Bookable
A warehouse on Elm Street
The seven-storey building at the corner of Elm and Houston Streets was built in 1901 on the foundation of an earlier warehouse that burned after a lightning strike. For six decades it stored farm equipment and then groceries. In 1963 it was leased to the Texas School Book Depository Company as a distribution centre for school textbooks.


22 November 1963
On 22 November 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated as his motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza. The Warren Commission and, later, the House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald fired from a sixth-floor window of the building.
From county offices to a museum
Dallas County acquired the building after the depository’s lease ended in 1970 and completed its restoration in 1981, using the lower floors for county offices. The top two floors stayed empty until the Sixth Floor exhibit opened on Presidents’ Day, 20 February 1989, for the many visitors who came to Dealey Plaza to learn about the assassination.



