Neighborhoods

Wheatley Place

Located just north of the Queen City District, Wheatley Place is roughly bounded by Warren on the northwest, Meadow on the northeast, McDermott on the southeast and Malcolm X and Atlanta on the southwest. Wheatley Place is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a City of Dallas Historic District. It is one of Dallas’s first planned residential areas for African-American families and is named for Phillis Wheatley, the first African-American woman poet in America.

Wheatley Place is a bungalow neighborhood with houses dating from 1916 through the late 1930s. When the neighborhood opened, it advertised amenities similar to those offered in Highland Park and Munger Place. These amenities included similar housing setbacks, paved roads, elevated curbs and walk-ups, and modern plumbing, electricity, and phone service. It attracted African-American ministers, business leaders, and civil rights leader Juanita Craft.

The Juanita Craft Civil Rights House is located at 2618 Warren Avenue. The house, a good example of the Craftsman bungalow style, served as both Ms. Craft’s home and meeting space to discuss and educate young African-Americans on the topic of civil rights. President Lyndon Johnson and Martin Luther King, Jr. are said to have visited Ms. Craft to discuss the future of the civil rights movement in Dallas. Ms. Craft was the first African-American woman to vote in Dallas and serve on the Dallas City Council.

Wheatley Place is significant for its large concentration of Craftsman style houses and for its ethnic heritage and community planning. Today, Wheatley Place is a quiet place with many long-time residents who express a great deal of pride toward their neighborhood. The Phillis Wheatley Elementary School is rated Exemplary.

Works Cited:
We Shall Overcome: Historic Places of the Civil Rights Movement. “Juanita Craft House”. U.S. Park Service. 1
September 2006 < http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights/tx1.htm>.
National Register Multiple Property Listing Historic and Architectural Resources of East and South Dallas, Dallas County, Texas, 1990. 1995.
Preservation Dallas Vertical Files, 2006.
Other Sources: Preservation Dallas Vertical Files

Author: Sarah Sibley
Editor: Michael Hazel
Photographs by: Discover Dallas! Volunteers