We’re building a timeline of major Oak Cliff events. Have an event that should be added? Email us the info (click here)!

DECEMBER 15, 1886 – John Armstrong and Thomas Marsalis found Oak Cliff with a 320 acre land purchase that was later developed for residential homes.

NOVEMBER 9, 1922 – Adamson High School plays Crozier Tech High School in one of the earliest known high school football games in Dallas.

JULY 19, 1924 – The minor league baseball stadium at Gardner Park (later Burnett Field) burns down following a Dallas Steers baseball game.

1925 – Sunset High School opens its doors.

MAY 26, 1935 – William H. Adamson, former superintendent of the Oak Cliff School District and the first principal of Oak Cliff High School, dies at 71. A week later, Oak Cliff High School is renamed W.H. Adamson High School in his honor.

APRIL 2, 1957 – A tornado ravages parts of Oak Cliff/West Dallas.

1961 – The Bronco Bowl opens on Ft. Worth Avenue.

NOVEMBER 22, 1963 – President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in downtown Dallas. Less than hour later, Dallas officer J.D. Tippit is shot and killed in Oak Cliff. The suspect in both murders, Lee Harvey Oswald, is apprehended at the Texas Theatre on Jefferson Blvd.

AUGUST 2003 – The Bronco Bowl closes its doors, and is demolished later that year.

FEBRUARY 17, 2016 – The former Beverly Hills Baptist Church burns down.