Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

The Luncheon Site

An important purpose of the Dallas visit was a luncheon speech before business and civic leaders. The White House staff specified arrival and departure at Love Field, a motorcade through downtown to the luncheon site, and a direct return route to the airport. On November 4, White House detail agent Gerald A. Behn asked Sorrels to examine three potential sites: Market Hall (unavailable for November 22), the Women’s Building at the State Fair Grounds (secure but lacking food facilities and aesthetically unsuitable), and the Trade Mart (well-equipped but with security challenges including numerous entrances, multi-tier balconies, and catwalks). On November 4, Sorrels advised Behn that Trade Mart security difficulties could be overcome with special precautions. Lawson evaluated the site on November 13. O’Donnell made the final decision, and Behn notified Lawson on November 14. Sorrels and Lawson then developed detailed security arrangements, including access control, perimeter policing, roof security, and deployment of more than 200 law enforcement officers (mainly Dallas police, plus 8 Secret Service agents) in and around the building.

The Motorcade Route

On November 8, Lawson was told that 45 minutes had been allotted for the Love Field to luncheon site motorcade. Although not specifically instructed to choose the route, Lawson understood this was his function. Before the Trade Mart was confirmed, Lawson and Sorrels began considering the best route. On November 14, they attended a Love Field meeting and drove the route Sorrels favored, a 10-mile path through suburban Dallas, along Main Street downtown, and to the Trade Mart via Stemmons Freeway, easily completed within 45 minutes. The return route was approximately 4 miles. After the Trade Mart’s selection, Lawson and Sorrels met with Dallas Police Chief Jesse E. Curry, Assistant Chief Charles Batchelor, Deputy Chief N. T. Fisher, and other command officers. The route was reviewed again on November 15 with Batchelor and the local host committee, and on November 18 with Batchelor and other officers verifying the 45-minute drive time. The host committee and White House staff were notified of the actual route that afternoon. Sorrels, who had participated in Dallas Presidential protection since President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1936 visit, testified that the traditional route was along Main Street, where tall buildings allowed more public participation. The airport-to-Main route was standard except where Harwood Street was preferred over a short stretch of Central Expressway for safety and spectator accommodation. Lawson described the chosen route as offering wide streets for buses, alternative routes if needed, controlled crowds in suburban areas, and wide downtown streets to keep the public clear. Elm Street, one block north of Main, was not used for the main downtown portion because Main offered better vantage points. To reach the Trade Mart, the agents selected Stemmons Freeway (Route No. 77), the most direct route. Westbound Main Street traffic accesses Stemmons Freeway’s northbound lanes via Elm Street, reached by turning right at Houston, going one block north, and turning left onto Elm. This final segment, five minutes from the Trade Mart, passed the Texas School Book Depository Building on the northwest corner of Houston and Elm, which overlooks Dealey Plaza—an attractively landscaped three-acre triangle. From Houston Street (the triangle’s base), Commerce, Main, and Elm Streets converge at the apex to form a triple underpass beneath a multiple railroad bridge almost 500 feet from Houston. Elm Street, the northernmost of the three, curves southwesterly through the underpass to an access road leading to Stemmons Freeway and the Dallas-Fort Worth Turnpike. Several Commission Exhibits (Nos. 876, 2113-2116, 2967) illustrate this configuration, including a Main Street traffic sign directing westbound traffic to turn right at Houston to reach the Turnpike. A concrete barrier between Main and Elm prevents right turns from Main to the access road. Security planning along the route included crowd and traffic control, overpass monitoring, and motorcycle escort, reviewed in cooperation with Assistant Chief Batchelor and other Dallas police officials. Foot patrolmen and motorcycle police were deployed along the route, with police assigned to each overpass and instructed to keep them clear. No arrangements were made for police or custodians to inspect buildings along the route, as the Secret Service did not normally request such checks; responsibility for watching building windows was shared by stationed local police and Secret Service agents in the motorcade. The Dallas newspapers publicized aspects of the route in advance. The Dallas Times-Herald reported the Trade Mart as the likely luncheon site on November 15, 1963, and on November 16 described an apparent downtown loop, probably on Main Street, from Love Field. On November 19, the Times-Herald afternoon paper detailed the precise route: from the airport via Mockingbird Lane to Lemmon, then to Turtle Creek, south to Cedar Springs, through downtown on Harwood and west on Main, turning back to Elm at Houston, and out Stemmons Freeway to the Trade Mart.