Along the JFK50 Geotrail: The House on Neely Street

Neely Street house where LHO and family rented
the upstairs apartment upon return from Russia.

While you are still in the Oak Cliff area, another stop along your JFK geocaching tour will take you to a big yellow house on Neely Street. 

What makes this house of interest, besides the geocache located nearby of course, is the now infamous photo of house resident Lee Harvey Oswald posing in the back garden with the gun that would allegedly be used to shoot JFK and a communist newspaper.



While there, I was able to take a look in the backyard where the photo was taken and posed in the same spot against the fence while holding a copy of the very recognizable photo. 

Another surreal Dallas moment for me as nothing has really changed since the time the original was taken and if you imagined really hard you could see Oswald standing there with gun and paper in hand and his wife Marina snapping the camera.


It was here in this rented upstairs apartment that Oswald and his wife, Marina, had lived with their small child after they returned from Russia.

Oswald apparently was quite proud of that photograph, for he would later send a copy of it to his political confidante, a Polish instigator and expat named George de Mohrenschildt.

On the back of the photograph, Oswald has inscribed it to his friend and added the line in Russian, “Hunter of Fascists. Ha. Ha. Ha.” When de Mohrenschildt discovered the photograph in his papers years later, he would call it Oswald’s gift from the grave.

Although Marina acknowledged taking the photos, conspiracy theorists have long suggested they were faked in order to frame Oswald.

LHO and Marina with their daughter

Fake or no, it was still an interesting bit of history to relive!


 

Along The JFK50 Geotrail: Oswald's Rooming House

 

In 1963, on a Fall afternoon, two young brothers were doing what brothers do and fighting in the yard in front of their Grandmother's boarding house in Oak Cliff.

One of the roomers, who enjoyed sitting on the front poarch and watching the boys play, covered the short distance from his chair to the scuffle and physically pulled the two boys apart and walked them to the stairs for a talk.

“Boys,” He began, “I want to tell you something really important and I want you to listen.” He continued on, “You're brothers. You have to look out for each other.”

Then, in what would be considered, in later years by those who did not know the man, to be a very out of character for a person considered to be so cold and violent, the man ended with “ Don't ever do anything to harm another human being.”

These words, hear by then 11 year old Patricia Hall, were uttered by the man who just weeks later would arrested for the assassination of the beloved President John F Kennedy, which he would follow by gunning down Dallas Police officer Tippet.

The Living Room

This is the story related to me by the owner of the boarding house where Lee Harvey Oswald spent the last few weeks of his life paying $8 a week for a small, yet cozy, boarding room. A room to which he would eventually return after allegedly shooting the President to retrieve his pistol which he would then use to gun down Officer J.D. Tippit just a short distance from the rooming house.

 

Owner Patricia Hall, a very friendly and cheerful sort, tells her memories of a very different man than is portrayed in history books and if you stop by for a tour of the rooming house located at N. Beckley Street in Oak Cliff, she will be more than happy to share her memories and home with you during the tour. There is even a book to purchase on site if you wish to delve even deeper into the history of what occurred during Oswald's stay.

The very bedroom which Oswald rented,
as it would have looked on that
fateful day.

I will tell you right now, it was a crazy surreal feeling to be conversing with someone who knew Oswald in a real way and I are up every moment of being blessed with listening to stories and facts about this infamous character that were not merely spewed forth from biased history books.

Am I going to say that history has been wrong about this man and that we have been looking in the wrong direction all of these decades. No, I will not be saying that. Nor will I be saying that there are so many holes in the current theories that the possiblitly that a killer did not have a soft and human side. All I will stand by is that the story I was related really painted an interesting perspective on a very old mystery and most certainly made for guided tour I would be willing to take again.

Though the home has changed in some ways since 1963, stepping inside still feels like you are stepping back into the pages of history and having just spent a month reading the Stephen King novel 11/22/63, I admit I felt exhilaration and a definite case of the chills during my tour.

I can confidently say that the home's owner Patricia, who can be found on Facebook she informed me, is amazing at bringing the history and ambiance of the era to life and I enjoyed her tour more than many I have been on lately. Definitely worth the stop if you are in the area and worth the support us many history buffs to keep it open!

Oh Yes! And what else might make it worth your time and attention if you are a geocacher??

That could be JFK50GT #9: Boarding House, the multi-stage geocache hiding on the property as part of the reward trail, just waiting for you to come and find it!

 

 Sorry... no spoilers here! ;)

Along the JFK50 Geotrail: Beginning

Downtown Dallas

If you should find yourself in the Dallas area, I would like to recommend a can't miss geotrail for you to find. It is a 14 cache (a mix of traditional, multi, and even a Wherigo!) that will reward you at the end with a coin to commemorate the 50 anniversary of that black day in history when President John F Kennedy was shot and killed during his presidential tour.

Though I was not able to yet visit all of the sites, I can tell you that this is one of the more thought out and well executed geotrails I have enjoyed, whose primary focus is to educate the general population of cachers on the events of the darkest day in Dallas history.

In the next couple of posts, I will be highlighting some of the areas that the trail allowed me to explore and some of the things I personally found interesting.

You will need to visit the official site for the trail at www.jfk50geotrail.com so that you can download a paper copy of the passport for the trail. This will be absolutely necessary if you wish to obtain the commemorate coin, as each cache will have either a code word or a stamp or such for you to apply to your paper.  Here is a list of all of the 14 caches you will be searching for:

 

JFK50GT #1: Love Field	JFK50GT #6: Dealey Plaza #1	JFK50GT #11: Texas Theater
JFK50GT #2: Love Field	JFK50GT #7: Dealey Plaza #2	JFK50GT #12: Officer Tippit Murder
JFK50GT #3: Craddock Park	JFK50GT #8: The Municipal Building	JFK50GT #13: Officer Tippit Gravesite
JFK50GT #4: Parkland	JFK50GT #9: Boarding House	JFK50GT #14: Campisi's
JFK50GT #5: Trade Mart	JFK50GT #10: Neely House

 

 

If you are only interested in reading the history and finding the cache, you can simply log as usual. But honestly, why go through the trouble without gaining the fun? :D

Each cache takes you deeper into the story of the events of the day as they unfold and I guarantee that no matter how much a student of history you would like to call yourself, you will absolutely learn something new if you take the time to read through and absorb all of the information made available to you. Remember, while you are on the trail...keep an open mind, an open heart, and of course, an open eye!!

Though I was unable to find the time on a short day to complete all 14 caches, I am really looking forward and eager to finish the run and complete my passport!

The amount of research and care that has gone into planning out and executing this trail absolutely humbled me, and it was an honor to be able to “witness” to this small taste of true American history.

I offer my thanks and my appreciation for the work that these volunteers have put into making this possible and the added stress and time it takes to keep it alive and going! You guys are awesome!!