DFW Tours! Dallas Art and Fort Worth Art

Pioneer Plaza and Walking Tour

Pioneer Plaza has long been a favorite destination in downtown Dallas.

Pioneer Era Cemetery:  This visit can be part of a walking tour which includes the Pioneer Era Cemetery located adjacent to the Plaza.

City Hall and Sculpture:  Then on to Dallas City Hall, designed by Ian Pei, with Henry Moore’s sculpture that resembles dinosaur vertebrae.

Dallas Public Library – Declaration of Independence and Shakespeare’s First Folio:  Cross the street to the Dallas Public Library to view a copy of the Declaration of Independence displayed in an impressive display room and a copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio, displayed in a recreation of an authentic Elizabethan room.

Parking – You may want to do this tour in reverse and park in the underground parking of the Dallas Public Library if you chose to go on a weekday.  Parking is reasonable but you will have to use a parking machine that accepts crisp new dollar bills.  Old ratty dollar bills are rejected!  The limit for parking at Pioneer Plaza is one hour and the City of Dallas is serious about giving tickets!  You can also park behind city hall, but this is metered parking as well.  Take lots of quarters if this is your choice.

Fee is Free:  The good news is that other than the fee for parking this walking tour is one hundred percent free!

Water – You may need to take a backpack with liquid.  This can be a trek and there is no where to purchase beverages.

Restaurants:  Subway across the street to the east of the library.  McDonalds two blocks north of Pioneer Plaza.

View the wonderful music of Matthew Barber and take a look at this photogenic destination.

Pioneer Plaza – Dallas, Texas – Matthew Barber – Settle My Accounts

Matthew Barber’s simple guitar sound is reminiscent of the guitar player on the old trail drive.

Pioneer Plaza

Pioneer Plaza in downtown Dallas commemorates the cattle drives of the old Shawnee Trail, which once stretched north from Dallas.  The 70 bronze steers are considered to be 125% life size.  There are two herding cowboys and the Trail Boss who sit atop the overlook.

Robert Summers, the sculptor once told a friend that the day Dallas graced its slick, cosmopolitan downtown with his Western bronze sculpture, he’d eat his hat.

“I guess I’ll have to eat my hat,” the artist said.

The of the three cowboys herds the cattle with a mesquite tree behind him.  The detail of the sculpture make the realism tangible.  This trail ride takes place amid Dallas’ towering skyscrapers.

“This will make a statement,” said Summers, the artist who is sweeping the dust off Dallas’ repressed past. “It’s a salute, a monument to the cowboy, an American cowboy.”

There are over sixty large bronze longhorn steers trailing down the ravine and across the creek as three horseback riders are manage thee herd.

The is located on 4.2 acres at Young and Griffin Streets, between Pioneer Cemetery and the Dallas Convention Center.

Pioneer Cemetery

Located adjacent to Pioneer Plaza is the Pioneer Cemetery.  Children love running through the cemetery which contains the tombstones of pioneers and settlers of Dallas.  There is also a Confederate Monument depicting the Generals of the Confederacy, one of the six nations to rule Texas.

Dallas City Hall with Henry Moore Sculpture

Cross one street and you will find yourself at Dallas City Hall with the Henry Moore sculpture that resembles dinosaur bones.  The dinosaur bones are a perennial favorite.  Running in and through them is great fun.

Dallas Public Library

This view of the Dallas Public Library, to the right is taken from the Ian Pei designed city hall.  The red balls float on the water.  The library is the building to the right with the image of a child on the draped on the front of the building.

Dallas Public Library

Shakespeares First Folio

Shakespeare’s First Folio  is located on the seventh floor of the Dallas Public Library in a recreated authentic Elizabethan paneled room.  This rare edition of  William Shakespeare (1564-1616) includes his Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies and was printed in 1623.

Gift of the Dallas Shakespeare Club

It is frequently referred to as the “First Folio” due to the type and size of the volume. This important work marks the first complete printing of Shakespeare’s plays and was donated to the library by the Dallas Shakespeare Club in 1986. The generous gift, commemorating the club’s centenary, also provided for a special room to be created for housing and public display of the volume. It is one of 250 copies remaining of the 1,200 first editions printed following Shakespeare’s death.

These plays were never printed during the author’s lifetime, since it was felt that access to printed copies might reduce the number of people who would pay to see them performed. However, following his death, John Hemenge and Henry Condell became concerned when some plays began to be published in corrupted versions while others seemed in danger of being lost completely. These gentlemen, who were members of his acting company and co-investors in the Globe Theater, relied mainly on promptbook scripts and their own intimate knowledge of the work to compile this first, definitive collection of all 36 plays.

Dallas Public Library Declaration of Independence

The Declaration of Independence is located in a beautiful display room at the downtown Dallas Central Library. It is one of about 25 extant broadside copies printed at John Dunlap’s print shop in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776. The Declaration grew out of long-standing grievances that the North American colonists held against Great Britain.

The library is across the street from the Ian Pei designed City Hall with the wonderful Henry Moore work in front of it. You may stand there and look at the beautiful Ian Pei tower. Then cross the street to enjoy the beautiful 1800′s cemetery then on to Pioneer Square. This area of Dallas is filled with history and intrigue for children!

Dallas Public Library Declaration of Independence

In June 1776, the Continental Congress appointed a committee to compose the proclamation. Thomas Jefferson drafted the text, which the committee then edited. A limited number of copies were then printed for distribution. Dallas is privileged to have the only copy in the western United States and one of only a few that are in good condition. It is sometimes referred to as the “lost copy” since it was re-discovered in 1968 during the closing of Leary’s Book Store in Philadelphia, where it may have languished in storage for more than 100 years.

Wonderful Walking Tour Area for Children

The immediate area surrounding the Dallas Public Library contains a rich art and historical experience.

Pioneer Square

Henry Moore, Dallas City Hall, across the street from the library.

Dallas Public Library.

1800′s Cemetery, across the street from City Hall and adjacent to Pioneer Square.

 

- DFW Tours! What to See in Dallas and Fort Worth --

Share This

---

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•