J. Waddy Tate: The Hot Dog Mayor of Dallas (1870–1938)

John Waddy Tate, Dallas mayor, was born in Columbus, Texas, on February 21, 1870, to Phocion and Bettie Branch (Carter) Tate. His father died in 1876, and his mother subsequently remarried. Tate grew up in Houston, Texas. He left school at age sixteen and worked in a print shop and a sawmill before joining the Cotton Belt Railway as an agent in 1892. In 1897 Tate moved to Dallas with the Chicago Great Western Line. He later worked with other railway companies and operated the Tate Drug Company at Elm and Lamar streets and in 1923 chartered the Moss-Tate Investment Company, a property development company, with Col. Stephen Ellis Moss.

Dallas Mayoral Elections of 1927 and 1929

Tate began his civic career in May 1923, when he was appointed to the Dallas City Plan Commission. He served until 1926, when he resigned to run for mayor in the 1927 mayoral election (won by Robert Burt). During this campaign, he became known as the “hot dog candidate” because of his proposal to open a hot dog stand at White Rock Lake in the same location where his opponents had suggested building an exclusive supper club. His grassroots views were well-established, and Tate spun the new nickname as a positive, not the pejorative that his competition likely intended.

In 1929 Tate ran again as an independent candidate and won in a run-off over Temple Houston Morrow, a grandson of Sam Houston. Tate appealed to the city’s working class and stated that he only sought “the votes of people who like to fish, and people who owe money.” His platform included the raising of the minimum wage for municipal employees and the expansion of services for the city’s poor. Tate also opposed the use of funds to build an African American library and was endorsed by the Independent Voter Alliance, which included remnants of the Dallas Ku Klux Klan chapter. He received no endorsements from local newspapers, while the Dallas Times-Herald endorsed Morrow and the Dallas Morning News supported candidate William Everett. Tate served hot dogs at his political rallies and, after winning the election, became known as the “Hot Dog Mayor.”

Tate, who dressed flamboyantly and always carried a yo-yo with him, eschewed the traditional inaugural ball and opted instead to host a party at Fair Park. He allowed informal dress, charged ten cents per guest, and donated the proceeds to Hope Cottage, a local children’s home. Election winners also included John C. Harris, (mayor pro tem, finance and revenue commissioner), R. A. Wylie (streets and public property commissioner), John M. Fouts (water works and sewage commissioner), and W. C. Graves (police and fire commissioner).

Mayoral Policies

Though Tate served only one term, he oversaw a number of significant developments during his two years in office. Twenty-seven neighborhoods and communities annexed themselves to Dallas under Tate, including Lisbon, the Wahoo Lake district, Ravinia Heights, and areas around White Rock Lake. Tate also focused on improvements to city infrastructure, although he was critical of many elements of the Ulrickson Plan. (The Ulrickson Plan, passed in 1927 under Mayor Robert Burt, was a nine-year capital budget program for public works projects in Dallas.) During the Tate administration, streets were widened, and the city’s sewer system underwent extensions and improvements. The city’s water and sewer departments were merged in 1930 to bring them in line with city charter changes. A single commissioner managed both departments.

Tate appointed Rev. Carrie Chasteen as the city’s first municipal minister, whose responsibilities included preaching to the city’s prisoners and performing marriages and funerals for the city’s poorer citizens. He installed Col. William E. Easterwood, Jr., as the city’s official greeter.

On the aviation front, three significant activities occurred in 1929. First, on June 17, Delta Air Service (later Delta Air Lines) made its first passenger flight ever out of Love Field. Second, in July, Ordinance 1996 created the office of director of airports. Third, Hensley Field, named for Maj. William N. Hensley, Jr., was established as a municipal airport.

In 1930 the city entered into an agreement with Edwin Carewe to sell to Carewe the city’s wet (biodegradable) garbage for 40 cents per ton if Carewe would build a reduction plant to convert the garbage into animal feed and other products. The plan was fraught from the beginning, and the newly-elected 1931 administration opted to walk away from the deal. The city was successfully sued for breach of contract.

Other notable decisions of Tate’s included removing the spikes from the rails around the city hall because it was, he argued, “devised by some aristocrat to keep the plain folks from sitting around.” He had all “Keep off the grass” signs removed from city property and issued a proclamation that indigent persons were allowed to sleep in the parks.

Tate sought to bar married women with able-bodied husbands from working for the city of Dallas. In 1929, when the city employed twenty-two married women, he issued orders to this effect to municipal departments. Believing that husbands should be the breadwinners, he argued that widows and unmarried women deserved the jobs currently held by the married women. Six of those women fired were in the public health department.

Tate also had a goal to put donkeys for children to ride in Dallas city parks. In June 1929 Mineral Wells mayor Charlton Brown donated twenty-two donkeys to the city, and a group of Dallas citizens chipped in to buy several more. In celebration of the occasion, Tate unsuccessfully sought to have June 12, 1929, designated as “National Donkey Day.” On June 15, after a ceremony on the steps of the Dallas Municipal Building, he and a brass band accompanied a procession of donkey-riding children through downtown Dallas. Signs from the observers of the parade proclaimed that “the old gray mayor is still what he used to be” and praised Tate as the city’s greatest “burro-crat.”

Opposition to Change in Municipal Government Form

The most significant policy changes of the Tate administration were the result of a home rule election that the mayor had tried to prevent. Tate successfully delayed the election (Ordinance 2223) for almost a year, but it finally occurred on October 10, 1930, thanks to the efforts of the Citizens Charter Association. The ballot had thirty-nine propositions, all of which passed. (Approximately 5 percent of the city’s 260,000 residents voted.) The vote moved the city from the mayor-commission form of government to the council-manager form. Discussions about changing the city’s government form began as early as 1915 but were not actively considered until 1925, during the Louis Blaylock administration. Tate opposed the government change and argued that the council-manager form “divests the people of ready personal contact with the responsible officials of their government.” Despite his campaign promise to submit the issue to voters, he twice vetoed efforts to call the election. The council-manager form went into effect with the April 1931 election.

Development of White Rock Lake for Recreation

At this time in Dallas government, the mayor also doubled as the Dallas Park Board president. A strong supporter of parks for all citizens, Tate transferred oversight of White Rock Lake and the surrounding lands from the water department to the Park Board (Ordinance 2097). Prior to this point, White Rock Lake had operated only as a city water supply; no public recreation was available. With the transfer of land management to the Park Board, the city developed the area for use by both “blue collar” and “bluestocking” citizens alike. In January 1930 Tate’s Park Board authorized preliminary plans for a bathing beach and a bathhouse on the eastern shore of the lake. The bathhouse, which opened in August, provided lockers, changing rooms, swimsuits for rent, and concessions. While swimming has not been permitted in White Rock Lake since 1953, the bathhouse still stands and is used by the city as a cultural events space.

Tate had other ideas for the White Rock Lake area. Following the lead of former water commissioner S. E. Moss, Tate envisioned a Coney Island-style entertainment facility for the White Rock land. Wealthy, lakefront property owners vehemently opposed the idea. The Dallas Morning News also strongly criticized the idea. The situation created an untenable atmosphere, and in May 1930 park commissioner Hugh January resigned his position. Tate appears to have dropped the idea after that. In a boon to Oak Cliff residents, in September 1930 Tate accepted 176 acres of park property from landowner Edwin J. Kiest. (Kiest Park was dedicated the following year.)

Retirement and Death

Tate retired as mayor after the 1931 municipal election. As mayor during the early years of the Great Depression, his advocacy for parks and park facilities represents his greatest legacy to Dallas residents. Tate was a Mason and a life member of Holland Lodge No. 1, the oldest Masonic lodge in Texas. He was a member of the Elks Lodge, the Knights of Pythias, and the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

J. Waddy Tate died on January 11, 1938, and is buried at Glenwood Cemetery in Houston. His wife Blanche (Kennedy) Tate died in 1973 and is also buried there. Following his death, the Dallas Park Board passed a resolution renaming the city’s fish hatchery at White Rock Lake the J. Waddy Tate Fish Hatchery Park. Tate had “sponsored the construction…and was instrumental in the completion of” the fish hatchery project.