DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Parkland Hospital in Dallas County. Now settle in, because this one carries some weight. Dallas got itself a city hospital back in 1874 — a modest start on Lamar Street, the kind of place a young, scrappy city builds when it's figuring out what it wants to be.
By the 1890s, the hospital had already outgrown those first walls and moved on over to Maple Avenue. But that was just the warm-up. In 1913, something new went up — a state of the art facility, part of a nationwide movement sweeping through American medicine, a reckoning with what modern care could look like.
And that building didn't just treat the sick. It pulled a whole neighborhood along with it, becoming the seed of a medical center district. It also became the first home to Southwestern Medical College — the institution that today you'd know as the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School.
One building, carrying a lot of future on its shoulders. Then came 1954, and Parkland Hospital made its biggest move yet — out to a new facility at 5201 Harry Hines Boulevard. A modern address for a hospital setting standards, advancing medicine, building a reputation that reached well beyond Dallas County.
And then comes November 22, 1963. You already feel it, don't you? On that day, President John F.
Kennedy was taken to that facility at Harry Hines Boulevard following his assassination. The hospital that had grown from a single building on Lamar Street now stood at the center of the heaviest moment in a generation. Today, Parkland Hospital keeps on.
Still at that address. Still, the marker tells us, a leader in providing medical care to the needy. Some institutions just carry more history than any one building can hold.
What the marker says
Dallas first opened a city hospital on Lamar street in 1874, moving to Maple Avenue in the 1890s. In 1913, a new state of the art facility was erected, reflecting a nationwide movement toward modern medical care. The new building was the source of development for the neighborhood as a medical center and also the first home to Southwestern Medical College (now the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School). In 1954, Parkland Hospital relocated to a new facility at 5201 Harry Hines Blvd, where it set standards in healthcare and in medical advances. On November 22, 1963, John F. Kennedy was taken to that facility following his assassination. Today, Parkland Hospital continues to be a leader in providing medical care to the needy.