Home›Places›Dallas, TX›Texas Theatre
Historic place

Texas Theatre

231 W Jefferson Blvd, Dallas, TX

The Oak Cliff movie house where police arrested Lee Harvey Oswald on November 22, 1963, and which now shows repertory films.

📅 1931–present🏛️ TheaterStill here
Open on the mapSlide back to 1931

The story

The Texas Theatre opened on April 21, 1931. It was Dallas's largest suburban movie theater, part of a chain financed by Howard Hughes, and the city's first air-conditioned theater.

On November 22, 1963, police arrested Lee Harvey Oswald inside on suspicion of killing Officer J. D. Tippit and President Kennedy. Manager Warren 'Butch' Burroughs said Oswald came in around 1:00 to 1:07 p.m. The theater closed in 1989. A preservation group bought it in 1990 and it closed again in 1992 when funding ran out. A five-alarm fire in 1995 forced another closure, and the building sat vacant for about three years. The Oak Cliff Foundation acquired it in 2001. Aviation Cinemas began leasing it in 2010 to run an independent and repertory cinema, and it reopened in September 2021 as a two-screen venue after a remodel. It is a Dallas Landmark and was added to the National Register in 2003.

What's There Now

It is a working cinema showing repertory films and hosting special events.

Everything that was here

Did you know?

It was the first air-conditioned theater in Dallas.
A marker installed in 2017 describes the arrest as happening in the auditorium.
A five-alarm fire in 1995 closed it for roughly three years.

Nearby history

Cliff Queen Theater

661 E Jefferson Blvd · 1.1 km away
An Oak Cliff picture house that gave free shows to the unemployed during the Depression and was torn down in 1958.

Lake Cliff Park (amusement park)

300 E Colorado Blvd · 1.7 km away
Charles Mangold's 1906 amusement park billed itself as the Southwest's Greatest Playground; the city bought it in 1914.

Burnett Field

1500 E Jefferson Blvd · 2.1 km away
A Dallas ballpark that began as Gardner Park, hosted early Cowboys practices, and lost pro baseball in 1964.

Dallas Sportatorium

1000 S Industrial Blvd · 3.4 km away
A wrestling arena that hosted a weekly country music show, burned in 1953, and was torn down in 2003.

Longhorn Ballroom

216 Corinth St · 3.5 km away
Built for Bob Wills in 1950, briefly leased by Jack Ruby, and the room where the Sex Pistols played in 1978.

Reunion Arena

777 Sports St · 3.7 km away
The arena where the Mavericks and Stars played for two decades, and where Reagan accepted the 1984 nomination.

Know something about Texas Theatre? An old photo, a date, a memory of what stood here before?

Add it on the map
Sourceshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Theatre