Some people get a toaster for a wedding gift. If you’re lucky, maybe you get the entire bedding set you registered for at the local department store.
But a house? Now that’s a great wedding present.
As the tale is told and retold, the Fort Worth Spanish Eclectic at 2640 Forest Park Blvd. was a wedding gift in 1932 for Peggy and William Edwards. Supposedly, the front room with its dramatic window replicates the Spanish chapel where the newlyweds were married.
Believe It or Not
Wait, there’s more. The historic two-bedroom, two-bath home is known as Villa Barmann, named for Adele and Leo Barmann who bought the home in 1947. If you ask the right person, an older version of the late Adele sometimes now appears to visitors. Anything unusual that happens now in the house is blamed on the long-gone Adele. Then, there was the mystic who had a habit of dancing with her veils in the front window. A staircase leads up to a turret that was used as a meditation room. And people still talk about the legendary parties that happened after John P. Merritt, owner of a downtown Fort Worth establishment, took the fun to his place during the 1980s.
Even without its romantic, haunting, mystical, fun history, this is a great house.
“People are so curious about it,” said listing Realtor Jan Aziz with Williams Trew Real Estate. “Once you walk into it, it has this wonderful feel. There’s a presence about the house that you don’t get in a lot of the newer homes.”
Fort Worth Spanish Eclectic Restoration
Current owner Mark L. Nelson, both a registered architect and a licensed interior designer, bought the house in 2009. It had fallen into disrepair by previous owners who found the restoration project to be larger than anyone anticipated.
“I walked in there and thought ‘This is going to take a minute,’” he said with a laugh.
Even so, he carefully restored the parts of the 2,303-square-foot Fort Worth Spanish Eclectic that could be restored and rebuilt the parts that couldn’t. The enormous primary bedroom maintains its original mirrored closet doors that can open to form a three-way mirror. Some of the walls are original plaster, and the fireplace also is original, but now is filled with contemporary concrete fireballs.
The tile roof gives the house a Spanish hacienda look, but the interior arches and details, as found in the front room, are not at all. The house mixes Spanish architecture with English touches and finishes, such as the eye-catching front door.
“We call it ‘Spanish eclectic,’ because the form of the house is Spanish hacienda, but the detailing is English Tudor,” Nelson said. “That was the style. This neighborhood was all Tudor cottages until recently.”
Walking Neighborhood
More recently the neighborhood has been transformed into housing for students at Texas Christian University, a mere four blocks away. It’s also walking distance to two grocery stores, two grocery stores, seven restaurants, a post office, and a hardware store. The bells from nearby St. Stephen Presbyterian Church https://ststephenpresbyterian.com/can be heard when the home’s windows, designed for catching a breeze, are open.
“It’s the last man standing on the block,” Nelson said, referring to the neighborhood that has seen an epidemic of student housing constructed where those Tudor cottages once stood. “It will heartbreak a lot of people if it’s torn down to build another TCU duplex.”
You can see the Fort Worth Spanish Eclectic’s restoration in person during the open houses Saturday, April 1, and Sunday, April 2, from 1 to 3 p.m.
“You just have to experience this house,” Aziz said.
Realtor Jan Aziz with Williams Trew Real Estate has listed 2640 Forest Park Blvd. for $565,000.
