Dallas Bar Association

The Dallas Bar Association or DBA is a professional organization providing resources for attorneys and the public in the city of Dallas, Texas. Founded in 1873, the DBA is a voluntary professional association of 10,000+ lawyers.

For years, the Dallas Bar Association headquarters were housed in the offices of the then-current president. In 1937, headquarters were established in a small space under the stairs of the Old Red Courthouse. Ten years later, the DBA was the state’s first bar association to incorporate. Incorporators envisioned the Association someday being housed in its own building.

The DBA has offered members the opportunity of meeting, dining, conversing and learning together in its own headquarters since 1955. In that year, the DBA opened its offices, dining room and meeting facilities on the lobby floor of the Adolphus Hotel. In 1979, the Association moved into the restored home of the late Col. A.H. Belo, founder of The Dallas Morning News. After Col. Belo's death and prior to the acquisition of the property by the association, it was leased by the Sparkman Funeral Homes (the predecessor to the current Sparkman-Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery), and was the location from which Clyde Barrow was buried.