Dallas: Kessler Theater

Oak Cliff lost its neighborhood movie house, then got it back as something better.

Dallas architect George Dahl designed the Kessler Theater, which opened in 1942 as an Art Deco showplace for the Winnetka Heights section of Oak Cliff. Cowboy actor and singer Gene Autry, who already owned several Oak Cliff theaters, bought the Kessler in 1945. For over a decade it ran movies and drew neighborhood crowds. Then a tornado tore through the building in 1957, and a fire around 1960 finished the job. The Kessler sat dark for decades.

Reborn as a Listening Room

In 2010, preservationist Edwin Cabaniss and musician Jeff Liles led a renovation that restored the Kessler’s original Art Deco character and reopened it as a live music venue. As a result, the building’s history as a neighborhood gathering place carried straight through into its second act. The room kept its intimate scale, which turned out to be exactly what a new generation of songwriters and touring acts wanted.

Today, the Kessler has built a reputation as one of Dallas’s best listening rooms — a place where singer-songwriters, Americana acts, and touring bands play to crowds that actually came to listen. Because it sits in the Bishop Arts District, a night at the Kessler usually turns into a night in Oak Cliff. The theater that Dallas nearly lost twice is now one of the city’s most trusted rooms for live music.