
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, November 21, 1993                   TAG: 9311280165
SECTION: HORIZON                    PAGE: F-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Hartford Courant
DATELINE: DALLAS                                LENGTH: Medium

ASSASSINATION SITE TO BECOME OFFICIAL LANDMARK

Dealey Plaza has changed some since Nov. 22, 1963. The Texas School Book Depository is now the Dallas County Administration Building. The Hertz sign is gone from the roof. There is no freeway sign to block your view of Elm Street if you wish to take pictures from near the grassy knoll. The last legs of the fateful motorcade route can no longer be followed because of a one-way street.

But for people old enough to remember when President Kennedy was assassinated, and even for some people who aren't, these changes do not detract from the emotion and curiosity of visiting the plaza.

The emotions should be even stronger Nov. 22, when Dealey Plaza is formally recognized as a national historic landmark. Among those invited to attend the dedication ceremony are President Clinton, the five surviving former presidents, Gov. Ann Richards of Texas and Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt.

Each year, thousands of visitors stroll through the plaza on Dallas' West side.

One of two exhibits is The Sixth Floor, a museum located in the sixth floor of the depository. The exhibit, operated by the Dallas County Historical Foundation, opened in 1989.

Photo displays and video monitors highlight Kennedy's presidency, his trip to Texas, the motorcade, and the assassination and its aftermath. Two brief movies document the worldwide reaction to Kennedy's death and examine his legacy.

The corner window, from which Lee Harvey Oswald allegedly fired the shots that killed Kennedy and wounded Texas Gov. John Connally, is arranged to look the way it did on the afternoon of Nov. 22, 1963, complete with replica cardboard boxes set up in the pattern of the famed "sniper's nest." The other major exhibit in Dallas seeks to keep the questions about what happened on Nov. 22, 1963, very much alive. The JFK Assassination Information Center at 110 South Market St., about two blocks southeast from the assassination site, focuses on the conspiracy angle of the assassination.

by CNB