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    Downtown Music Venue

    Downtown Dallas park sings again with legendary musicians in mind

    Leah Shafer
    Aug 14, 2015 | 3:26 pm

    Dallas has a rich music history, and one of its hubs was 508 Park, where Mississippi Delta blues legend Robert Johnson recorded nearly half his songs, as well as his final work, over two weeks in 1937.

    In fact, 843 blues, jazz, western swing and Mexican recordings occurred at 508 Park by Johnson and other legends such as Gene Autry, Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, Light Crust Doughboys, and Lolo Cavasos.

    Located in downtown Dallas near the Dallas Farmers Market, 508 Park, built in 1929 for Warner Brothers as a film exchange and distribution hub, stood vacant and vandalized for two decades. In 2011, The Stewpot of First Presbyterian Church purchased and renovated it, and built an amphitheater, to create the new Encore Park.

    Encore Park is a multiphased, multivenue campus that aims to bring all cultures together to experience and appreciate history, art, music and community gardening.

    Pat Bywaters is executive director of Encore Park Dallas and grandson of influential Texas artist and Dallas Nine member Jerry Bywaters. He's been spearheading the research into 508's history, visiting archives in California, Louisiana and New York.

    "I love doing research, and I've always loved history. As soon as we looked into 508, the music history came flooding," he says. "The Encore Park project preserves not only the architectural relic, but a special place and time in Dallas' history."

    The first phase debuted in October 2014, with the amphitheater and a sculpture wall by Brad Oldham and Christy Coltrin. This lost-wax bronze sculpture, called The Birth of a City, tells iconic and lesser-known visual stories unique to Dallas across 10 six-by-four-foot panels.

    "They were inspired by a particular image of the building the Houston Viaduct over the Trinity River, which was an engineering marvel when it was built, and they did the sculpture in the 1930s style," Bywaters says.

    Fundraising phases two and three are ongoing, hoping to restore and finish out the interior of 508 Park, which will include the Museum of Street Culture, art galleries and studios (including The Stewpot artists), a recording studio, event space, a rooftop terrace, and coffee shop. Nearly half of the $13 million capital campaign has been raised.

    On August 15, catch Robert Johnson Blues Revue, featuring Robert Johnson's grandson Steven Johnson and the Dallas Street Choir, at 508 Amphitheater. Tickets are $10 for general admission, $40 for preferred seating and $75 for VIP tickets, which includes a reception and short show with Steven Johnson and his band on August 14. (Buy tickets here.)

    Starting September 6, Encore Park will show Warner Brothers movies from the 1930s, '40s and '50s every other Sunday in collaboration with the historic Texas Theatre. The events are free, and each screening includes a 16mm short, then a feature-length film.

    To celebrate Stewpot's 40th anniversary in October, activities include the following:

    • October 4: A blessing of the animals at 508 Amphitheater (St. Francis of Assisi's birthday) at 2 pm
    • October 7: Special monthly worship service of The Stewpot, featuring KM Williams at 508 Amphitheater
    • October 22: Special showing of Serving Second Chances at 508 Amphitheater
    • October 24: 40th anniversary celebration, including a Stewpot Talent Show and Dallas Street Choir, a street fair of art from The Stewpot Open Art Program and an evening performance

    The final event of the year is a fiddle competition November 7.

    Blues musician Keb Mo gesturing to Robert Johnson in a panel of the Encore Park sculpture wall, called The Birth of a City, by artists Brad Oldham and Christy Coltrin.

    Encore Park Sculpture Wall
      
    Photograph courtesy of Jeffrey Liles
    Blues musician Keb Mo gesturing to Robert Johnson in a panel of the Encore Park sculpture wall, called The Birth of a City, by artists Brad Oldham and Christy Coltrin.
    unspecified
    news/entertainment

    Book News

    Barnes & Noble to open 2 new Dallas-area stores but will close Plano

    Teresa Gubbins
    Jun 12, 2025 | 6:56 pm
    Barnes & Noble
    Barnes & Noble
    Barnes & Noble, new look.

    There's good news and bad on the bookstore front: Two new locations of bookstore chain Barnes & Noble are opening in the Dallas area, one soon and one very soon, but a third is closing this week.

    Closing
    The store in Plano at 801 W. 15th St. is closing on Sunday, June 15. According to a company representative, the Plano store is an older, larger store model that the chain is turning away from, in favor of a new smaller model it's embracing for all new stores.

    It also has three other locations within close proximity: West Plano, Allen, and Richardson.

    Other DFW stores that still have that similar larger/older floorplan include Preston & Park in Plano; Prestonwood Center in North Dallas, and Lincoln Park in Dallas across from Northpark Center.

    Opening
    There are two new stores opening in summer/fall:

    • Rockwall, at 1009 E I-30, will open in late summer.
    • Prosper, at 1191 Gates Pkwy., in the newly developed Gates of Prosper, will open in the fall.

    According to a spokesperson, the new Rockwall store will follow the chain's new design seen in their most recent store openings, featuring "all the best books, toys, games, vinyl, and gifts our customers have come to expect." It will also house a B&N Café.

    The store is approximately 20,000 square feet and will be located in the space formerly occupied by Staples, which closed in January 2025.

    The store in Prosper will be nearly 20,000 square feet and is anticipated to feature the same model and selection as the Rockwall store, including a B&N Café.

    In August 2019, Barnes & Noble was acquired by Elliott Advisors (UK) and taken private. Elliott’s acquisition of Barnes & Noble followed its June 2018 acquisition of Waterstones, the largest bookseller in the U.K.

    Barnes & Noble is experiencing a period of growth, the result of a strategy to hand over control of each bookstore to its manager. They're enjoying strong sales and have opened many new stores after 15-plus years of declining store numbers. In 2022, they opened more new bookstores in a single year than in the entire decade from 2009 to 2019.

    They've continued to open more locations, including three in the DFW area in 2024: a store in Allen as well as stores in Flower Mound and Richardson — part of a wave of store openings that show the chain in the midst of a major comeback.

    Barnes & Noble, Inc. is the largest retail bookseller in the United States. The company has more than 630 bookstores across the U.S., as well as its online bookstore at bn.com, the Nook Digital business which offers both e-books and an audio book subscriptions service, the SparkNotes educational service, stationery and gift retailer Paper Source, and the publisher Union Square & Co.

    openingsclosingsbooks
    news/entertainment

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