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During your Addison vacation, don't miss these great establishments and attractions:
Swiss Avenue Historic District
Toward the turn of the 20th century, the Dallas elite began to abandon the area that now comprises the Arts District and move east (near the modestly funky Lakewood neighborhood). Sprawling, grand homes from the early 1900s -- English Tudor, Georgian, Spanish, you name it -- line a broad avenue, about 4 blocks of which are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The Wilson Blocks (2800 and 2900), named for Frederick Wilson, who built a number of the homes there, are especially attractive. Around the holidays, Swiss Avenue is a favorite for Christmas lights cruisers. A drive-by can be done in 15 minutes; allow a half-hour if you want to stroll.
Dallas Museum of Art
Though a substantial notch below a world-class institution, this I. M. Pei-designed museum contains impressive collections of international art, especially from the Americas, Africa, and Asia and the Pacific. The Arts of the Americas section is the largest and most impressive, with valuable contributions from pre-Columbian lost civilizations of the Aztec, Maya, and Nazca peoples and Spanish colonial arts. The more limited Art of Europe gallery exhibits a handful of works by the biggies -- van Gogh, Monet, Cézanne, Gauguin, and Degas -- while the small 20th-century collection includes Picasso, Mondrian, and Giacometti, among others. The contemporary collection includes works by Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, the Texan Robert Rauschenberg, and Jasper Johns. In the Wendy & Emery Reves Collection is a curious re-creation of Coco Chanel's French summer home, complete with her collection of furnishings and paintings by French Impressionists like Monet, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Degas. The DMA puts on interesting occasional shows, such as the recent, colorful "Day of the Dead" installation and the blockbuster "Splendors of China's Forbidden City" exhibit. In the atrium, where jazz combos play for free on Thursday evenings, hangs a gorgeous, monumental blown-glass sculpture by Dale Chihuly. A couple of hours should be sufficient, unless you're a dedicated art hound.
Old City Park
Dallas's Old West heritage is on self-conscious display in this downtown 13-acre park of three dozen historic buildings. The complex re-creates a late-19th-century village, complete with a redbrick Main Street, Victorian homes, a log cabin dating from 1847, and Old West standards like a train depot, general store, one-room church, schoolhouse, bank (said to have been robbed by Bonnie and Clyde in the 1930s), and law offices. All have been transported from their original locations in and around Dallas, immaculately restored and reconstructed on the attractive grounds, which have the glittering city skyline as a backdrop. Guided tours escort visitors inside several of the buildings, including a "Living Farmstead," a re-creation of a North Texas farm (ca. 1860). On selected dates during the first 2 weeks of December, the village celebrates "Candlelight at Old City Park," a popular "Victorian Holiday Celebration." (Candlelight admission tickets are $3 more than regular prices.)A pretty good restaurant, Brent Place, occupies an 1876 "architecture catalogue" farmhouse (ordered by mail and shipped by rail to rural areas) and serves lunch Tuesday through Saturday from 11am to 3pm; call tel. 212/421-3057 for reservations. Visitors are also allowed to picnic on the grounds. Plan to spend 1 1/2 hours or so here.
Dallas Plaza Hotel
Dallas Plaza Hotel Downtown Convention Center in Dallas, Texas is one hotel out of many hotels in the downtown Dallas area. Unlike other Downtown hotels, this hotel is situated conveniently across from the Dallas Convention Center as well as on one of the main thoroughfares, Interstate 30, leading to most of the main attractions that Dallas has to offer. The Dallas Plaza Hotel is close to Fair Park, Deep Ellum, Farmers Market, the West End Marketplace, as well as many other business and ...
Hilton Anatole
The Hilton Anatole is located just north of the downtown Dallas business district, 3 miles from the recently expanded Dallas Convention Center, 20 minutes from Dallas/Ft. Worth International Airport and 10 minutes from convenient Love Field Airport. Across the road, the World Trade Center, the Infomart, Market Hall, Furniture Mart and the Design District's Design Center and Decorative Center. Just a mile away is the brand new, state-of-the-art American Airlines Center, home of the Dallas ...
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