PRESERVATION DALLAS’ MOST ENDANGERED LIST ANNOUNCED

Yesterday afternoon I took a detour down Meadow Road from Greenville Avenue to Preston Road. It had been about a year since I’d taken Meadow — for many decades since I was a child, I’ve admired the charming, storybook homes there. Over the years, of course, some have been torn down and replaced. But yesterday I was horrified to see that most are already gone and brick monstrosities are hulking in their place. A whole neighborhood’s charm, gone, in a matter of months. What were they thinking, and why did we let them?

This morning, Dwayne Jones at Preservation Dallas announced its annual Most Endangered List, including the entire neighborhood of Deep Ellum, the old stone bridges on Turtle Creek, an old church, and Wynnewood shopping center in Oak Cliff. There are no laws that prevent people from tearing down the things that give Dallas character — it’s entirely up to us. Contact Dwayne Jones now and find out what you can do to help: djones@preservationdallas.org.

Click on the link to read the entire endangered list.

Preservation Dallas Announces Annual List of
Dallas’ Eleven Most Endangered Historic Places

NOTE: A news conference on this announcement will be held on Friday, May 26, 2006 at 11:00 a.m. at the Thomas and Mary Shiels House, 4602 Reiger, Dallas (MAPSCO 46F)

May 26, 2006 —– Each year the city of Dallas loses historic buildings, sites and places that are significant to its past. Sometimes buildings or places are demolished, neglected or abandoned. Historic and architectural resources are irreplaceable community assets that tell the story of the city’s development.

As part of National Historic Preservation Month, Preservation Dallas announces its annual list of most endangered places. The list recognizes the many significant properties that make up Dallas’ neighborhoods, central business district and important architects, builders and families who have made a home in Dallas. The 2006 list includes significant places of worship and study, unrealized natural planning features, major collections of 20th century commercial buildings, bridges recalling the City Beautiful movement in local planning, post-World War II shopping centers, and old and established neighborhoods

“Our endangered list brings attention to the properties that are vulnerable to new development or willful demolition. It’s important for the citizens of Dallas to know what may be lost forever, but also to see opportunities for all of us to step forward and preserve them.” said John Slates, president of Preservation Dallas.

“We use the endangered list for direction in our advocacy work in the community. The nominations come from citizens and members who see important buildings and places being threatened or demolished. The list is a grassroots effort to solve preservation issues before they get out of hand. It is up to all of us to find ways to preserve these properties.” stated Dwayne Jones, Executive Director of Preservation Dallas.

The 2006 list of Dallas’ Most Endangered Historic Places includes:
City of Dallas Historic Property Tax Incentive Program
THREAT: Ineffective Public Policy and Subsequent Loss of Historic Buildings

The Historic Preservation Incentive Program (Ordinance No. 21874) passed the Dallas City Council on October 27, 1993. The council amended it in 1998, 2001 and 2004 as required by the ordinance. The current ordinance expires on December 31, 2007, if not renewed by the council. In 2005, the council extended the Downtown Tax Increment Financing District to incorporate areas of Uptown across Woodall Rogers Expressway as well as other parts of the central business district. Historic buildings located in the new TIF boundaries are ineligible for the tax incentive program as demands on the TIF funds exceed current resources. In effect, many smaller and significant historic buildings cannot be rehabilitated without assistance from the incentive program and thus brings a halt to investments that have aggressively turned around the central business district since the policy was adopted.

Wynnewood Shopping Village
THREAT: Demolition and Insensitive Alterations
Illinois at Zang Boulevard

The pride of Oak Cliff’s neighborhood shopping is part of a major nationally recognized community development from the late 1940s and early 1950s by Dallas developer Angus Wynne and designed by the Dallas architectural firm of DeWitt & Swank. The village was the center of residential developments both north and south that were part of a planned development by Hare & Hare of Kansas City, Missouri. During the 1950s and following decades, Wynnewood attracted shoppers from around Oak Cliff and communities to the south. Major retailers located there and offered top-of-the-line products. While an active and heavily used commercial area today, the center is being modified and redeveloped without regard to its architectural significance. Moreover, a sizeable infrastructure development will remove most if not all of the remaining buildings.

Deep Ellum
THREAT: Demolition and Abandonment
Commerce, Elm and Main Streets

Once a thriving African-American community and then a thriving entertainment and music center, Deep Ellum increasingly is losing businesses and has lost several older buildings. Although eligible for designation as a historic district, that designation was declined by property owners and many of the buildings now have been altered significantly leaving few architectural reminders of the city’s largest intact collection of early 20th century commercial buildings.

Turtle Creek Bridges
THREAT: Neglect and Possible Replacement

The last of the city’s finest concrete and iron decorative bridges are threatened from neglect. The Bowen Avenue, Maple Avenue, and Fairmount Avenue bridges date from about 1910 through 1920 making them the oldest bridges on their original location in the city. In recent years, the light standards, light, and iron work failed to be repaired and are increasingly vandalized and lacking in maintenance. Furthermore, a recent privately funded plan for the area calls for the removal of the bridges in order to create wider thoroughfares. These bridges define the character of this historically significant Turtle Creek area often referred to as the city’s finest enhanced natural feature.

Historic Resources of Old Oak Lawn
THREAT: Demolition
Various Locations

A contemporary to neighborhoods of East Dallas, South Dallas and Oak Cliff, the neighborhoods of Oak Lawn have lost more historic properties than any other area of the city. In 2005-2006, developers removed literally blocks of bungalows, Tudor houses and apartments, and Craftsman houses for more intensive development. Despite losses, important resources still remain and should be protected. The houses of Roswell Court (1923), one of the city’s earliest apartments designed by Bertram C. Hill, between Throckmorton and Knight, the houses on 2401 Fairmount and 2709 Hood and the Mirasol Courts Apartments at 3720 Rawlins, are other examples of significant buildings in the area. In the 1970s, the Oak Lawn Preservation Society formed to raise awareness and bring attention to the historic resources. The organization, however, was unable to provide leadership and plans that might protect the area. The appeal of the neighborhoods in the last decade have increased land values and left the historic buildings subject to demolition. This is the only area of Dallas without designated historic or conservation districts and several areas are worthy of designations including Hawthorne Street single-family houses and duplexes, former medical offices on Farimount Street, and the single-family neighborhoods of Perry Heights and Oak Lawn Heights.

St. Joseph’s Catholic Church and Academy
THREAT: Demolition
2712 Swiss

The 2700 block of Swiss Avenue is home to the historic St. Joseph’s Church and Academy. In recent years, St. Andrew Kim congregation has occupied these c. 1910 buildings designed by local architect Frank J. Woerner. Woerner’s interpretation of Gothic Ecclesiastical architecture is a strong presence in this historic Wilson Block neighborhood. The current congregation will be relocating to a larger facility in Irving leaving these properties underutilized and redundant buildings for the diocese.

Coombs Creek, Oak Cliff
THREAT: Neglect

Once targeted for enhancement as a natural feature of the city, Coombs Creek is now an eyesore and a neighborhood problem. George Kessler identified Coombs Creek in his 1912 plan as the spine of a parkway through Oak Cliff much like Turtle Creek defines Oak Lawn. City leaders, however, avoided further development and left the creek to its own course through some of the city’s finest historic residential neighborhoods and parks. Without attention and a plan for the future, Coombs Creek will continue its decline and never meet its potential as a natural asset amid historic treasures.

Nurses Home at Old Parkland Hospital
THREAT: Demolition
3819 Maple Avenue

One of the last large developable tracts in Oak Lawn is the Woodlawn campus of Old Parkland Hospital. Though part of the historic hospital is designated as a Dallas landmark and the lawn fronting Oak Lawn and Maple is a “no build zone”, the historic Nurses Home built in 1922 and designed by Herbert M. Greene is immediately to the north and not protected from demolition. The site inclusive of the Nurses Home is for sale and undergoing a new feasibility study by out-of-town developers. The limiting size and location of the building may deem it undesirable for redevelopment.

Thomas and Mary Shiels House
THREAT: Neglect and Demolition
4602 Reiger

These Scottish immigrants built this house in the E.H. Ray’s Addition, now part of the Mill Creek neighborhood of East Dallas, in 1906. The house combines Victorian elements with the then emerging Arts & Crafts elements. Remarkably intact, the house is listed in the National Register of Historic Places since 1995. The property owner is now in default on a loan and foreclosure is likely. Code enforcement required the bank to board up the house. It is now attracting vagrants and in need of repairs before serious deterioration occurs.

Old Dallas High School/Crozier Tech
THREAT: Neglect and Demolition

The city’s oldest high school building (1907 and 1911) returns to the 2006 list as a survivor of six years of litigation between the property owner and the City of Dallas. The Texas Supreme Court denied hearing an appeal that would have considered overturning a lower court opinion upholding the city’s authority to designate and protect the school from demolition. The property owners have not sold the building or surrounding site. Until a new owner is in place the building continues to be threatened.

6015 Bryan Parkway, Swiss Avenue Historic District
THREAT: Demolition

The house at 6015 Bryan Parkway is still in limbo. Preservation Dallas and residents of Swiss Avenue Historic District Association were before the District Judge in November 2005 and await a decision. The c. 1915 house is an unusual Craftsman design that completes a virtually intact block face along Bryan Parkway. This demolition would mark the first demolition of a principal building in the Swiss Avenue Historic District, the city’s oldest district.

Preservation Dallas is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose mission is to advocate for the preservation and revitalization of Dallas’ historic buildings, neighborhoods, and places in order to enhance the vitality of our city.

For more information, please contact Preservation Dallas, 214-821-3290.