In 1913 a building was completed on Mc Kinney Ave. The building is no longer there of course and now is just another vacant lot. Soon to be a parking lot . A 15 story apartment building was planned to rise from the dust of the old church. The economy has deflated those high expectations. The building was the Mc Kinney Ave. Baptist church for many years. At the end though it was the Hard Rock Cafe.
Just a few blocks from here another building was completed in 1905 . Now located at 2907 Woodall Rodgers it was in the middle of a residential neighborhood at the time. A school was completed in 1908 in an addition to the other building.
Today this building is the St Peter Apostle Catholic Church as it was in 1905. When opened this was the first Catholic Church for African-Americans in Dallas. In 1905 this was Freedmans Town or North Dallas. A thriving neighborhood with shops and other businesses and now a African-American Catholic Church.
In 1908 the school was added for African- American children and was also the first in Dallas.
Today the Church is still in use and has a strong Polish-American congregation. Just across the street from this Church , across the feeder road, is an urban forest. Built under the Woodall Rodgers Freeway . A connector park is planned for this park in the future.
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