For me, the one reason I had for visiting Dallas was to visit the 6th Floor Museum. I don ‘t think that there is anyone who was alive on November 22, 1963 who doesn’t remember exactly where he was when he heard the news. A whole nation was stunned. It was as if time stopped, as if our innocence was shattered. As far as impact goes it ranks right up there with September 11, 2001. In our family this was a date we could never forget because it was also my fathers birthday. I was in 8th grade in 1963. We were all called back to our home rooms and told that the president had been shoot and killed. We were let out of school early and for days just sat home glued to the television.

This museum brought this all back with a vengeance but though I cried several times while going through it was also cathartic, as if finally it could be put to rest. I am so glad that we went even though we all admitted that we left with a very heavy heart.

NO photography is allowed in the museum. You enter through the lobby and take the elevator to the 6th floor. The displays are chronological and include pictures, lots to read and some memorabilia. We start by learning about John F Kennedy, his family, his political life, the campaign and the years of his presidency. We work our way slowly into November 1963. We followed the President and Mrs Kennedy through the other cities in Texas to that fateful noon in Dallas.

As we work our way to the sixth floor window where Lee Harvey Oswald had created a barricade, it becomes more and more emotional. I find myself wanting the ending to change. I think everybody there was hoping the same thing.

On the 7th floor there is an exhibit from the Dallas Police Department detailing the day from their perspective. It was a difficult time, they were prepared for some protesters but no one had any idea that this type of plan was afoot. After shooting President Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald Killed a Dallas Police Officer and for a while no one knew that it was the same man who had committed both crimes. The door that was on the precinct on that particular day is in this exhibit.

Entrance to the museum is $10. There is also a 45 minute audio tour for an additional $3.50. We had printed out a $2 discount ticket so our total was $11.50 each.

There are several other video exhibits that last a few minutes each along the way and then there is a small theater where a 10 minute video entitled "The Nation and World Responds" is shown.

You end your tour by passing through the proverbial gift shop. The museum has it’s own parking lot with a charge of $4.

I wasn’t yet in school when JFK died in Dallas, but like a lot of forty-somethings, his presidency, his death, and the aftermath were a part of my life: the grief that followed, the search for answers, the rejection of the official ones, and the idealization of Kennedy and the early sixties all lived on into my teens.

My daughter picked this place, but it was first on my Dallas list, too. She’s read a lot about the sixties and listened to the music, beginning with the Beatles, and anything from that era brings you to Kennedy pretty quickly. I was worried that this museum, in the building and on the floor where Oswald shot Kennedy, would be full of sensationalist, conspiracy-promoting materials.

It was much, much better than I expected. Outside the first-floor entrance, an exhibit gives you a history of Dallas, and how Dealey Plaza—an early urban-renewal project—came to be. An elevator takes you to the sixth floor, which still preserves the warehouse area it was in 1963. The exhibit is rich in photos, video presentations, audio recordings, and artifacts. Taken together, it’s an informative and moving account of JFK’s life, the somewhat hostile climate in Dallas preceding his visit, and the panic, horror, confusion, and worldwide grief that followed his assassination. It acknowledges the skepticism that greeted the Warren Commission’s report, the alternative explanations, and the conspiracy fever that it provoked. Where evidence is available to refute or support conclusions, it provides it.

In the southeast corner of the building is the window from which Oswald fired. The 10’x10’ area around it is cordoned off by Plexiglas, recreated as it was on November 22, 1963. It’s a somber setting, made a little more so by the painted white X’s on the street below that mark the location of the Presidential limousine when the shots were fired. The exhibit closes with a short film narrated by Walter Cronkite, reflecting on Kennedy’s era and his legacy.

The Texas School Book Depository from Dealey Plaza

If you have any interest in these times, I’d put this on your list of things to do in Dallas. We spent nearly two hours here, and paid the extra $3.50 a piece for the audio tour. It’s described as ‘award-winning’, and although I’m not sure what award that was, the audio guide was a good addition to the experience.

Details:
Admission is $10 (with $1 off for youth, seniors, and AAA members). There’s parking behind the building for $4. No photographs are allowed in the museum. Outside in Dealey Plaza, you can walk around ‘the grassy knoll’, look down the underpass where the motorcade sped off to Parkland Hospital, and look back up at that window on the sixth floor. Four blocks away is the Kennedy Memorial, an abstract remembrance of JFK’s life.

My first trip to the Sixth Floor Musem was, eerily enough, on July 16, 1999 -- the same day John F. Kennedy Jr. was killed in a plane crash.

No doubt that added to the emotions and the experience of visiting this museum that is dedicated to the life and tragic death of his father, President John F. Kennedy.

Dallas has always had a scar across its name because of the events of November 22, 1963. But the city has rebounded and accepted its place in history. No better place showcases this than the Sixth Floor Museum.

The museum, which is housed in the old Texas Schoolbook Depository where Lee Harvey Oswald allegedly perched to shoot the president, is more than just a museum about Kennedy's assassination. You'll see exhibits on the social and political situation in the early 1960s and the reasons behind his ill-fated trip to Texas in 1963.

The highlight of the tour is the "corner window," where Oswald stood. It has been made up to look like it probably did that day in November. Also, you can see a scale model of Dealey Plaza that the Warren Commission used in its investigation.

Audio tours are available (in English, Spanish, Japanese, French, German, Italian, and Portuguese), or you can just walk through. Group tours for more than 20 can be arranged.

The museum is located in the West End historic district, which is accessible on DART's light rail (red and blue lines, West End Station) and the Trinity Railway Express (Union Station).

This was the most complete collection of information, photos, and backgrounds involved in the John F Kennedy assassination in 1963. While I have read many articles involving that event, the museum had much more information. A museum store is located on the first floor.

INTRODUCTION:
The Sixth Floor Museum represents an educational exhibition on the life, death and the legacy of John F. Kennedy. You’ll encounter numerous of photographs, artifacts, displays, 30-minute audio tour (which is available in seven different languages) and six films about a person who was trying to make a difference in the world.

The Dealy Plaza is a National Historic Landmark for John F. Kennedy, cherishing the everlasting moments of John F. Kennedy’s fateful life. I encourage you to visit The Sixth Floor Museum to grasp a hint of understanding of something that truly shocked the world into numbness.

There are several different types of exhibits that you should view.
EXHIBITS:

The Dealy Plaza: The Front Door Of Dallas

Loss and Renewal: Transforming Tragic Sites

Unfinished Business: Kennedy and Cuba

Jackie Kennedy: The First Lady

Preserving Presidential History

The History of 411 Elm Street

You will also have the opportunity to visit their "Research Center" area,

RESEARCH CENTER

Collections

Oral Histories

Zapruder Film

Orville Nix Film

John F. Kennedy Memorial Plaza

GENERAL ADMISSION

Adults: $10

Seniors (65 and over): $9

Children (6-18): $9

Children under 6: FREE

Admission Costs are for the entire Museum, plus two exhibits:

-- Permanent Exhibit on Sixth Floor

-- Temporary Exhibit on Seventh Floor

OPERATING HOURS:

Open daily from 9am-6pm

Closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day

OUR OVERALL VIEWS:
After acquiring and consuming all of the invaluable information on John F. Kennedy, it left me with such a heavy heart. You truly don’t realize what all a person has done for the world until you see all these things put together in a museum remembering and acknowledging them of their life history. John F. Kennedy has done so much and could have done so much more. Yet, his life was drastically ended on November 22, 1963. All I know is, he was truly a wonderful soul. May he rest in peace.

For pictures or more information on The Sixth Floor Museum, please visit their Website.

The Enclosed Portrait of John F. Kennedy is from this Website. Let's give credit where it's due.