What followed was a boom the city more or less willed into being. Dallas made itself the largest inland cotton market in the country, then turned cotton money into banks, and banks into the financial capital of the East Texas oil fields — “Big D,” where the money was. Style came with the money: Neiman Marcus opened its doors in 1907 and gave the city a name for fashion and luxury it has never let go of. By the early twentieth century the prairie trading post had become one of the great commercial cities of the Southwest — glittering, ambitious, and a little theatrical about it.
The skyline tells that story. Reunion Tower — “the Ball,” a geodesic sphere on a slender stem, lit up at night — went up in 1978 and became an instant landmark. Out at Fair Park stands something rarer still: the largest collection of Art Deco exposition buildings in the world, raised for the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition, all murals and statuary and grand promenades. Downtown, the Dallas Arts District grew into one of the biggest urban arts districts in the country, its concert halls and museums drawn by some of the most famous architects alive. Dallas has always liked to build big, and to be seen doing it.
Why People Visit Dallas
Dallas rewards visitors who like a city with confidence: a skyline you can read like a history book, a world-class arts district, museums of real weight, and food worth crossing town for. Add the flying red Pegasus, the Art Deco of Fair Park, and Texas hospitality scaled up, and Big D makes a strong case for itself.
