By Texas Metro News Staff
The overhead traffic sounds of wheels whooshing, horns beeping, even ambulance sirens blaring accompanied the outdoor portion of the opening ceremony for the Deep Ellum Community Center on September 30.
The new Community Center is at 2528 Elm Street-Suite A, across the street from the legendary Pittman Hotel in the same block of Elm Street in Deep Ellum near Good-Latimer Freeway.
The new Deep Ellum historical installations are up the side- walk from the new center and feature historical materials on the concrete columns under the Central Expressway (I-345/ Hwy 75) overpass at Elm Street.
Dallas historian and prolific author Alan Govenar curated and organized the installations that also are part of the year-long 2023 Deep Ellum’s 150th anniversary celebration.
Govenar and writer-editor Jay Brakefield co-wrote the 1998 book Deep Ellum and Central Track: Where the Black and White Worlds of Dallas Converged.
“It was apparent that this part of Dallas history had been long neglected, overlooked.” Govenar said in an NBCDFW5-TV interview about the center opening. “What this center is doing is bringing forth the true history of this neighborhood.”
Various columns display giant reprints of pages from two early 1900s African American business directories that detailed the services and wares of Dallas African American entrepreneurs and professionals, including physicians, lawyers, and owners of barbershops, cafes, clubs, insurance companies, and more.
Other columns display giant fixtures that feature essays and memoirs about the experiences of life in Deep Ellum during that early 1900s era with largely African American and Jewish cultures. Dallas-Fort Worth area veteran journalists Norma Adams-Wade and Bob Ray Sanders contributed essays that are featured on the concrete columns.
The installation opening included local and national actor, writer and director Akin Babatunde giving a rendition of the work of the late Texas-born blues singer/guitarist Blind Lemon Jefferson, a popular early 1900s fixture in Deep Ellum in Dallas.
In his opening comments under the freeway, Govenar expressed excitement about the long-awaited center and installation openings.
He also paid tribute to many individuals and organizations that he said helped pull together various aspects of the outdoor installations and the new community center up the sidewalk from there.
The center features inaugural and permanent historical exhibits about early Deep Ellum and Central Track and many souvenir items. Among supporters are the Deep Ellum Foundation, Deep Ellum Community Association, Summerlee Foundation, Ace Records (London), and Texas Commission on the Arts.
Weekly tours will be given each Saturday. The public is invited to donate privately-owned memorabilia about Deep Ellum and Central Track.
To learn more about the center visit https://www.deepellumcommunitycenter.com.
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