Colonial Hill Historic District

Colonial Hill is a residential neighborhood about two miles southeast of downtown Dallas, hemmed in by Central Expressway and Interstate 45. It grew as a streetcar suburb, platted in roughly nineteen small additions served by the Ervay Street and Rapid Transit lines. Development came in two waves, 1888-1893 and 1903-1929, separated by the depressions of the 1890s. Nearly all surviving buildings date from the second wave. Of 489 buildings, 353 retain their historic character. Older northern blocks have four-square houses and hybrids with Classical or bungalow porch details, while the southern blocks hold frame Craftsman bungalows, notably along Driskell and Spence Streets. Brick cottages with Tudor Revival touches appear on Holmes Street, and small one-story brick commercial groups stand along Colonial Avenue. Much of the original upper and middle Colonial Hill was lost to freeways, commercial and industrial encroachment, and abandonment. The district keeps what remains of that early twentieth-century streetcar-era neighborhood.