150 reasons to love Deep Ellum

Since January, Deep Ellum has been throwing itself a birthday party. It’s only halfway over, and that’s fitting. Neighborhood leaders trace the area’s birth to 1873, the year tracks from the Houston and Texas Central and the Texas and Pacific railroads met. That makes this year Deep Ellum’s 150th anniversary.

Like most urban pockets where artists continue to thrive, Deep Ellum started as a haven for those with nowhere else to go. After the Civil War, former slaves flocked to the land Deep on Elm Street, beyond the bounds of Dallas’ central business district. The young Freedmen’s Town grew, and by the 1920s, European immigrants had joined the Black men and women who originated it. Grocery stores and pawnshops lined its streets, along with theaters, cafes and bars that spilled out jazz and blues.

But the neighborhood suffered as car culture and the growth of the suburbs siphoned business away over the course of the midcentury. A bigger blow came when Central Expressway’s elevated stretch effectively cut Deep Ellum in half.

Somehow, none of that dimmed the lights completely on Deep Ellum as a refuge — and a hub for Dallas artists and musicians. Today, scores of music venues, dozens of bars and restaurants and well over 100 murals fill its blocks, which run for less than half a square mile.