Good fight, Old Oak Cliff Conservation League. Good fight, Monte Anderson of Options Real Estate. Good fight, attorney John McCall.
You did all you could.
We’re sorry you lost the battle to save the former Oak Cliff Christian Church, the 90-year-old building at 10th and Crawford. No one wanted to buy the old church, which was designed by Van Slyke and Woodruff, the architects who designed the McKinney Avenue Baptist Church, which later became the Hard Rock Café. Preservationists blamed a tight lending market and other considerations, such as the building’s lack of parking.
So its owner, the Dallas school district, is expected to tear it down to make way for athletic facilities to serve the high school that will replace Adamson.
The good news is Adamson High School is on track to get a historic designation. And the 112-year-old Cliff Temple Baptist Church is alive and well. It’s full of activity every day, and it’s on this year’s OOCCL Fall Home Tour.
Even though they couldn’t save Oak Cliff Christian Church, there is an upside. The fight made Oak Cliff conservationists more aware they should keep a keen eye on our neighborhood’s historic buildings. That idea sparked the first list of at-risk architecture in Oak Cliff, which is modeled after Preservation Dallas’s similar annual list. We’re sorry you lost this one, guys. But you’re better prepared for the next one.
