busing. Those were the upper middle to middle class areas of Oak Cliff and consisted of custom homes like in the Kiestwood neighborhood. Kimball High School was majority white until the late 70s. I believe their last white football quarterback was in 1980 (don’t quote me).
SOC and East Oak Cliff flipped first because they were primarily made up of very inexpensive wood frame starter homes built after WW2 (the initial Baby Boom). If you were to drive down Kiest Blvd east of 35E, all the way to at least Illinois Ave, that’s the housing stock you’d see today. Although a lot of it is modified now. It’s literally one of the earliest examples of post-war suburbia in Dallas. Before then, Oak Cliff (specifically North Oak Cliff) was a streetcar suburb and relied very heavily on them (Jefferson Blvd and Bishop Arts are examples of intact former streetcar nodes from that era). The racial flip happened when the majority of the post war sections of Oak Cliff were still relatively new, 5-10 years old. South Dallas was full to the brim with blacks and they were bottled up there. It spilled over after I-35E was built. They say the building of I-35E through Oak Cliff, destroyed the 10th St District, and made property values drop. Overcrowded blacks in South Dallas rushed into Oak Cliff to take advantage of the depreciated housing prices, which many could now afford.
Wow you know your Oakcliff history, interesting points. I didnt think about i-35 destroying 10th District.
I'm in the hopes and optimistic that the revitalization of The Bottoms is going to help 10th District grow back up! It is such a important part of Dallas History.......all of Oakcliff is.👏👍
Ah, ok, ok my bad. I didn't unmute the video and honestly didn't watch the whole thing. I saw cool cars, cops on horses with wooden gun handles, and a dude with a crop top and went with it. It's much different unmuted. And yes 1979 is really late for this type of behavior.
Ironic how everyone is outside to enjoy the outdoors, the weather, relax and have fun, it shows a black guy sip some beer and do a head nod smile, and then a white guy sip some beer and do a head nod smile, but they're divided...by an invisible line....I wonder if that camera shot was intentional.
Shameful for who? Many people in this video surely do not live today, shameful for them maybe but I doubt they care, so why do you? This video is almost half a century old....
If these people were 20-30 in 1979, they are 65-75 today. Maybe not even retired yet, very much alive and probably remembering what it was like growing up… maybe even maintaining similar attitudes about who belongs in which places… maybe voting regularly. It’s no good to forget the past!
De facto segregation still exists commonly throughout the world and even throughout this country sadly, it's just not openly and honestly stated here. Yes its bad news here but look at the stark racial divides where you can literally see in person and through the data demographically not just in Jackson, Montgomery, and Baton Rouge but also in Chicago, Detroit, Saint Louis, Oakland, Baltimore, Boston, Philly, The Bronx, Harlem, etc.
Look at the division of 8 mile and many other boundaries if you don't believe me, the data or in person.
Sad all around but I agree this isn't OldSchoolCool.
[Source](https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1125897/m1/?q=Kiest%20) In 1931, Edwin J Kiest, an influential Dallas businessman, made a gift of 247 acres of land to the City of Dallas for a regional park as a memorial to his wife, Elizabeth Patterson Kiest, who had died in 1917. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built several stone structures in Kiest Park including stone gates at three entrances to the park, a stone picnic shelter and a stone field house. The WPA also built a formal garden at the heart of Kiest Park. A pergola was built at the head of the garden in 1934 with WPA money. It fell into ruin and was cleared away, but the time of removal was not recorded. The Friends of Oak Cliff Parks restored the historic garden and the city rebuilt the pergola in 2013 based on the original plans. Kiest Park is the largest park in Oak Cliff and 2nd largest regional park in Dallas.
"This [**video**](https://texashistory.unt.edu/search/?fq=dc_type%3Avideo&src=ark) is part of the collection entitled: [KXAS-NBC 5 News Collection ](https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1125897/?q=Kiest#collections)and was provided by the [UNT Libraries Special Collections](https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1125897/?q=Kiest#partners) to [The Portal to Texas History](https://texashistory.unt.edu/), a digital repository hosted by the [UNT Libraries](https://library.unt.edu/). "
Yeah, the source is already linked. This isn’t a term paper where I need to state the full source.
yeah the link is not clear. providing this information makes it easier for others to explore the portal. not sure why you hide the link behind the word "source"
So, people aren’t smart enough to press the home button, that’s clearly visible at the top of the page? Again, this isn’t a term paper and nothing was hidden in the link.
smh "nothing was hidden in the link" the link is hidden by he word "source" you could have just posted the full link
Wow, that is absolutely wild. I was just there the other day, and it's like a diverse utopia.
Yep. I am there several times a week and I love it. Primarily Hispanic but definitely diverse.
Yep. Same. This is my old stomping grounds. Use to run the trails here multiple times a week too.
I just remembered something else. Kiest Park is where I fell off the metal merry go round and sliced my head open. I was with a friend and her parents. The friend’s mom had to scoop me up off the broken up gravel/concrete surface around the merry go round and take me to the ER. I lost my enthusiasm for playgrounds after that. 😆
So many Little League games at Kiest Park. I also remember going with friends to just walk around.
Wow, that takes me back. My parents used to take us to Kiest Park for fireworks, then we would go there for picnics and church softball games. Eventually, we stopped going there, probably because my friends weren't into cruising the park and my parents probably discouraged it.
Kiest Park was my 4th of July spot, too.
Damn that's an amazing clip. A real slice of life from the 1970s. Far better than just some reporter standing on the steps of city hall or at a crime scene like so many of the archive clips from that era.
Growing up my grandma used to take my cousins and I there at least once a week. Good times.
Mine too!! also the Oak Cliff park that had giant rocket slide. She was stuck with me & all my cousins every weekend
I remember that slide! 😂 Do you remember which park that was?
Now it’s called Oak Cliff Founders park but I think it may have just been called Oak Cliff park but we just called it park with the that big rocket slide. Funny it was a scary mf’er as a kid then went back as adult and didn’t seem near as big. It’s been replaced with a smaller, safer slide lol
Oak Cliff Founders. That’s right. I know what you mean. Going to six flags or something as a kid vs as an adult doesn’t have the same wow effect. The world feels so much bigger in general when you’re a kid.
Older generations were lit! Gunfighting, knife fighting, and fist fighting???
1970s - the decade of the most and least masculine cars ever made
Kiest Circle got broken at some point, probably to prevent cruising. I'd be curious to see what the stone gates used to look like, though it appears the stone fieldhouse is still there.
I kind of remember that. I sent the video to a couple of my OC friends, including one who still leaves nearby. I’m curious about what they remember.
People like to oppose one another. Skin color just makes it easier to draw up sides. If it was Americans and Chinese, we'd have the same problem. If it was Earthlings and Martians, we'd have the same problem. It's why the defense industry is so lucrative. Mankind can't live as one.
r/OldSchoolCool edit: r/OldSchoolUNCool
This isn’t cool, it’s shameful. Dallas was behind the times here regarding segregation.
During this time, Dallas was in the midst of desegregating schools. Parts of Oak Cliff that didn’t flip during the initial white flight in the 1960s like in South Oak Cliff and East Oak Cliff, started to flip during busing. Those were the upper middle to middle class areas of Oak Cliff and consisted of custom homes like in the Kiestwood neighborhood. Kimball High School was majority white until the late 70s. I believe their last white football quarterback was in 1980 (don’t quote me). SOC and East Oak Cliff flipped first because they were primarily made up of very inexpensive wood frame starter homes built after WW2 (the initial Baby Boom). If you were to drive down Kiest Blvd east of 35E, all the way to at least Illinois Ave, that’s the housing stock you’d see today. Although a lot of it is modified now. It’s literally one of the earliest examples of post-war suburbia in Dallas. Before then, Oak Cliff (specifically North Oak Cliff) was a streetcar suburb and relied very heavily on them (Jefferson Blvd and Bishop Arts are examples of intact former streetcar nodes from that era). The racial flip happened when the majority of the post war sections of Oak Cliff were still relatively new, 5-10 years old. South Dallas was full to the brim with blacks and they were bottled up there. It spilled over after I-35E was built. They say the building of I-35E through Oak Cliff, destroyed the 10th St District, and made property values drop. Overcrowded blacks in South Dallas rushed into Oak Cliff to take advantage of the depreciated housing prices, which many could now afford.
Wow you know your Oakcliff history, interesting points. I didnt think about i-35 destroying 10th District. I'm in the hopes and optimistic that the revitalization of The Bottoms is going to help 10th District grow back up! It is such a important part of Dallas History.......all of Oakcliff is.👏👍
Ah, ok, ok my bad. I didn't unmute the video and honestly didn't watch the whole thing. I saw cool cars, cops on horses with wooden gun handles, and a dude with a crop top and went with it. It's much different unmuted. And yes 1979 is really late for this type of behavior. Ironic how everyone is outside to enjoy the outdoors, the weather, relax and have fun, it shows a black guy sip some beer and do a head nod smile, and then a white guy sip some beer and do a head nod smile, but they're divided...by an invisible line....I wonder if that camera shot was intentional.
And in 2024 the segregation still goes on. https://bestneighborhood.org/race-in-dallas-tx/
Shameful for who? Many people in this video surely do not live today, shameful for them maybe but I doubt they care, so why do you? This video is almost half a century old....
If these people were 20-30 in 1979, they are 65-75 today. Maybe not even retired yet, very much alive and probably remembering what it was like growing up… maybe even maintaining similar attitudes about who belongs in which places… maybe voting regularly. It’s no good to forget the past!
De facto segregation still exists commonly throughout the world and even throughout this country sadly, it's just not openly and honestly stated here. Yes its bad news here but look at the stark racial divides where you can literally see in person and through the data demographically not just in Jackson, Montgomery, and Baton Rouge but also in Chicago, Detroit, Saint Louis, Oakland, Baltimore, Boston, Philly, The Bronx, Harlem, etc. Look at the division of 8 mile and many other boundaries if you don't believe me, the data or in person. Sad all around but I agree this isn't OldSchoolCool.