Oswald Boarding House owner concerned new developments could destroy history
DALLAS (CBSNewsTexas) - Nearly 60 years later, there are fears that a large part of the still standing history behind President John F. Kennedy's assassination could soon go away due to gentrification and new development.
Pat Hall, who owns the Oswald Boarding House—where JFK's alleged killer was living during the time of the assassination—says she's doing everything possible to keep the historic house standing.
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Inside the house in Oak Cliff-where Lee Harvey Oswald was one of several tenants Nov. 22, 1963-it's as if time just froze.
To date, the original furniture in the house and in Oswald's small room still sits the same as it did six decades ago. Hall says he rented the room for $8 a week.
Hall was 11 years old when Oswald lived at the house and rented the room from her grandmother.
Hall has worked diligently to preserve the house as a museum of sorts over the years and these days, what lurks outside these walls is becoming increasingly concerning to her—new development taking over the old neighborhood.
When asked whether she thinks the Oswald Boarding House will go away, she responded with uncertainty.
"I honestly don't know," she said. "That is my fear. I am the last of my family members that can actually say I knew Mr. Lee."
Hall says the old gas station that belonged to her grandfather and sat just outside the house was recently lost to developers who bought it, and razed it. And next door, apartments have gone up with more planned.
Hall says developers are constantly trying to buy her out, at least twice a week. In one case, she says a developer scoffed at her when she informed him of the historical designation given to a few of the homes.
Hall admits she won't be around to look after the house forever, but while she can, she's vowed to fend off any developer that comes her way.
"Unless the right person comes, I absolutely will not sell to flipper," she said.
The right person, according to her, is someone who will carry the work of preserving the historic value of what this house represents. Hall is convinced there is another side to the story that can only be told in the house.
RELATED STORY: America's continuing obsession with the JFK assassination 60 years later
"I bring in a different perspective on Mr. Lee," she said. "I put a face to him. I put a heart to him."
You can probably tell by now she doesn't believe the findings presented in the Warren Report—the official record naming Lee Harvey Oswald as JFK's killer.
"My research shows that he most likely did not fire a single shot that day—that he was set up," Hall said. "I am passionate about preserving this house. This building this history."
A story forever engrained in both American culture and in conspiracy.
