The Dal-Tex Building is a seven-story office building located at 501 Elm Street in the West End Historic District of downtown Dallas, Texas, United States. The building is located on the northeast corner of Elm and North Houston streets, across the street from the Texas School Book Depository in Dealey Plaza, the scene of the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. The Dal-Tex Building, sometimes called the Dallas-Textiles Building, the Dal-Tex Market Building, or the Dal-Tex Mart Building, was a center of the textile business in Dallas.

Dal-Tex Building
View from southwest, with the former Texas School Book Depository at left, the Dal-Tex Building, center, and the Dallas County Records Annex, right (2003)
Map
Former namesKingman Texas Implements Company Building, John Deere Plow Company Building
Alternative namesDallas Textile Building
General information
StatusCompleted
TypeBrick
Architectural styleSullivanesque
Address501 Elm St.,
Dallas, Texas
CountryUnited States
Coordinates32°46′43″N 96°48′30″W / 32.77861°N 96.80833°W / 32.77861; -96.80833
Completed1902; 122 years ago (1902)
Technical details
Floor count7
Design and construction
Architecture firmHubbell and Greene
Texas School Book Depository
Part of
DLMKHD No.H/2 (West End HD)
Significant dates
Designated CPNovember 14, 1978
Designated NHLDCPOctober 12, 1993
Designated DLMKHDOctober 6, 1975[4]
References
[1][2]

Designed by architects James P. Hubbell and Herbert Miller Greene as a warehouse for the Kingman Texas Implement Company, the building has been described as one of the "earliest Sullivanesque designs in Texas".[2] The building has also been reported to show the Prairie School's influence on Greene.[5]

Assassination of Kennedy

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Abraham Zapruder, who shot the famous Zapruder film, had his offices on the fourth floor of the Dal-Tex Building.[6]

Conspiracy theories

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Several conspiracy theories in the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy allege that some of the shots fired at the President's motorcade originated from the Dal-Tex Building.[7] In September 1966, Triumph's Lawrence R. Brown published an article stating that the bullet trajectories were traced back to a second-floor window in the Dal-Tex Building.[8] Jim Garrison told Playboy in September 1967 that the building was "in all probability" one of four locations in which snipers fired at Kennedy.[9] Garrison later claimed that there were four assassination teams, each consisting of a rifleman and a lookout, including one on the seventh floor of the building.[10] In November 1967, Josiah Thompson stated that his study allowed him to conclude that there were four shots from three different firing positions during the assassination. Thompson also concluded that the Dal-Tex Building was located in a zone also including the Dallas County Records Building and parts of the Dallas Criminal Courts Building that he determined could have been the location for the source of the second shot.[11] He said that a young man was arrested just minutes after the shooting, taken in for questioning by police, then disappeared in the confusion.[11]

In the May 1970 issue of Computers and Automation, Richard E. Sprague said that he used computer analysis of still photographs and movie films taken in Dealey Plaza.[12] Implicating four gunmen and at least 50 conspirators in Kennedy's assassination, he concluded that two shots had come from the Dal-Tex Building.[12] Five years later in September 1975, Sprague and L. Fletcher Prouty stated that their study of still photographs and film of the assassination revealed that the fourth floor of the Dal-Tex Building was one of three or four firing positions during the assassination.[13]

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Dallas County Historical Foundation (August 1991). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Dealey Plaza Historic District" (PDF). National Park Service. Retrieved June 7, 2012. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help) and Accompanying photos and maps, various dates (3.14 MB)
  2. ^ a b "Greene LaRoche and Dahl: An Inventory of their Collection, 1902-1953". Alexander Architectural Archive. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Libraries. Retrieved June 7, 2012.
  3. ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. November 2, 2013.
  4. ^ Staff (August 4, 2016). "West End Historic District" (PDF). Department of Urban Planning, City of Dallas. p. 3. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
  5. ^ "Architectural Legacy: Dallas". The Architectural Legacy of Herbert Miller Greene. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Libraries. Archived from the original on April 18, 2012. Retrieved June 7, 2012.
  6. ^ Bloom, John (November 22, 1983). "Film a compact, chilling, suspense story". The Citizen. Ottawa. p. 12. Retrieved April 11, 2015.
  7. ^ "A Second Primer of Assassination Theories". Esquire: 104 ff. May 1967. Archived from the original on 2011-10-07.
  8. ^ Chamberlain, John (November 30, 1966). "Rumors Rife In JFK Case". The Sumter Daily Item. Sumter, South Carolina. p. 8-A. Retrieved April 11, 2015.
  9. ^ "Garrison Claims 'Guerilla Team Of 7' Killed JFK". The Miami News. Miami, Florida. September 11, 1967. p. 2A. Retrieved April 11, 2015.
  10. ^ "Garrison Claims Foreign Help". The Milwaukee Journal. Milwaukee, Wisconsin. July 12, 1968. p. 3. Retrieved April 11, 2015.
  11. ^ a b Winship, Frederick M. (November 17, 1967). "Study Of Assassination Claims Conspiracy By Trio". The Bryan Times. Bryan, Ohio. UPI. pp. 1–2. Retrieved April 11, 2015.
  12. ^ a b "Computer "Clears" Oswald; Kennedy Case Studied". Spokane Daily Chronicle. Spokane, Washington. AP. May 2, 1970. p. 1. Retrieved April 11, 2015.
  13. ^ "2 Claim Conspiracy Proof in JFK's Death". Milwaukee Sentinel. Milwaukee, Wisconsin. UPI. September 4, 1975. p. 2. Retrieved April 11, 2015.
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