Bishop Arts

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Bishop Arts District is a shopping, dining, and entertainment neighborhood located in north Oak Cliff, Dallas, Texas, centered on the intersection of North Bishop Avenue and Davis Street. About two miles southwest of Downtown Dallas, the Bishop Arts District is home to a variety of independent boutiques, restaurants, bars, coffee shops, and art galleries. Bishop Arts is the city's largest intact trolley-era shopping district, dating back to the arrival of the streetcar line in 1904. Today the district draws visitors from across the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, and a portion of its commercial corridor is recognized on the National Register of Historic Places as the North Bishop Avenue Commercial Historic District.

Early History and French Roots

The land that would become the Bishop Arts area has a European heritage that predates its commercial development by decades. La Réunion was a utopian socialist community formed in 1855 by primarily French, Belgian, and Swiss colonists on the south bank of the Trinity River in central Dallas County, Texas. In 1854, a Parisian philosopher named Victor Considerant published Au Texas, a book that advocated the establishment of a socialist community on the "Wild Eden" of the Texas frontier. The work was so persuasive that it lured nearly 200 French, Swiss, and Belgian colonists to the area by 1855. At its height in 1857, La Réunion had 350 residents and was larger than Dallas itself. But one hot summer of drought and a freak blizzard caused the colonists to lose faith in the experiment. The colony was disbanded within three years, and the land was eventually absorbed into Dallas.

The legacy of La Réunion remained woven into the area's identity. In 1887, partners Thomas Marsalis and John Armstrong purchased 2,000 acres that were platted as the Dallas Land and Loan Additions. Located on the western bank of the Trinity River, Marsalis and Armstrong planned the addition as the residential neighborhood for the incorporated city of Oak Cliff. Due to brisk land sales and hundreds of new Victorian homes, the population skyrocketed to 2,500 residents by 1890. The commercial strips along Bishop Avenue and Davis Street developed alongside this residential growth, and in 1903, the citizens of Oak Cliff voted — by a margin of just 12 votes — to be annexed into the city of Dallas, after which the Dallas Railway and Traction Company laid streetcar tracks across the Trinity and down Bishop Avenue to what would become the Bishop Arts District.

The Trolley Era and Mid-Century Decline

The Bishop Arts Building was built in 1928 as part of a streetcar retail node. This "trolley stop shop" is unique in that it is only one of two buildings in the district with a second story, and the only one that offered apartments. The area was originally developed as warehouses and shops in the 1920s. In the 1930s, a trolley stop along Davis became Dallas' busiest trolley stop. The district served as a walkable commercial hub for the surrounding Oak Cliff neighborhoods, catering to workers and families who depended on the streetcar to commute downtown.

The district began a decline in the mid-1960s through the beginning of the 1980s. The reasons for the decline included the rise of the shopping mall, the loss of sizable tenants such as the Astor theater and Goodier Cosmetics, neighborhood demographic changes, and finally the fact that buses began to replace streetcars, making trolley stops like Bishop and Seventh useless. The neighborhood changed significantly in the 1970s during school busing, which led to white flight and disinvestment. Both this neighborhood and Uptown were among the roughest areas in Dallas in the 1980s. Some of that disinvestment meant that there was an opportunity for repopulation, providing a pathway for, largely, Latino families buying affordable homes.

Revitalization: Jim Lake and the Birth of "Bishop Arts"

In the fall of 1984, Jim Lake saw a bargain in the now run-down storefronts and began buying up property. Lake said of his decision to buy the property, "I just thought it needed saving." As a sign of his commitment, Lake provided, rent-free for a year, space for a police storefront. This was an important element in the area's security and sense of community.

Lake and his partner found a few artists using the abandoned shops as studios and, in an act of real-estate enterprise, dubbed their purchase the "Bishop Arts District." His first tenants were artists who came to join sculptor Stu Kraft and his art studio. So many followed that Lake began referring to the area as the "Bishop Arts District." Before long, as renovation costs spiraled upward and rents rose, a majority of the artists moved out — but the name remained.

To make the area safe, the Jim Lake Company donated space on Bishop Avenue to open the city's first police storefront. Lake cooperated with the surrounding neighborhood to gain listing as a national historic district. That special status persuaded City Hall to adopt "conservation district" zoning, which imposed basic architectural protections while easing parking and land-use requirements. In 1990, the Bishop Arts District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Two years later, the City of Dallas created Conservation District 7 to protect the architectural integrity of commercial and residential structures alike.

City Hall's investment of $3 million in 1999 replaced century-old infrastructure and enhanced the rights-of-way. The Bishop Arts District today is largely the product of small-scale private investment, almost all of it focused on existing buildings. Continuing through the 1990s and 2000s, renovations transformed the area into a walkable, urban environment. Murals, brick pavers, and other street elements polished the rough look of the warehouses and made the area a popular leisure and dining destination.

In 2015, Exxir Capital invested $42 million to construct a mixed-use development including retail, office, and apartments in the district. Jim Lake Sr. had developed more than two million square feet of commercial space across Texas; yet his obituary headlined his achievement of renewing developers' interest in Oak Cliff through his example in the Bishop Arts District.

Shopping, Dining, and Culture

Bishop Arts is a charming neighborhood located in Oak Cliff, where visitors find over 60 independently owned businesses — from coffee shops to boutiques to restaurants, cocktail lounges, cafes, and sweet treat spots — making it a walkable destination that always has something going on. Considered the go-to spot for shopping, dining, and entertainment, the Bishop Arts District features cuisine options from around the world, artisan coffee shops, and bakeries.

Notable dining establishments include Lockhart Smokehouse, which brings Central Texas-style brisket and smoked meats to Dallas; and Boulevardier, a French bistro. The Bishop Arts Theatre Center deserves mention as one of the highlights of the broader neighborhood, with plays and other staged productions throughout the year, often created by local playwrights and artists. The Wild Detectives offers a bookstore and bar combination and is known for hosting events throughout the year, including speakers and book presentations.

The Bishop Arts District has become a popular destination for celebrities. Past celebrity sightings include Dua Lipa, Lana Del Rey, Leon Bridges, and The Weeknd. The area's culture has continued to mature with the expanding Oak Cliff Film Festival, which has garnered media attention from Texas Monthly and The New York Times.

The district's official conservation area boundaries are defined by a 1992 Dallas city ordinance. The official boundaries are Seventh Street, Melba, Llewellyn, and Zang. However, to many outside the neighborhood, Bishop Arts is Oak Cliff, and Oak Cliff is Bishop Arts — anything considered cool in northern Oak Cliff tends to be called Bishop Arts.

Transportation and Modern Development

An extension of the Dallas Streetcar opened in 2016, expanding the line's southern terminus to the district, providing direct service to Dallas Union Station. The city of Dallas's modern streetcar system travels over a 2.45-mile route and features six stops between EBJ Union Station in downtown Dallas and the historic Bishop Arts District. The project received $23 million in initial funding via a federal TIGER grant awarded to DART in December 2010. An additional $3 million in federal stimulus dollars was later granted to the project.

The city's rezoning efforts combined with the new streetcar access spurred a rush of multifamily apartment complexes along Zang Boulevard, which came with a rise in rents that many locals lamented. The intersection of Zang and Davis attracted developer attention after the city of Dallas implemented gateway zoning to promote higher-density development along the route of the Dallas Streetcar, a free DART service between Union Station and Bishop Arts.

Community Events and French Legacy

The French heritage of the area is celebrated annually with Bastille on Bishop, held each July 14. In honor of the Bishop Arts District's historical roots in the French colony La Réunion that settled here in the 1850s, the community celebrates Bastille Day every July 14th. North Bishop Avenue is closed to through traffic, and French music plays while neighbors and tourists enjoy French food and shop at local vendors' booths. About 4,000 people are expected to attend the French-inspired activities, which include burlesque performances, a wine walk, and a mussels cook-off among local chefs.

In February, residents can participate in the annual Dash for the Beads 5K Race, which coincides with the Go Oak Cliff Mardi Gras Parade, another event of French origin. The Bishop Arts Merchants Association also organizes periodic Wine Walks through the district's storefronts and galleries. Each year, North Bishop Avenue transforms into a Parisian-style street for the Bastille Day celebration, featuring wine, pétanque, mimes, vendors, and French music.

Gentrification and Community Debate

The transformation of Bishop Arts has not been without controversy. The area's resurgence began the way neighborhood change often starts: with cash-strapped creative types looking for somewhere cheap and cool. In the early 1980s, they began buying and fixing up homes in the surrounding Winnetka Heights area. Family homes that were once valued at $20,000 or $30,000 are now selling for almost ten times that amount.

Those in low-income apartments are the ones most displaced. Critics note the lack of opportunities to relocate those people to stay in the neighborhood in affordable housing. Mexican-owned businesses have gradually been squeezed out. A beloved Davis Street ice cream parlor, La Original Michoacana, announced it was moving to Arlington after its rent quadrupled.

Bishop Arts is home to one of the most diverse populations in Dallas, including many Latino families who settled here and ensured the district's survival when others bolted for the suburbs beginning in the 1950s. Advocates for the district's original communities continue to debate how to maintain affordability and cultural continuity as property values and commercial rents rise.