Deep Ellum sits directly east of the elevated Interstate 45 and US 75 freeway and extends to Exposition Avenue, connected to downtown by Pacific, Elm, Main, Commerce and Canton streets. When the first train reached Dallas in 1872, 500 African Americans were already living in the area, and the convergence of the Houston and Texas Central and the Texas and Pacific lines established one of the largest African American communities in the South. The Knights of Pythias Temple at 2551 Elm Street, built in 1916 to a design by William Sidney Pittman, was the first major commercial building in Dallas built for African Americans, by African Americans and with African American money, and served as the community’s social, professional and cultural center until 1939.
Central Expressway construction reshaped the district between 1947 and 1968. Artists, musicians and entrepreneurs moved into vacant shops and warehouses from the mid-1980s, and by 1991 the area held 57 bars and nightclubs. The Ford Model T Plant at 2700 Canton Street dates to 1914, and the Continental Gin Building at 3309 Elm Street, built around 1888, reopened in 2021 after a two-year restoration.
Old East Dallas was incorporated as the separate city of East Dallas in 1882 and annexed by Dallas in 1890. It contains the Swiss Avenue Historic District, designated in 1973 as the city’s first, and Munger Place, established in 1905 and designated in 1988. Deep Ellum and Baylor University Medical Center stations, both on the Green Line, opened in 2009.
17 apartment buildings in Deep Ellum / Old East Dallas, holding 4,867 units between them. This part of the directory takes in Deep Ellum and Old East Dallas. Buildings range from 79 to 480 units. The oldest listed here is Adam Hats Lofts, completed in 1913; the newest is Juniper, from 2026. Every listing carries the same fields — units, year built, floors, and five amenities you can filter on — and every fact traces to a real source.