Old Red Museum (Dallas, TX)

The Old Red Museum is located on Houston Street in the middle of the more tourist-friendly part of Dallas. About a five minute walk from the Sixth Floor Museum, the Old Red Museum was the courthouse of Dallas for many years until it was renovated into a museum dedicated to Texas, and more specifically Dallas, history. The first floor is dedicated to a temporary exhibit, currently about a local town, Lancaster.
The second floor houses the permanent exhibit. They divided it into five sections, each with its own movie. Generally I don’t enjoy sitting still for an entire fifteen to twenty minute film about a certain aspect of history, but these films I didn’t find difficult to sit still. The first two parts deal with social aspects of Dallas, with half focusing on the development of Dallas and a part with social issues, such as the Civil War, racism, education and other basic social needs and issues. The second two serve a more specific purpose, focusing on the lives of early pioneers as they settled the land for the first time (Native American are also addressed), and the final part about business development of Dallas as well as reasons for which Dallas is famous the world over. The JFK assassination takes up one small panel.
For an entry fee of $8, it is a worth while visit to understand Dallas culture, but not by far is it as necessary as the Sixth Floor Museum. In about an hour and a half it will explain a very generalized history of Dallas to the first time visitor, but with knowledge of Texas’ development I could see where this museum would not be on everyone’s must-see list.