The old Dallas High School, which a developer wants to turn into apartments. (Credit: CBSDFW.com)

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – The Economic Development Committee of the Dallas City Council has approved a proposed redevelopment plan for the old Dallas High.

For more than a century, the building located at the southeast intersection of Pearl and Bryan in present-day downtown Dallas, has stood as a symbol of education.

Although it has sat empty and vacant for almost 20 years, the original Dallas High School is a Landmark structure with historic preservation status, decreed by the Dallas City Council.

The old school sits on five acres of land, and according to city ordinance, can never be demolished. In fact, owners of the building are required to fully restore the exterior of the building if and when the building is ever developed.

Well now, the time for development has come.

A 500-unit apartment community is slated to be built on the old high school property site.  Part of that development includes preserving and enhancing the original school structure.

“We’ve always seen it as a grand opportunity,” developer Clyde Jackson said Tuesday.

Jackson heads Wynne Jackson, the firm planning to turn the school site into a large residential community on the eastern edge of downtown, just south of the Arts District.

“Anyone that acquires this property will have to restore the old building, so it is fully protected,” Jackson added.

If the City Council gives its full approval later this month, the apartment project will begin construction in September. Previous interest in the old high school site always predicated on developers’s desire to demolish the school to make way for commercial or retail endeavors.

Preservationists prevailed on keeping the school’s structure intact with any approved construction. So now, the latest plan with help hold on to Dallas’ past, while building on the future.

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