By Donovan Westover
Time traveling forward from our previously featured 1916 four-square tour house in Winnetka Heights, we find ourselves in Beckley Club Estates in 1928. The moment I saw this stone cottage I was taken with the charming combination of the puzzlelike stone capped with the sweeping roofline.
Curb Appeal
When built, the house was one of a limited number of lakeside lots available on Lake Junior. The Cedar Creek tributaries that were damned to create Lakes Junior and Placid fed into the larger Lake Helen (which put the shore in both North and South Shore Drives).
Lakes were part of the original development and each property owner was a member of the Beckley Fishing, Bathing, and Boating Club on Lake Helen. A Japanese pagoda was built as a clubhouse in the center of Lake Helen but after a 1933 drowning, the concrete dam and pagoda clubhouse were demolished, which brought back the flowing creek.
The tour homesite descends to the creek in the rear with layers of beautiful limestone visible, once underwater in the lake. While the 1928 prices may seem meager now, the original Beckley Club Estates’ houses were priced and marketed to “particular… tired of the ordinary… wishing distinction” purchasers and sold for $6,000 to $14,000 each, with $500 down payments and $70 monthly payments.
The individuality of each lot in the neighborhood lent to the “naturally picturesque and perfectly developed homesites” promotion, which still holds true today. To this day, Beckley Club Estates is a haven with winding streets, one-lane bridges, creeks, and cliffs.
Land Appeal
As neighborhood development began, model homes were built to set examples of architecture, materials, and expected quality. Seevers Avenue was one of the first streets to be developed, with 14 homes on the avenue in the 1920s.
The unique dark stone building envelope exemplified craftsmanship and stonelayers went so far as to include stone outcroppings in their design for features such as a stone mail holder built into the front porch as well as a water feature melded into the outcroppings on the firebox. Without stepping inside, the current homeowners realized this charming home was meant to be theirs.
Design Appeal
Speaking of design, one of the homeowners is an interior designer and they have filled the home with professionally prescribed antique family heirlooms as well as signature contemporary pieces to create an eclectic and beautiful display of their lives. The high ceilings and large rooms accommodate a masculine palette in perfect partnership with the old-world charm of this 95-year-old home.
One (me) could easily sit back with a glass (or seven) of wine and listen to their stories about the house. That is the inspiration in this home.
Relax Appeal
Our tour program text writer for Seevers Avenue, architect Alicia Quintans, says “Beckley Club the Beautiful” was described as “the living place for those who worship at the shrine of the beautiful.” An elaborate advertising campaign was published in The Dallas Morning News in the spring of 1925, adding hints of this mysterious new subdivision each week, promoting land sales. Advertisements painted a picture of Beckley Club as a work of art by Mother Nature.
“In order to conserve the wonderful and valuable tree growth, and to create gorgeous ‘view lots,’ the streets of Beckley Club wind in and out among the trees, up and down hill, and around the cliffs, here and there forming small parkways …”
Provenance Appeal
Every space of the house collects sunlight superbly, diffusing it onto a magnificent variety of surfaces, textures and fabrics, both vintage and contemporary. Mother Nature’s work at Beckley Club the Beautiful provides backdrop to the collection of exquisite furniture, artwork, fabrics, etc. This is a remarkable house with a remarkable future, and the homeowners are great stewards.
Home Sweet Home Appeal
Be sure to join us on the Heritage Oak Cliff Home Tour on October 28 and 29. More information and tickets are available here and you do not want to miss this, and six additional, distinctive tour homes. While you are traversing the winding streets of Beckley Club Estates, please carefully cross “Twin Bridges” and be mindful of neighborhood peacocks wandering the streets.
Peafowl Appeal
Our Seevers Avenue tour home is sponsored by:
Bill Farrell of Dave Perry-Miller Real Estate
