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In 1900, the City of Dallas comprised a few square miles, and our neighborhood was all farmland.

This map, donated to the Texas State Archives by H.L. DeGolyer in 1944, shows Dallas before White Rock Lake, before paved roads, when horse-and-buggy or steam-powered streetcars were the best modes of transportation.

Find a bigger version of the above map here.

Notice the community of Oasis, which was in the area of Central Expressway and Lovers and had plentiful water and dairy farms. Also on the map is the community of Letot.

Even though there are no streets, some of the landowners’ names are familiar, including Marsh, Webb and Cole.

We came across this map as well as this one from 1891 and this one from 1905, which does name the streets, among others on the freshly redesigned Texas State Library and Archives website.