DALLAS, the largest city of northern Texas, U.S.A., on the Trinity river, 3om. E. of Fort Worth and 75 m. from the Oklahoma State line ; the county seat of Dallas county, a port of entry in the Galveston customs district and an important financial and commercial centre. It is on four transcontinental highways (Bank head, King of Trails, Dallas-Canadian-Denver and Dixie Over land), is served by the Colorado and Southern, the Frisco, the Missouri-Kansas-Texas, the Rock Island, the St. Louis South western, the Santa Fe, the Southern Pacific and the Texas and Pacific railways, is a commercial aviation centre and has air-mail service. The area is 28.25 square miles. The population was in 1920, of whom 24,023 were negroes and 8,73o were foreign born white, and had increased to 260,475 in 1930 by the Federal census. There is a Union station (opened 1916) where more than 1 oo passenger trains arrive and depart daily. Interurban electric lines operate upwards of 2 5o passenger and freight trains daily from an interurban terminal. The municipal airport, Love Field, covers 173 ac. General offices of the Texas and Pacific rail way, Texas headquarters of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas lines, south-western headquarters of the American Railway Express, and headquarters of the telegraph and telephone systems of the south-west, are in Dallas. The freight, express and parcel-post business coming into Dallas over all the above mentioned lines aggregates 8,000,000,000 lb. in a year.
Since the World War many skyscraper business buildings, large warehouses and factories, hotels and apartment houses, have been erected. Building permits for the eight years 1920-27 represented an aggregate value of over $170,000,000. The hotels, represent ing an investment of $30,000,000, furnish accommodations for 20,000 guests. The assessed valuation of property in 1927 was The water supply, partly from artesian wells and partly from the Elm fork of Trinity river, is sufficient for a population of I,000,000. A seventh reservoir (Lake Dallas), covering 10,444 ac., with a shore line of 65 m., was completed in Since 1915 natural gas and fuel oil have been available from fields in the neighbourhood. The municipality has 5o parks, covering 4,134 acres. There are six high and 45 elementary public schools, employing about 1,1 oo teachers, and 8o private schools of various kinds. Southern Methodist university, established here in 1911 and opened in 1915, has an enrolment of more than 3,000. Its campus 032 ac.) is in the separately incorporated suburb of University Park, north of the city. The University of Dallas, a Roman Catholic institution for men and boys, and the schools of medicine, pharmacy, nursing and dentistry of Baylor university (at Waco) are located here. Dallas has had a corn mission form of government since 1907.
The economic life of Dallas is based on the agricultural and mineral wealth of the surrounding region. It is the largest inland cotton market in the country, and is the south-western head quarters of large oil companies. Though forty-second among the cities of the United States in point of population (192o), it ranks fifteenth in the total amount of its jobbing business, fifth as a distributor of dry goods, third of farm implements and first of cotton-seed products, saddlery and harness. There are 50o whole sale houses in the city. Wholesale transactions are estimated at $800,000,000 annually; retail business at $250,000,000. The cotton firms handle about 3,000,00o bales a year. Exports to foreign countries (nearly all cotton) were valued at in 1924 Dallas is the seat of the Federal Reserve Bank of the Eleventh district, which in 1926 handled items amounting to $7,238,000,000. Debits to individual accounts in Dallas banks were $2,620,377,000 in 1927, giving the city nineteenth place among the cities of the country. In postal receipts it stands twenty-third, with a total of $3,855,787 in 1927; as an insurance centre it ranks fifth, con taining the home offices of more than 20 companies and the agencies of more than 170 other insurance firms. In manufactur ing Dallas ranked as the third city of the State at the census of 1927, with an aggregate output of the factories within the cor porate limits valued at $98,000,629. In 1927 the 518 establish ments situated in Dallas county produced goods valued at $124, The numerous groups of manufactures are widely diversified. Nearly half the cotton gins used in the world are made in Dallas. There are petroleum refineries and plants making machinery and supplies for the oil-fields. Printing and publishing is an important industry, with a production in 1927 valued at $10,386,202. The 72 periodicals issued include four daily news papers and numerous trade and religious magazines. Other manu factures of importance are aeroplanes, automobile accessories, awnings and tents, bagging, candy, clothing, cement, flour, mixed feed, iron and steel products, textiles, store fixtures and packing house products. The Texas State Fair, the largest annual fair in the United States, drawing an attendance of i,000,noo, has been held at Dallas since 1886. Fair Park contains about 150 ac. and has a stadium seating 15,00o.
A log hut built in 1841 on the bank of the Trinity river by John Neely Bryan was the nucleus of a village called Peter's Colony, which in 1845 adopted the name of the newly inaugurated Vice President, George Mifflin Dallas, of Philadelphia. It was incor porated as a city in 1871, when the population was about 5,00o. In 1890, with a population of 38,067, it was the largest city in the State; in 1900, with 42,638, it ranked third; and in 1910 and 1920 it stood a very close second to San Antonio. The area within the corporate limits was increased from 7.5 sq.m. in 1900 to 28.25 in 1927, but it is still less than that of any other large city of Texas. Between 1920 and 1927 bank deposits increased 68%, post-office receipts 63%, gas meters 106%, telephone connections 85% and motor vehicles in use 16i%.