Oak Cliff

Extensive residential and commercial district of Dallas, Texas, lying south of the Trinity River and Downtown. Following a period of decline in the mid-20th century, it gained a new lease of life after World War II as workers moved into the area to staff the new aircraft and related industries in the Mid-Cities between Dallas and Fort Worth.

Because it stands on higher ground than the original city, Oak Cliff was known as Hord's Ridge in the 1840s. Therefter, it was the site (1855–58) of ‘La Réunion’, the French utopian community whose members later moved to Dallas. Oak Cliff's hills and bluffs attracted residential development in the period 1890–1930. Today it has a variety of working- and middle-class neighbourhoods; in particular, older parts of the district closer to the city centre have become fashionable and are being restored by homeowners. Colleges in the vicinity include Bishop, Dallas Baptist, and Mountain View.