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Historic place

Poor David's Pub

1313 S Lamar St, Dallas, TX

A dart bar on McKinney Avenue that became a songwriter room when David Card started booking music in the late 1970s.

🏛️ Music VenueStill here
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The story

Poor David's Pub began on McKinney Avenue as a dart bar. Owner David Card started booking music in the late 1970s to draw customers, and noticed that music left patrons happier and less focused on drinking. In 1979 he booked Texas songwriter Steve Fromholz, who drew an over-capacity crowd, and the place shifted from darts to live music.

The pub later moved to lower Greenville when the McKinney lease expired, and eventually to 1313 South Lamar. A 2013 article says it had been running about 35 years and holds 350 people. Photos on the walls show Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, Mickey Newbury, Jerry Jeff Walker and Lyle Lovett. The same article tells of Townes arriving short on cash and too drunk to perform, and Card giving him money and sending him home.

What's There Now

It is operating as a live music venue.

Everything that was here

Did you know?

The Dixie Chicks' first Dallas gig was at the Pub, per the article.
Eric Clapton came to see Paul Butterfield play there.
The B.W. Stevenson Singer-Songwriters' Competition was in its 25th year as of 2013.

Nearby history

Starlite Drive-In

5101 S Lamar St · 760 m away
Described by a commenter as Dallas' first African American drive-in, with a jet mural and red and blue neon.

Longhorn Ballroom

216 Corinth St · 2.7 km away
Built for Bob Wills in 1950, briefly leased by Jack Ruby, and the room where the Sex Pistols played in 1978.

Cotton Bowl

1300 Robert B Cullum Blvd · 3.0 km away
Built as Fair Park Stadium in 1930, renamed the Cotton Bowl in 1936, and home to the early Dallas Cowboys.

Sears, Roebuck and Co. Catalog Center

1409 S Lamar St · 3.2 km away
A catalog warehouse of over a million square feet where workers once used roller skates to speed up orders, now lofts an

The Bomb Factory

2713 Canton St · 4.0 km away
A Henry Ford assembly plant that built wartime jeeps and practice bombs, then hosted Phish, Nine Inch Nails and the firs

Vitagraph / Warner Bros. building (Robert Johnson sessions)

508 Park Ave · 4.1 km away
In a third-floor storage room at 508 Park Avenue, Robert Johnson recorded 13 songs in June 1937, including Hell Hound on

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Sourceshttps://lonestarmusicmagazine.com/venue-spotlight-poor-davids-pub/