Apartment where Oswald lived being razed

DALLAS — A dilapidated Dallas apartment complex where Lee Harvey Oswald lived briefly before assassinating President John F. Kennedy is being demolished.

After a four-year battle over code violations at the uninhabited 1920s-era complex, a court has ordered owner Jane Bryant to tear the building down. She’s been salvaging building materials and selling off items from Oswald’s three-room apartment. The toilet already has a new owner.

Bryant was never able to realize her plans to renovate the two-story building in the Oak Cliff area of Dallas after buying it in 2007, and the next year got caught up in litigation with the city over the state of the building at 600 Elsbeth St.

“We’re not just losing a piece of fundamental his- tory to Dallas related to the assassination, we’re also losing a piece of fundamental architecture to this area,” said Bryant, who concedes that at this point she has no choice but to tear the building down, adding, “There comes a time when you just have to cut your losses.”

The apartment, where Oswald lived from November 1962 to March 1963 with his wife, Marina, and young daughter, is mentioned in the Warren Commission report, which investigated the president’s death. It concluded that Oswald acted alone on Nov. 22, 1963, when he fired at Kennedy’s motorcade from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository as it passed by Dealey Plaza.

Oswald then killed Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit 45 minutes after Kennedy was shot, according to the report.

Oswald was arrested in the hours after the assassination, but was killed two days later by nightclub owner Jack Ruby.

The apartment where Oswald lived had the address of 604 Elsbeth St. in 1963. It was apartment No. 2. The residence was one of several in the area where he lived.

David Preziosi, executive director of Preservation Dallas, noted that there are more important buildings associ- ated with Oswald than the Elsbeth Street apartment, including the boarding house where he was staying the day of the assassination and the Texas Theatre, where Oswald was arrested.

After leaving the Elsbeth Street apartment, Oswald moved a few blocks away, to Neely Street — where the famous pictures were taken of him posing in the backyard holding the rifle used in the assassination.