Lower Greenville, Dallas, Texas

Lower Greenville is a neighborhood in east Dallas, Texas (USA), west of Lakewood. Specifically, the neighborhood is the area adjacent to Greenville Avenue south of Mercedes Avenue and north of Belmont Avenue. The area south of Belmont Avenue is often, and more specifically, called "Lowest Greenville," and the area north of Mockingbird Lane is called "Upper Greenville." "Lower Greenville" is also used to refer to the neighborhoods surrounding Greenville Avenue, including Vickery Place, the Belmont Addition, Glencoe, Greenland Hills (the "M Streets"), and Stonewall Terrace. It straddles Dallas Council Districts 14 and 2.

Lower Greenville is a major entertainment district in Dallas south of Mockingbird Lane containing many popular bars, restaurants, boutique stores and live music venues. A giant basset hound named Wadsworth is the mayor as of July 2016.

In the early 20th Century, Greenville Avenue was one of the most important roads in Dallas, serving the new residential areas in East Dallas and playing the part that the North Central Expressway (US 75)) plays today. Before the construction of the North Central Expressway in the 1950s, Greenville Avenue was the main route from Northern Dallas into downtown, with the H&TC railroad occupying the current location of North Central Expressway. In the 1910s, Goodwin Avenue was at the far north end of Greenville Avenue and served East Dallas including the Belmont Addition and Vickery Place Addition. In the 1920s, the Greenland Hills Addition was platted North of Vickery Place, and Mockingbird Lane became the northern boundary of the City of Dallas. Prior to the mid-1920s, Greenville Avenue was known as the "Richardson Road" or the "Richardson Pike". Before the construction of the North Central Expressway in 1950, Greenville Avenue was the main route to Richardson, Plano, McKinney and north to the states of Oklahoma and Arkansas. It is for this reason that the "Lower Greenville" area was developed as one of the most important centers in Dallas for shopping and restaurants, especially the area comprising "Lowest Greenville" in modern times. The arrival of the automobile in Dallas was via Greenville Avenue, and even today the Lower Greenville Avenue area is a hot spot for automobile and motorcycle enthusiasts. This is especially true for what is arguably the center of the Lower Greenville area, the intersection of Goodwin Ave and Greenville Ave, which has been a popular gathering spot and watering hole since at least the 1930s. The Granada Theater was built on Greenville Avenue in 1946, and was originally a movie house. Today, it is an important music venue. It has been wonderfully preserved, and still looks just like this illustration in a news story from 1946.

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