J Erik Jonsson Central Library: Self-Guided Audio Tours

Welcome to Dallas, a Texan city commonly notorious for President John F. Kennedy's death that occurred downtown. Yet this self-guided audio tour lets you explore Dallas beyond the crime scene and plot. You will start the tour near the Old Red Museum, a symbol of the local heritage, and then get to the Dealey Plaza to see Dallas’s birthplace. The Union Station in the mid-1910s the railway's key role in the city's development. At the Pioneer Plaza, you will learn about the cattle drives of the 19th century and see the huge bronze rendition of the iconic Texas longhorns. The pyramid-like modernist City Hall building will give you an idea of Dallas's image reinvented after John F. Kennedy’s assassination. You will poke into the Central Library nearby, inspired by the same style, to contemplate one of the original copies of the Declaration of Independence, printed on July 4, 1776. Passing by the sublime Magnolia Hotel, you will notice the hallmark Pegasus sculpture on its roof that dominates the skyline. As you stroll further along Main Street, you will see a few more landmarks of note. Thanksgiving Square and Chapel, a spiraling structure that adorns it, will stand out from the skyscrapers and catch your eye. In the end, you will make it to the Sixth Floor Museum, near where the infamous presidential assassination happened in 1963. Join this tour and visualize how Dallas has changed from a pioneer settlement in the 1840s to today’s modern and thriving city!