History of Bluffview

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With its dense foliage, Bluffview looks more like the Hill Country than a suburb of Dallas. photography by Peter Calvin

Named for the 60-foot rock bluff overlooking Bachman Creek, Bluffview was Dallas’ northernmost suburb when it opened officially in 1924. The area was part of the original Wilson Baker land grant. In 1851, after helping found Farmer’s Branch, pioneers William M. and Nancy J. Cochran settled on the Baker survey and developed the county’s first corn mill and some of its first crops of wheat and cotton. In 1856, Mrs. Cochran deeded four acres on which Cochran Chapel was built as a memorial to her husband, who died in 1853. Located at the current-day intersection of Midway Road and Northwest Highway, it is the county’s oldest deeded Methodist church. The names on the headstones in the cemetery just south of the sanctuary read like a list of Dallas street names.

Prior to 1924, Amanda “Nannie” Brown, a granddaughter of the Cochrans and wife of Ernest Brown, heir to the F.A. Brown farmstead, owned the land south of the bluff, the future site of Bluffview Estates. The Capps family had land in the western portion, and Charles Elsby owned the southeastern part; both families have Bluffview streets named after them. Just north of the bluff, John T. Lively and son Jack started the Bluffview Dairy Farm in 1919, daily bottling quarts of rich Guernsey milk for area residents and making deliveries in their model T. John P. Stevens, who is responsible for Stevens Park in Oak Cliff, bought the land in 1924.

Cochran Chapel  as it stands today. photography by Graham Hobart

A January 4, 1925, advertisement from realtors J.W. Lindsley & Co. heralded the new addition as a suburban retreat located “high above the city.” Indeed, many people at the time thought it was too far out in the country.

During its early development, Bluffview’s lushly wooded lots, winding lanes, and surprising hills attracted noted architects Charles Dilbeck and O’Neil Ford and other builders who incorporated the area’s picturesque topography into their designs. After initial opposition to the city’s overtures of annexation, Bluffview became part of the city of Dallas in March of 1943.

Bachman’s Dam makes a picturesque subject for a postcard. courtesy of Dallas Historical Society