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Stevens Park Golf Course was opened in 1922 in Oak Cliff as the second municipal golf course in Dallas. Additional
land adjoining the original donation was acquired from North Texas Trust Company. One of the owners was Dallas native, L.A.
Stemmons, who was instrumental in developing several housing additions in Oak Cliff. Since coming to Dallas after the Civil War,
the Stemmons family has been associated with many civic improvements in the city. Twelve acres were also purchased from the
Catholic Church bringing the total to 90 acres.
The rolling hills and woods in this area were some of the most beautiful land
in Dallas County. Kessler Park and Stevens Park were developed as attractive additions to Dallas at this time. Oak Cliff was a
separate city until 1903 when it was annexed to the city of Dallas.
Stevens Park Golf Course is located on land that was part of the Anson McCracken Survey and a portion of the William Myers Survey.
Peters Colonist Anson and his wife and four children came to Texas in 1844 from Missouri. Anson served as the County Coroner from
1848-1850. The McCracken family cleared the land for farming and lived on the land. The 1850 census, the first for Dallas County,
lists them as family No.159. On early maps, the creek running through this property was called McCracken's Creek.
In September 1855, three hundred and twenty acres in this vicinity was sold to European American Society of Colonization of Texas,
known also as the La Reunion Colony. The agent for the Colony was Francois Cantegral who had come to America as the agent for
the Colony to purchase land. This colony of Europeans had been persuaded to come to Dallas to establish their theory of socialism.
They came hoping to raise grapes for wine, but the cold winters, hot summers and plague of grasshoppers soon discouraged them.
Many went back to Europe, but those who stayed enriched the community by sharing their education in the arts, music and sciences.
The headquarters for this Utopian dream was near where the golf course is now. By 1858, the Colony had disbanded and the land was
seized for the debt owed and resold to other early settlers. There is a monument marker recognizing the La Reunion Colony
erected on the 6th tee of the course.
Dr. John H. Stevens (1824-1881) came to Dallas County after the Civil War. He had served as Medical Director of the Confederate
States Army of Virginia. He was a graduate of Dickinson College, Pennsylvania and the University of Virginia. His wife, Mary Armstrong
Stevens (1847-1916) was a native of Tuskegee, Alabama. They lost an infant daughter in 1879, but Walter Armstrong was born in 1874 and
Annie Laurie was born in 1876, both in Texas. When the land for the addition to Dallas called Stevens Park was platted, 40 acres were
donated in 1923 to the Park Department for the golf course by Walter and Annie Laurie as a memorial to their parents Dr. and
Mrs. John Stevens.
O. M. Taylor was the architect for the first clubhouse on the 18-hole Stevens Park Golf Course, constructed by park labor in 1924
for $7,000 with $3,000 paid by the North Texas Trust Company/L.A. Stemmons. The second clubhouse was built in 1941-42 with WPA funds
combined with city money for the construction and purchase of additional land.
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Stevens Park Golf Club
1005 N. Montclair Avenue Dallas, Texas 75208
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