DALLAS
- I should tell you upfront that
this story has a happy ending, but I
wasn't smiling on a recent Thursday
evening in Dallas when my connecting
flight to Washington, D.C., was
cancelled. To make matters worse,
the airline couldn't book me on
another flight until Saturday
morning, they couldn't give me my
luggage to use during the unexpected
layover and they didn't think there
was a hotel room left in the city.
My one
glimmer of hope lay in my daughter,
hundreds of miles away, who often
solves similar problems for her
pilot husband. I called her from my
cell phone, she logged onto the
Internet and moments later she had
secured a room for me at an
off-the-beaten-path motor hotel
called the Belmont. I didn't have
high expectations, but it was a bed
and a shower and a door to lock
behind me, so off I went.
The
cab pulled up to an interesting
cluster of buildings designed by
locally famous architect Charles
Stevens Dilbeck. The compound was
built in 1946 on a man-made hill
that provided spectacular views of
the downtown skyline. At that time
the street on which it is located,
Fort Worth Avenue, was the major
thoroughfare between Dallas and Fort
Worth, and the hotel flourished.
When a new freeway caused the street
to fall into disuse, the entire
neighborhood became seedy, and the
hotel fell into disrepair - and
disrepute.
Today developers are reversing the
area's fortunes, and new owners who
recognized the buildings' "bones"
have returned the hotel to its
original personality. The rooms are
comfortably appointed with
midcentury modern decor, and a cozy
bar just off the small lobby
provides a gathering place for
guests and in-the-know locals. The
staff is welcoming and friendly.
As
Judith Barwick, who drove my cab
back to the airport on Saturday, put
it, "They're small and out of the
way, but they make up for it with
their hospitality and their wish to
make people feel comfortable."
Realizing that being "out of the
way" is an issue, the hotel runs a
shuttle from 7 in the morning to 8
at night that takes guests anywhere
they want to go within a three-mile
radius. That night, over meatloaf
marinara, roasted red potatoes with
rosemary and a glass of wine at the
adjoining Cliff Cafe, I made a
decision: to forget my annoyance at
being stranded and cram every
experience I could into my "bonus"
day in Dallas.
The
next morning, armed with a
disposable camera I bought at a
nearby discount store, I climbed
into the hotel van with driver Edd
Vasquez, who dropped me at the
Dallas Museum of Art to see a
special exhibit of paintings by
J.M.W. Turner. That exhibit will
close on May 18, but in October it
will be replaced by the Tutankhamun
artifacts now on display in London.
The museum also has its own
impressive permanent collection that
includes Asian and African galleries
alongside the American and European
paintings, sculpture and furniture.
Lunch was a tasty chicken salad and
a cup of tea in the Atrium Cafe - a
big, open room where sunlight pours
through a huge window adorned with
colorful glass floral shells created
by Dale Chihuly.
Directly across the street from the
museum is the delightful Crow
Collection of Asian Art. The first
surprise was that the museum is
tucked away in a bustling high-rise
office building - a quiet oasis in
this busy urban setting. The second
was that it's free.
Inside the serene, dimly lit rooms
are exquisite pieces from all over
Asia - carved jade from China and
wooden screens, silk scrolls and
battle armor from Japan. A walk
across a skybridge under a flock of
fluttering oragami birds leads to
the Indian gallery, which is
dominated by the carved red
sandstone facade of a home. Around
the room are carvings of dieties,
bronze sculptures and color-filled
paintings done in pigment on cloth.
One room is currently devoted to
Tibetan art pieces on loan from the
Rubin Museum of Art in New York. In
this elegant, grown-up space, the
staff still manages to make viewing
the collection kid-friendly by
creating a scavenger hunt and hiding
clues for children to find among the
treasures.
Directly across the street is the
Nasher Sculpture Center. The same
area also contains a symphony hall
designed by I.M. Pei, and a new arts
magnet high school is currently
under construction.
"The
exciting thing about this area," Edd
had told me, "is that it's dynamic.
There's learning going on along with
the museums."
In
the interest of time I took a cab to
Dealey Plaza. My first stop there
was the Old Red Courthouse, where
the tourist information office
occupies the first floor and offers
maps, information and brochures. The
Dallas County Museum of History and
Culture fills the second floor.
On
the lawn outside is the massive
memorial to the president who died
there in 1963. Designed by architect
Philip Johnson, it is constructed in
the form of a centotaph, an open
tomb to symbolize the freedom of
Kennedy's spirit. Johnson's wish was
to create "a place of quiet refuge,
an enclosed place of thought and
contemplation separated from the
city around, but near the sky and
earth."
The
final stop on my whirlwind tour of
downtown Dallas was the Sixth Floor
Museum at the textbook depository
building from which Lee Harvey
Oswald is believed to have shot the
president. The collection of
artifacts, photos and films details
the assassination, the period of
national mourning and the
investigations that followed.
Visitors can linger at the window
from which the fatal shots were
fired and look down on the grassy
knoll and the X on the street that
commemorates the spot where Kennedy
was struck.
Later that evening the shuttle took
me in a different direction to the
Oak Cliff Bishop Arts District and
Hattie's, a restaurant Edd had
described as "upscale Southern." The
decor was a crisp black and white
face-lift of an older storefront,
and the menu included fried green
tomatoes with buttermilk dressing,
burger with sweet potato fries,
shrimp and grits, and pulled pork on
grits with braised greens. Dessert
choices included a banana-almond
bread pudding.
"This area used to be trendy, and
then everything moved downtown,"
said Hollis Stuckert, a local who
dines at Hattie's every Friday
evening. "Now it's coming back."
While I waited for my ride back to
the hotel I explored the nearby
shops. My favorite was the Artisan's
Collective, which features the work
of local artists - from sculpture,
paintings and stained glass to
African masks, hats, and a lamp made
of ceramic skulls and a cowhide
shade.
The
happy ending was when my plane
landed the next day in Washington in
time for the event I was scheduled
to attend and my suitcase was at the
airport waiting for me. My plans had
been scrambled, but I wouldn't have
missed my unexpected layover for
anything. I had learned three
significant lessons: A cancelled
flight can lead to adventure, not
having luggage is strangely freeing
- and you can take a big bite out of
Dallas in just one day.
IF
YOU GO:
The
Belmont Hotel:
www.belmontdallas.com/index.aspx
The
Dallas Museum of Art:
www.dallasmuseumofart.org
The
Trammell and Margaret Crow
Collection of Asian Art:
www.crowcollection.com
Nasher Sculpture Center:
www.nashersculpturecenter.org
Dallas Convention and Visitors
Bureau:
www.visitdallas.com
The
Old Red Museum of Dallas County
History and Culture:
www.oldred.org
The
Sixth Floor Museum:
www.jfk.org
Hattie's:
www.hatties.com
