Oak Cliff rooming house at 1026 N. Beckley Ave. open for viewing

[Peter Fokes]

<quote on>

DALLAS � Gladys Johnson didn�t allow drinking.

If a liquor bottle or beer can was found inside a room, the landlady
wouldn�t issue a warning.

Patricia Puckett Hall�s grandmother simply piled a tenant�s belongings
on the front porch, her method of informing the rule-breaker that he
was no longer welcome at her Oak Cliff rooming house at 1026 N.
Beckley Ave.

Hall, 57, loves the old place.

It�s hers now � her inheritance, her responsibility.

Her childhood dwells within its walls, memories as timeless as the
family portraits.

One autumn day in 1963, her two younger brothers got into a scuffle in
the front yard where Johnson�s grandchildren, who lived six blocks
away, spent most of their free time.

A roomer witnessed the roughhousing and stepped in.

Hall, then 11, watched as he sat the boys on the porch, one on each
side of him.

"I want to tell you something really important," Hall heard the
slender young man say. "I want you to listen. You�re brothers. You
have to look out for each other."

Then, "don�t ever do anything to harm another human being."

On Nov. 22, just weeks later, that quiet man, who rented a
6-by-13-foot room from Hall�s grandmother, was arrested for
assassinating President John F. Kennedy and gunning down a Dallas
police officer.

.....

At the urging of Ken Holmes Jr., a Dallas historian and historical
tour guide, Hall agreed to permit the public into her home to view a
room which will forever be linked with one of the most infamous crimes
in history.

A donation box rests inside the front door of the dated living room.

The sign reads:

"Help Restore the Lee Harvey Oswald Room and Beckley Rooming House."

Oswald wouldn�t recognize the place he stayed the last six weeks of
his life.

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Full article here:

http://www.star-telegram.com/local/story/1779675.html

Regards,
Peter Fokes,
Toronto

[jas]

Yup, these buildings and places associated with the assassination will
all be historic, much like the old houses like the Dr. Mudd house and
the Surratt houses in the Lincoln assassination became.

I'm surprised that the Neely house has become so run down. I suppose
someone with a historical and entrepreneurial sense needs to buy the
property, then restore it. Or, the USG will step in at some point.

[curtjester1]

> property, then restore it. Or, the USG will step in at some point.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Wonders if the Texas Theater turned into a Community Project is open
to the public? And wonders how much they would have changed of the
structure and who would know?

CJ