The Sweetest Home should accompany the sweetest history behind it. This unique home, nominated by listing agent Bess Dickson of Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s International Realty and voted one of 2021’s The Sweetest by the editors of Daltxrealestate.com, certainly fits the bill.
In the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s, this beautiful little Mission Revival was home to Miss Pat’s Pre-School, touted as one of the first private pre-schools in the area. Conveniently located near Baylor School of Dentistry and just five minutes (back then) from Downtown Dallas, working moms and dads brought their little ones to this in-home daycare, where they’d learn music, art, and expression. “The curriculum includes number work, visual concentration, storytelling, dramatization, voice and body drills, painting, clay modeling, and related activities,” a Dallas Morning News ad from the ’40s reads. (It was high-tech, too. The school advertised the use of new germicidal lamps to keep those germs at bay.)
Certainly, this two-bedroom, two-bath Junius Heights home is a standout with its lovingly maintained interiors, jasmine-laced esplanade, and expansive sleeping porch. Oh, and the fact that it’s The Alamo!
“I mean, how often does a homage to the Alamo come up for sale in North Texas,” Dickson, the listing agent, wrote in her nomination.
Though the tax rolls say the now-2,402-square-foot home was built in 1940, Preservation Dallas puts the approximate build date as 1911. Indeed, early News archives describe a similar brick and stucco home with a tile roof, one and half-stories, and a basement at this address. Again, the home is a stand-out.
But it wasn’t always The Alamo. That came in the ’40s, Preservation Dallas believes. When it was built back in the ‘teens by C. W. Bulger and Sons Architects, it was a pinnacle for durable yet inexpensive construction. It was the incredible fireproof brick bungalow.
Fast forward a century and some change, and incredible is a good way to describe Dickson’s listing and open house.
“There must have been 100 families that came through here,” Dickson says. ”People were waiting in line before I even opened the door.”
Their reactions were priceless.
“It seemed like when all hundred people walked through the door, the home kind of took their breath away. I’ve never seen that kind of universal appeal with a home. That’s rare,” Dickson says.
After multiple showings to potential buyers in California, Chicago, and a gentleman who flew in from Louisiana the next morning to specifically tour the home, this special Alamo home had multiple offers after just three days on market.
The winning offer came from a husband and wife who’d recently moved to Dallas and were renting a home three doors down. ”They really effused a love for the house,” Dickson says.
“I’d walk by the house every day, walking my dog and admiring it,” says new home owner Kaitlyn Saragusa, a photographer with a focus on residential real estate.
“I love the way it looks, but also this home’s got a great feeling that I just can’t describe,” she continues.
Dickson knows what she’s talking about and describes it instantly: ”You feel like the walls are talking.”
