DALLAS — The old underground garage is filled with SUVs and Camrys, late-model cars belonging to the lawyers and judges who work in the courtrooms above.
But on a November morning in 1963, the parking bay -- then under the dominion of the Dallas Police Department -- was packed with reporters jostling for position to glimpse President Kennedy's suspected assassin.
As Lee Harvey Oswald, who was handcuffed to a police detective, stepped into the glare of television lights, Jack Ruby emerged from the crowd and fired a single bullet into Oswald's stomach. It was a moment frozen in time with the click of a camera, one of the most unforgettable images of the 20th century.
Now this site -- long closed to the public -- may become a Dallas tourist destination as part of a plan to revitalize a rundown section of downtown.
"It's a part of history and should be preserved," said Assistant City Manager Ryan Evans. "A lot of people have expressed interest in seeing it. If opening it to the public increases pedestrian traffic to a part of downtown that sorely needs redeveloping, we'll do it."
The city that once tried to forget its connection to the assassination of a president has long since accepted that it cannot.
In 1970, Dallas erected a Kennedy memorial, a white cenotaph designed by architect Philip Johnson. In 1989, the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza -- a somber look at Kennedy's death and legacy -- opened in the former Texas School Book Depository, where a sniper's nest and rifle were found after Kennedy was shot. The Texas Theater, where Oswald was arrested, is being refurbished.
The infamous garage under the old police station would join those and other assassination-related sites, which draw thousands of visitors to Dallas each year, Evans said.
The idea became possible after the Police Department moved to a new building about a year ago. Before that, "it wouldn't have been safe to let the public wander around down there," Evans said. The Dallas Municipal Building now is vacant, except for some Municipal Court operations.
Because plans for the entire building must be drawn before the garage can be opened to tourists, Evans said, the project is at least three years away. The fifth-floor jail cell that held Oswald -- and later Ruby -- could also be opened to the public some day.
Mahesh Shah, the building's climate control operator, sometimes takes visitors to see the old fifth-floor cellblock. It is empty and dark, but when Shah flips on the lights, it is easy to imagine the scene 41 years ago.
