The new southern Dallas deck park in Oak Cliff is taking nominations for notable community visionaries to feature in the green space set to open next year.
Halperin Park will honor up to a dozen individuals, which could include the late Trinidad “Trini” Garza, a pioneer of the Hispanic community, or blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan.
It could also feature names seen on streets, schools and buildings across Dallas — like Reverchon or Marsalis — and explain their relevance, said April Allen, president and CEO of the Southern Gateway Public Green Foundation, which is managing the park.
“A lot of Dallas’ history is Oak Cliff’s history,” Allen said, adding, “so many of these people kind of represent the spirit of what makes Oak Cliff special. It is about history. It is about resilience and creativity.”
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The park is expected to open in the spring and custom bronze pavers will honor the visionaries in its 12th Street Promenade Walk of Fame. The deadline for nominations is Dec. 5.
Between South Ewing and South Marsalis avenues, the park is being constructed atop Interstate 35E, near the Dallas Zoo. When the highway was built, it sliced through the heart of Oak Cliff, bulldozing homes belonging to people of color. The new site is seen as a bridge between neighborhoods.
Halperin is the second deck park — after Klyde Warren Park — to be added to the city’s park system. Formerly called Southern Gateway Park, it was renamed following a $23 million contribution from the Halperin Foundation for the naming rights.
A construction crew works on Halperin Park, which will open next year, Monday, Nov. 10, 2025, in Dallas. Pavers spanning the park will be inlayed with its walk of fame tiles.
Angela Piazza / Staff Photographer
Community members now have the chance to weigh in on whose names will be featured in the Walk of Fame. Allen encouraged submissions, and the Southern Gateway Public Green Foundation released a book with profiles for nearly 40 Oak Cliff visionaries.
Among them is Anthony Boswell, who died in 1893. A Black man who settled in Oak Cliff after buying his freedom in Alabama, Boswell acquired land in what would become the Tenth Street community. The Tenth Street Historic District is one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods. Founded by former slaves after the Civil War, it is one of the few intact freedmen’s towns in the country.
Now, Halperin Park could serve as a catalyst for development in the area, bringing along a slate of amenities including a stage and pavilion for concerts, a playground and an interactive water feature.
While the park will literally serve as a bridge, it will also create a “third space,” where people form connections between the community and their culture, Allen said. While Allen said the park has a local focus, it will also extend to others outside the neighborhood. “That is a way that we can start to rewrite the narrative of what it means to live in Dallas,” Allen said, adding that programming will aim to elevate Oak Cliff and how it’s unique.
Leading the selection for the walk of fame is a community advisory council with the foundation, which will review input from the community, historians and archivists. The council will consider if the nominees were born in Oak Cliff or spent significant time as a resident, if the nominee contributed to the history or development of Oak Cliff and other contributions.
Public figures nominated must have been retired or out of office for at least four years.
A nomination form is available at www.halperinpark.org/walk-of-fame/.
This reporting is part of the Future of North Texas, a community-funded journalism initiative supported by the Commit Partnership, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, the Dallas Mavericks, the Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Lisa and Charles Siegel, the McCune-Losinger Family Fund, The Meadows Foundation, the Perot Foundation, the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and the University of Texas at Dallas. The News retains full editorial control of this coverage.