Dallas Fun Facts

Did you know that Dallas has more shopping centers per capita than any other major U.S. city? That the frozen margarita machine was invented in Dallas? Learn these and more fun facts about Dallas.

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The Dallas Arts District is the largest urban arts district in the United States. It includes the following venues: Dallas Museum of Art, Nasher Sculpture Center, Crow Collection of Asian Art, Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center and the AT&T Performing Arts Center, which opened October 12, 2009.
Upon completion, the Dallas Arts District will have more buildings designed by Pritzker prize winning architects in one contiguous location than anywhere else in the world.
The Crow Collection of Asian Art is the only museum in the southwest solely dedicated to the arts of Asia.
The $81.5 million Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, designed by the famous architect I.M. Pei, houses the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and one of the last handmade Fisk organs by C.B. Fisk.
The Dallas Museum of Art is home to one of the largest collection of post-1945 art in the country. It’s newly opened Center for Creative Connections, a unique, 12-000 square foot learning environment, is a national model for engaging audiences with real works of art.
More than 30 museums ranging from art, baseball and sewing machines to railroads and airplanes, can be found in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area.
Fair Park, a district with numerous museums and venues, features the nation’s largest collection of 1930s Art Deco, exposition-style architecture.
The City of Dallas has more than 300 public art works in its collection, displayed throughout the city.
Dallas has the largest bronze monument in the world, Pioneer Plaza, which includes more than 40 larger-than-life longhorn steers, horses and cowboys. It was built to commemorate the trails that brought settles to Dallas.
The African American Museum in Dallas has one of the largest collections of African American folk art in the nation.
The Meadows Museum at Southern Methodist University has the most significant collection of Spanish art outside of Spain, featuring art from the 10th through 20th centuries.
Time Magazine named The Dallas Children’s Theater one of the top five theaters in the nation performing for children and their families (2004). It was designed by legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and it is the only freestanding theater built to his design that is still operating today.
The Dallas Public Library permanently displays one of the original copies of the Declaration of Independence, printed on July 4, 1776, and the First Folio of William Shakespeare’s “Comedies, Histories & Tragedies.”

Dallas has one five-diamond restaurant; seven four-star restaurants and 10 four-diamond restaurants.
According to the Texas Restaurant Association, the Dallas area has more than 7,000 restaurants to enjoy.
In 2009, three of Dallas’ celebrity chefs opened new restaurants: Kent Rathbun, Rathbun’s Blue Plate Kitchen; Wofgang Puck, Five-Sixty by Wolfgang Puck; and Stephan Pyles, Samar (coming soon).
Zagat Survey ranked The French Room at the Adolphus the No. 1 restaurant in the U.S. (2006), as it wrote “there aren’t enough superlatives” to describe it.
Fearing’s, Chef Dean Fearing’s namesake restaurant in the Ritz Carlton®, Dallas, was named “Best New Restaurant” and “Restaurant of the Year” by Esquire magazine (2007).
The Mansion Restaurant, at the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek, was ranked among the “Best New Restaurants in 2008” by Esquire magazine.
The Dallas Farmers Market is the largest working farmer’s market in the United States, with more than 1 million visitors annually.
Several nationally ranked steak and chop houses can be found in the Dallas area including Bob's Steak & Chop House, which is currently ranked No. 3 according to the USDA Prime Steakhouses chart.
Dallas Fish Market was ranked among the Top 10 seafood restaurants for 2008 by Bon Appetit magazine.
The frozen margarita machine was invented in Dallas.

CBS’ “Walker: Texas Ranger” and Fox’s “Prison Break” were filmed in Dallas.
Movies “Leap of Faith,” “Pure Country,” “Ruby,” “JFK,” “Creepshow,” “Born on the Fourth of July,” “Robocop,” “The Karate Kid” and the Oscar-winning “Silkwood” were all filmed in Dallas County.
The television series “Dallas” featured the Dallas area for 13 years and was shown in 95 foreign countries. The legendary Southfork Ranch still operates a short distance outside of the city.

The Dallas-Fort Worth Arlington Metroplex is the No. 1 visitor and leisure destination in Texas.
Dallas Fort Worth International Airport provides nonstop services to 128 domestic and 37 international destinations.
D/FW International Airport, larger than the island of Manhattan, is the third busiest airports in the world with some 1,600 flights per day.
Air travel to Dallas takes fewer than four hours from most cities in Canada, Mexico and the United States.
More than 25 major cities in Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas and are a 12-hour drive or less from Dallas.
The DART rail system is one of the nation’s fastest growing light rail lines.
McKinney Avenue Transit Authority (McKinney Avenue Trolley) is the largest public transit system utilizing volunteers in North America.
Dallas-area hotels provide visitors with a wide diversity of lodging options and more than 70,000 hotel rooms.
Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek is the only hotel in Texas with a Mobil Five-Star and AAA Five-Diamond rating for both the hotel facility and restaurant.
Due to its 2002 expansion, The Dallas Convention Center has the world’s largest singular, column-free exhibit hall in the world, at 203,000 square feet.
One in 11 Dallas-area workers is employed by the hospitality industry.
The Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau operates at no cost to Dallas taxpayers.

Dallas has the ninth largest population in the nation.
The average year-round temperature ranges from 55 degrees F to 76 degrees F.
Dallas is one of the 10 largest municipalities in the nation.
The Dallas area is the largest metropolitan area in the nation not on a navigable body of water.
DFW Metroplex is home to 24 Fortune 500 companies. (source Fortune Magazine, 2008)
Wilburn D. Cook, designer of Beverly Hills, California, developed the suburb of Highland Park.
Developers are currently investing $13 billion in the city’s urban core.

Highland Park Village, built in 1931, was the first planned shopping center in the U.S.
Northpark Center was the first air-conditioned mall in the U.S.
Galleria Dallas offers more than 200 premier retail stores and is home to the country’s tallest Christmas tree.
Neiman Marcus was founded in Dallas, with the flagship store downtown.
At 5.5 million square feet, the Dallas Market Center is the world’s largest market for wholesale merchandise.

Texas is larger than France, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland and Luxembourg combined.
City Hall was designed by Pritzker-Prize winning architect I.M. Pei and features an outdoor sculpture by Henry Moore.
The Dallas INFOMART, designed to be the world's first technology market center, was built to resemble London’s Crystal Palace.
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas is home to four Nobel Laureates: three in physiology/medicine and one in chemistry.
Parkland Hospital was named one of the best hospitals in the U.S by U.S News & World Report for 2008.
The integrated circuit computer chip was invented in 1958 in Dallas.
Currently, the “Texas Star” Ferris wheel at the State Fair of Texas is the tallest in North America.
The 52-foot “Big Tex” statue that greets visitors at the annual State Fair of Texas is the tallest cowboy in Texas. The State Fair has been held in the same location since 1886.
The Dallas Arboretum holds the Southwest’s largest annual outdoor floral festival.

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