WFAA’s Film of the Motorcade Run to Parkland Hospital Stabilized

[Charles Collins]

Great ID for the white background building! The multi-winged (now Holiday Inn Express) was probably in progress, at only a few floors at that time. Can we agree on that? Then that leaves a building next to the hotel with a top structure that reminds me of Parkland . However, I can't see any windows. Was there a side to Parkland (facing Trade Market) that did not have widows?

Here’s a view from google maps from 3-years ago as one is in the intersection just past the railroad tracks where Industrial fans out at the junction to Hines Blvd. I have drawn a red arrow pointing out the old Parkland Hospital (the one which existed in 1963) which is currently being demolished. I drew a blue arrow to the new Parkland hospital. And a yellow arrow to the Holiday Inn Express. (No, I didn’t sleep there last night.  ) This appears somewhat similar to the direction of the view from the WFAA footage of the motorcade run. So, if I am looking at things correctly, the stacked image from that footage shows some of the Parkland Hospital at the left side of the image at the top of the hill. There are quite a few telephone poles grouped closely between the camera and the hospital.



Someone please correct me If I am wrong. If this is close to being correct, we should be able to use this information to help locate the general area of the camera location in the parking lot of the Trade Mart.

[James Hackerott]

Here’s a view from google maps from 3-years ago as one is in the intersection just past the railroad tracks where Industrial fans out at the junction to Hines Blvd. I have drawn a red arrow pointing out the old Parkland Hospital (the one which existed in 1963) which is currently being demolished. I drew a blue arrow to the new Parkland hospital. And a yellow arrow to the Holiday Inn Express. (No, I didn’t sleep there last night.  ) This appears somewhat similar to the direction of the view from the WFAA footage of the motorcade run. So, if I am looking at things correctly, the stacked image from that footage shows some of the Parkland Hospital at the left side of the image at the top of the hill. There are quite a few telephone poles grouped closely between the camera and the hospital.



Someone please correct me If I am wrong. If this is close to being correct, we should be able to use this information to help locate the general area of the camera location in the parking lot of the Trade Mart.

Thanks, that looks good to me. I've been using the camera position between the two parking areas close to the side doorway. That puts a line of sight very close to yours. The more I look at the stacked image the less I think it is due to the hotel, and is maybe just windows or something part of the white building.

[Charles Collins]

Thanks, that looks good to me. I've been using the camera position between the two parking areas close to the side doorway. That puts a line of sight very close to yours. The more I look at the stacked image the less I think it is due to the hotel, and is maybe just windows or something part of the white building.

Here’s a photo of the ambulance leaving Parkland Hospital with the slain President. The mobile unit from WFAA could possibly be one that they moved there from the Trade Mart once it became obvious what had happened. The building in the background is Lingo Lumber, and is across Hines Blvd from the hospital. It has a distinctive roof and I think I have located it on a couple of the aerial photos. I am guessing that the cameraman is following the lead cars escorting the ambulance to Love Field. Perhaps he hasn’t yet noticed the ambulance just below him.




Edit: I drew a yellow arrow to show the Lingo Lumber building and it’s distinctive roof:





Edit #2:

I suspect that the dark part of that distinctive roof can be seen in your stacked image. I drew a yellow arrow to show what I mean:

[James Hackerott]

Here’s a photo of the ambulance leaving Parkland Hospital with the slain President. The mobile unit from WFAA could possibly be one that they moved there from the Trade Mart once it became obvious what had happened. The building in the background is Lingo Lumber, and is across Hines Blvd from the hospital. It has a distinctive roof and I think I have located it on a couple of the aerial photos. I am guessing that the cameraman is following the lead cars escorting the ambulance to Love Field. Perhaps he hasn’t yet noticed the ambulance just below him.




Edit: I drew a yellow arrow to show the Lingo Lumber building and it’s distinctive roof:





Edit #2:

I suspect that the dark part of that distinctive roof can be seen in your stacked image. I drew a yellow arrow to show what I mean:

I think you are right again. I made another stack where I put the stack focus in the area of this building, but don't think it improved the image much. Can you make out a Parkland candidate?

[Charles Collins]

I think you are right again. I made another stack where I put the stack focus in the area of this building, but don't think it improved the image much. Can you make out a Parkland candidate?

I drew a yellow outline of what looks to me to be the tallest portion of Parkland Hospital.




I now think that my first stab at locating the distinctive roof of the Lingo Lumber building in your stacked image is probably wrong. Now it looks like that dark area could be a horizontal member of a telephone pole? All the different angles and perspectives can easily confuse me. Compare what the yellow outline above indicates with what we can see in this image from google maps:




Also, for another perspective, take a look at the aerial image taken when Stemmons Freeway was still under construction. It is at least from a similar direction.

[James Hackerott]

I drew a yellow outline of what looks to me to be the tallest portion of Parkland Hospital.




I now think that my first stab at locating the distinctive roof of the Lingo Lumber building in your stacked image is probably wrong. Now it looks like that dark area could be a horizontal member of a telephone pole? All the different angles and perspectives can easily confuse me. Compare what the yellow outline above indicates with what we can see in this image from google maps:




Also, for another perspective, take a look at the aerial image taken when Stemmons Freeway was still under construction. It is at least from a similar direction.

I pinned Google Earth with Parkland Hospital (highest floors per your yellow outline), Lingo Lumber using the address 5116 Hines from the 1961 Dallas City Directory, and the RR tracks at Industrial at Hines (from the WFFA film car jumps). I also traced a path along Hines in green. Then, in Google Earth ground-level view, overlay the WFFA frame stack. It does appear the lumber company building is not the building you first thought, which you already realize, but I had fun anyway.

[Charles Collins]

I pinned Google Earth with Parkland Hospital (highest floors per your yellow outline), Lingo Lumber using the address 5116 Hines from the 1961 Dallas City Directory, and the RR tracks at Industrial at Hines (from the WFFA film car jumps). I also traced a path along Hines in green. Then, in Google Earth ground-level view, overlay the WFFA frame stack. It does appear the lumber company building is not the building you first thought, which you already realize, but I had fun anyway.

Yep, the fun is in the challenge of figuring stuff like this out. Good job. If I understand your pins correctly, we appear to have oriented these items reasonably close in the stacked image from the WFAA film. My first attempt at locating Lingo Lumber in the stacked image was just an educated guess without any real attempt to line things up. You have located it where I thought it would be after I had looked at things closer and from many different angles. This has been a good exercise. I have a better feel for the big changes in what we see by changing the angle only slightly.