Historic preservation is always about love. It requires desire, vision, and care — all of the essential ingredients in any great love affair.
You know you’re off the deep end when you look at a home and it makes your heart skip a beat. That’s just what happened to John Vranac and Jacob Kearns when they saw this Kessler Park Tudor Revival.
“I’ve always loved architecture and old homes,” Vranac said. “We used to live on Edgefield and we’d walk down the street with a glass of wine each night and dream about restoring this house to its former glory.”
One evening in 2016, on their saunter around the neighborhood, they spotted a sale sign. In a heartbeat, it was theirs.
“It was in rough shape,” Vranac said. “The charm had been stripped out but that was the challenge, to put the charm back into it. This was the last of the great homes of Kessler Park that had not yet been renovated.”
They did a deep dive into historic architecture and researched at the Central Dallas Library, discovering the first owner was Dallas County Tax Assessor and Collector John Lowery. When the drawing of the proposed home was published in The Dallas Morning News in 1924, this was the accompanying information:
Exemplifying construction suitable for rugged or hillside lots the residence is shown in the illustration is to be built by George P. Jones on Argonne Drive, Kessler Park. The site is one of the typical rustic locations characteristic of Kessler Park.
The building will be of pure English design, constructed of face brick veneer with a slate roof. There will be nine rooms and a basement under the living room. A unique feature will be the location of the large living room, which will be offset from the main body of the house at a forty-five-degree angle with exposures on three sides, and the natural basement underneath this room will be enclosed and serve as a two-car garage. Albert Boren is the architect.
There was even a contest to name the home with a $50 award for the best effort. That’s about $800 today, so you know there were a lot of submissions. The lucky winner came up with Cragmont Estate. When the home was finished in 1925 it was 3,019 square feet and took pride of place as one of the grand homes of Kessler Park.
The years had taken their toll on this Kessler Park Tudor. There was no HVAC system and maintenance, in general, had fallen by the wayside. Vranac and Kearns got to work.
While the moldings were all original, they had about 10 layers of paint that needed to be stripped away, and then there was the much-coveted but very hard-to-incorporate Rookwood fireplace. It’s not easy to tie those unique color accents into today’s look, but they managed to do it seamlessly. They even trekked to New England to find period-appropriate light fixtures.
Vranac and Kearns spent two and a half years renovating and restoring this Kessler Park Tudor Revival.
“It just needed the love pumped back into it,” Vranac said.
The beauty of their accomplishment is not only in the attention to historic detail and nuance but in understanding what would resonate with buyers today. The house is relatable and broadly appealing because Vranac and Kearns were smart about the updates and the decor, not going overboard with personal taste. It’s hard to walk that fine line but they did it exceedingly well.
The home now has three bedrooms, three bathrooms, and a wonderful study that Vranac loves.
“The morning light is beautiful in here,” he said. “Now that it’s complete, I want to do it all over again and find the next sad house I can pump love into. It Is hard to leave, but I’m looking forward to passing the baton. It’s all done and move-in ready. I’m a proud dad!”
The two-car detached garage has additional unfinished square footage with three windows. It’s an excellent option for a home office.
Seldom do we see a historic property of this caliber and size that has been so beautifully restored. The work Vranac and Kearns put in is a shining example of why historic preservation is worthwhile and why it’s always a love story.
Dave Perry-Miller Real Estate‘s Patty Brooks has 1214 Belleau Drive listed for $1.545 million.
