History

To trace the history of the Dallas Regional Chamber of Commerce is to explore the commercial birth and development of Dallas itself, from its earliest days as a burgeoning trading post to its emergence as a metropolitan economic center. Dallas has thrived not so much on its natural resources, but on the natural talents of its leading citizens, and the Chamber has served time and again as a catalyst for that energy and vision.

The Dallas Regional Chamber began as an idea to merge the collective efforts of the town’s four business organizations -- the Commercial Club, the 150,000 Club, The Freight Bureau and the Trade League. Merchants and traders from each group saw a need for city planning and big expenditures in getting the town going and hoped that by focusing their diverse capabilities, they could make greater progress towards civic changes and improvements

The organizational meeting in 1909 was held in the Commercial Club auditorium in the Cotton Belt building (now the Greyhound Bus station downtown), a building that would become the Chamber’s first office, and was led by the presidents of the four disestablished clubs.

The biggest task that the Chamber would face in its formative first year was to distinguish itself from the more social “clubs” that were predominant in the community and to define itself as a serious civic group set to develop the business and commerce of Dallas.

This new identity was bolstered early on in 1910 when the Board created the first “City Plan and Improvement League,” commonly known as the Kessler Plan, and worked towards implementation of the Plan’s goals: a railroad right of way onto Pacific Avenue, reclamation of the Trinity Flood Plain and preliminary plans for construction of Central Boulevard (later to become Central Expressway) on the H&TC railroad right of way. Though not all of the elements of the Plan came to fruition, the Chamber’s efforts garnered the positive attention and much-needed support of the business community through its crucial first year.

In the coming years the Chamber was responsible in part for such institutions as Southern Methodist University (1911), the Federal Reserve Bank (1914); The Texas Centennial Celebration to build a fine arts museum, natural history museum, aquarium health and science museum and horticulture center at Fairpark (1934); Southwestern Medical Foundation (later UT Southwestern Medical Center) (1943); the creation of a Dallas County Hospital District (1950); the creation of DFW airport (1964-67); Dallas County Community College System (1965); “Get Together: Keep Dallas Moving” a rapid transit study that would lead to the formation of DART (1980); helped established the Women’s Covenant, a city wide initiative directed at increasing hiring and promotion of women in business (1994); supported the establishment of the North Texas Regional Toll Authority (1995); assisted in the lobbying the governor for the creation of the Texas Enterprise Fund (2003) and the Emerging Technology Fund (2005).

Sources: “Dallas Regional Chamber: The First 70 Years,” by Andy DeShong; Board of Directors meeting minutes, January 1980-August 1998; personal accounts of Chamber staff members, September 1998. Special thanks to Herb Chaffin and Fran Yost for their assistance in compiling this information.

Dallas Regional Chamber Historical Timeline (PDF) 

90 years of Building a Better Dallas (PDF)