The high didn’t last long - the revolutionary fervor dissolved in the face of authoritarian crackdowns. I didn’t know about the backstory of the name. I attended my first rock concert in Reunion Arena. I celebrated my 10th birthday up in the revolving restaurant atop Reunion Tower. Once completed in 1978, Reunion Tower and the buildings around it became instant landmarks. It was a nod to history, but it also gave the place an exciting “destination” feeling. Reunion incorporated the name of Union Station, and it had other good vibes: high school reunions, family reunions. So it became Reunion - minus the French “la.” Hunt’s planned development was nowhere near the site of this old colony, but “when I saw that I said, you know, that’s the name.” And that’s when he came across the story of La Réunion. Scovell went hunting through Dallas history, looking for some inspiration. “So for some reason, I said I would take that assignment on.” “In a moment of weakness I raised my hand and said, ‘OK, you know it’s not fair just to say I don’t like the name, you have to come up with an alternative,’” he says. Scovell thought that was pretty boring - everything was called Esplanade in the 1970s. So John Scovell hired a marketing firm to find that name, which they presented at a meeting. They helped set the whole venture in motion, but it needed a name. But Hunt and Scovell knew city leaders wanted to see this part of town developed with a hotel and civic arena. The land was scruffy, down in a floodplain and hemmed in by railroad tracks and a big freeway. Hunt owned some land near Dallas’s downtown train station, called Union Station.

State utopia anarchy