When you find a Hal Yoakum New England Colonial that is beautifully intact and completely upgraded, my advice is to sign the contract — immediately.
Yoakum designed this New England Colonial in 1938. He was one of the go-to architects in Dallas from the late 1920s until his death in 1974. His work for the movers and shakers of Dallas was regularly featured in The Dallas Morning News, appearing as early as 1934.
This two-story New England Colonial was built in 1938 for John H. North and it stayed in the family for more than 50 years. When a home is so well designed that the original family never felt the need to move, it says everything you need to know. The current owners are only the second to live here, so it has once again served a family beautifully for several more decades!
The house sits on a corner lot of just over half an acre and is one of the largest lots in Stevens Park Estates. Yoakum sited it on an angle to take advantage of the prevailing breezes because, remember, air conditioning was a brand new concept in the 1930s. In fact, the first home to have central air conditioning was located in the neighborhood.
For our newcomers, this neighborhood is one of our oldest and is now protected as a conservation district.
In 1851, the Dallas County Sheriff seized 168 acres of land from William Myers, a Texas immigrant unable to pay his debts, and sold the land on the courthouse steps to Dr. John H. Stevens, one of Dallas’ first physicians. After Dr. Stevens’ two children, Annie and Walter Stevens, inherited the Myers Survey land in 1890, they established the Stevens Park Development Company and began developing their family’s farm land in 1926 as Stevens Park Estates, a “prestigious development” built on green hills overlooking a golf course and a memorial park.
In 1932, the Dallas Morning News described Stevens Park Estates as “one of the finest residential subdivisions in Oak Cliff.” The manager of Stevens Park Estates, S.P. Cimmiotti, began a beautification program in 1930 that planted shrubbery at every intersection, while owners Annie and Walter Stevens worked with architects and developers such as W.E. White and Carsey & Linskie to create a neighborhood deed restriction that would ensure architectural cohesiveness. This deed restriction plotted the neighborhood into separate districts for two-story, story-and-a-half, and one-story houses and even mandated certain building materials. For example, only two-story brick or stone houses could be built on Colorado Boulevard and Plymouth Road, as well as on all corner lots on the interior streets. Such architectural regulations created a sense of cohesiveness that attracted early homebuyers.
Preservation Dallas
Updating a Stevens Park Estates Home
Being in a conservation district does not mean you can’t update your home. You just have to follow some rules. In 2013, present owners Dennis and Susan Vrana installed tilt-out Pella windows and a Buckingham Black slate roof from Vermont. They also rewired the house with Cat5 and were able to find the son of the original plasterer, Walter Stockdale, who refinished all the walls after the wiring was done.
“When I first saw the home, I knew I wanted it,” Susan said. “I had a friend who was a builder walk through it with me, and he told me the house was extremely well built. We have had so much fun with our friends, kids, and grandkids here. They can play volleyball and football in the front and back yards. It’s a great family home. People here are walkers, so you get to know your neighbors easily. It’s a very friendly neighborhood.”
The four-bedroom New England Colonial has two full bathrooms and a powder bath. The lot is enormous by typical standards. Remember, you are allowed to expand in a conservation district, so the possibilities are endless here. But frankly, this Yoakum New England Colonial is picture-perfect to me.
Dave Perry-Miller Real Estate‘s mother-and-son team, Diane and Vinnie Sherman, have this architecturally significant historic home at 1957 Colorado Blvd. available for $1.495 million.
