SOME HISTORY
 In
1964, Kip’s Big Boy of Dallas opened the doors to its newest
location at Northwest Highway and Hillcrest. Fred Bell, president,
announced the site costing approximately $200,000 to construct with
parking for 100 cars and seating for 130 customers. Carter Minor,
architect, and Fred Bell Contractors completed construction of the
new building as part of a larger shopping center, Northwest Plaza,
developed by Louis Hexter and others. Carter Minor may have been
associated with Armet & Davis of Southern California who initiated
the first designs for Bob’s Big Boy in the 1950s. The center
included an El Fenix restaurant and Centennial Liquor store as part
of the shopping center designed by architects Harper & Kemp.
Fred Bell introduced Kip’s Big Boy of Dallas in 1958 with
its first coffee shop at Inwood and Lemmon. The chain of restaurants
started in California near Toluca Lake building from what is now
a recognized Southern California roadside architectural form, the
coffee shop. Architectural historians credit Wayne McAllister, a
noted Southern California architect, with some of the first designs
for roadside fast food eateries. McAllister is responsible for some
of the first Streamline designs in the 1940s that resulted in the
circular drive-in restaurants. If you remember Lobello’s drive-in
near Love Field that opened in 1941, Sam Lobello, Jr., hired local
architect Charles Dilbeck to modify Wayne McAllister’s circular
form for that location. The City of Dallas purchased the site about
1944 for an extension of Love Field.
 Fred
Bell sold the company in 1972 to Frisch’s of Cincinnati, Ohio,
that still operates on the East Coast. A few Bob’s Big Boy
restaurants operate on the West Coast, including a restored 1949
coffee shop on Riverside Drive in Toluca Lake. Fred Bell and his
wife died in 1977 from an airplane crash that he piloted while on
vacation in the Bahamas. Bell had moved to Bandera in the Texas
Hill Country and on to other roadside ventures including Brake Check.
Many of the Kip’s Big Boy restaurants are now modified or
demolished. The Kip’s at 6215 Gaston (1967) remains though
it is altered. The Kip’s at Northwest Highway and Hillcrest
has been operated by EZ’s Brick Oven and Grill of San Antonio
for a number of years and developed its own local following in a
vintage setting. (See Dallas Morning News, Friday, March 18, 2005).
HOW CAN THIS BUILDING BE DEMOLISHED?
 A
demolition cannot be halted on a property unless it is designated
as a historic landmark in the City of Dallas. This process takes
up to one year after a lengthy description and history is prepared
and channeled through the Dallas Landmark Commission, City Plan
Commission, and the Dallas City Council.
Properties constructed less than 50 years ago are subject to special
scrutiny and demand extensive documentation on significance before
any designation.
Roadside architecture in general, as the Kip’s Big Boy is
classified, is under appreciated and only now growing in respect
among preservationists.
WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW!
Write a letter to the editor of the Dallas Morning News emphasizing
the importance of our recent past.
Write to the owners of the building, 7-11 Corporation asking them
not to demolish.
Submit your personal photographs, stories and experiences to Preservation
Dallas and the Dallas Morning News.
Contact information:
7-Eleven Corporation, Inc.
ATTN: James Keyes, President & CEO
2711 N. Haskell
Dallas, TX 75204
(214) 828-7011
To send an email, go to: www.7-eleven.com
Dallas Morning News Co.
ATTN: Robert W. Mong, Jr., Editor
P.O. Box 6552237
Dallas, TX 75204
(214) 977-8222
Email: bmong@dallasnews.com
Councilperson Veletta Forsythe-Lill
City of Dallas
Dallas City Hall
1500 Marilla Street, Room 5FS
Dallas, TX 75201-6390
(214) 670-5415
To send an email, go to: www.dallascityhall.com
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