Dallas & Fort Worth Travel Guide
JFK in Dallas
How to understand November 22, 1963 on the ground — the Sixth Floor Museum, Dealey Plaza and the grassy knoll, the Kennedy Memorial, and the trail across the river to Oak Cliff — with practical advice and the context that makes sense of it.
More than sixty years later, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy remains the event most visitors associate with Dallas, and the city has learned to tell the story with care. Visiting the sites is not ghoulish tourism; done well, it is a lesson in history, memory and how a city deals with its darkest day. This guide covers the essential places in a logical order, and the context you need.
The story in brief. On November 22, 1963, President Kennedy and the First Lady flew into Dallas Love Field as part of a Texas political trip and rode in an open car through downtown toward a lunch at the Trade Mart. As the motorcade turned from Houston Street onto Elm Street in Dealey Plaza, shots were fired from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository. The president was rushed to Parkland Hospital and died there. Lee Harvey Oswald, an employee of the depository, left the building, killed Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit in Oak Cliff and was arrested in a movie theater; two days later he was shot dead by Jack Ruby in the basement of Dallas police headquarters, in front of television cameras. The Warren Commission concluded that Oswald acted alone; a later congressional committee suggested a probable conspiracy, and the debate has never fully ended.
Start at the Sixth Floor Museum. The former depository building now houses the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, and its permanent exhibit, John F. Kennedy and the Memory of a Nation, is the essential starting point. It sets the scene with the Kennedy presidency and the political atmosphere of Texas in 1963, walks through the motorcade minute by minute, and then follows the aftermath: Parkland, the arrest, Ruby, the investigations and the theories. The southeast corner window area has been recreated behind glass as police found it. The museum is closed Mondays and Tuesdays and open Wednesday to Sunday; adult tickets are in the high twenties of dollars, and booking online is wise on weekends and around the anniversary. Allow two hours, and do not rush the early sections.
Walk Dealey Plaza. Outside, the plaza is a National Historic Landmark District that still looks much as it did. Walk to the grassy knoll and the wooden picket fence behind it, the concrete pergola, and the triple underpass at the western end, and look back up at the sixth-floor window — the distances are shorter than most people expect, which is part of the lesson. Two X marks on Elm Street indicate where the shots struck; please view them from the curb, because the street carries busy traffic and visitors who step into the road to photograph them put themselves in danger. You will meet informal guides and vendors selling conspiracy literature; they are not affiliated with the museum.
The Kennedy Memorial and Old Red. A block east of the plaza, the John F. Kennedy Memorial is an open, roofless cenotaph designed by Philip Johnson — a quiet square of white concrete walls with a low granite block bearing the president's name. It is deliberately austere, and it is a good place to pause. Next to it, the red sandstone Old Red Courthouse houses a museum of Dallas County history that puts 1963 into the longer story of the city.
Across the river to Oak Cliff. For a fuller understanding, follow Oswald's movements after the shooting. In Oak Cliff, south of the Trinity, a historical marker identifies the site where Officer Tippit was killed, and the Texas Theatre on Jefferson Boulevard, where Oswald was arrested, still operates as a cinema and has embraced its role in the story. The rooming house where Oswald lived is also in Oak Cliff and is a private property; view it only from the street. Combine the trip with lunch in the nearby Bishop Arts District.
Other places in the story. Dallas Love Field, where Air Force One landed and where Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as president aboard the plane, is still the city's second airport. Parkland Memorial Hospital has moved into a new building, and the old site has no formal visitor experience. The basement where Ruby shot Oswald is in the former police and municipal building downtown, which is not a museum.
How to visit respectfully. Go to the Sixth Floor Museum first, when you are fresh, and give yourself time afterwards to walk and reflect. The anniversary on November 22 brings commemorations and crowds; if you visit then, expect a solemn atmosphere and plan for busy galleries. With children, the museum works best for older kids and teenagers. Photography is restricted inside the museum but welcome on the plaza. Finally, round out the day with the living city — Reunion Tower at sunset, the Arts District, or the trees of Klyde Warren Park — which is how Dallas itself has chosen to move forward.
A suggested half-day route. Begin at the Sixth Floor Museum at opening and spend two hours inside. Walk down to Dealey Plaza and along Elm Street to the grassy knoll and the triple underpass, then circle back past the Old Red Courthouse to the Kennedy Memorial. If you have a car or take a rideshare, cross the river to Oak Cliff for the Tippit marker and the Texas Theatre, then finish with lunch in Bishop Arts. In the evening, go up Reunion Tower: from the GeO-Deck you can see Dealey Plaza below, and the view ties the whole day together.