If you have any plans for Tuesday night in Dallas, change them, change them right now! This may be your last chance to see the Mothership: interiors, exteriors, and everything in-between one of the city’s most architecturally significant mid century modern works of art, the famous O’ Neil Ford residence at 3756 Armstrong Avenue.
Located on the delicious juncture of two magnificent Highland Park streets, Armstrong and Overhill, the home was a commissioned private residence for Jack and Nancy Penson, highly loved Dallas philanthropists. Mr. and Mrs. Penson’s names are on the Meyerson Symphony Center’s Endowment Wall of Honor, recognition to their longtime support of the orchestra, and a building is named after them at The Hockaday School. Mrs. Penson died in 2012, her husband in 2014.
Come September 27, our very own Heritage Auction Luxury Real Estate will auction the Penson estate to the highest bidder.
Built for extreme privacy on one of Highland Park’s most exclusive streets, almost hidden by trees, mature landscaping surrounds the property. And the lot is a whopping .85 acres, which itself appraised for $6.1 million back in February.
The home has also been listed in the past for $5.9 million, but who knows what the magic price will be?
Realtors will be “protected”: Heritage is offering a 3% commission to the agent that represents the winning bidder, as it always does.
Nothing like getting warmed up for an auction, right? After all, Heritage Luxury Real Estate Auctions is a division of the world’s third largest auction house, Dallas-based Heritage Auction Gallery. Thus the preview event will include an auction to benefit Dallas TITAS, the “Texas International Theatrical Arts Society.” TITAS gives North Texas the best of American and international music, dance, and performance art through a variety of presentations and educational outreach activities.
I am bringing my checkbook in anticipation of this pair of dazzling Gold Cuff Bracelets by Van Cleef & Arpels, gifted by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis to Nina Straight, her step-sister and maid of honor when she married John F. Kennedy in 1953. These pups are expected to sell for $40,000 in Heritage Auctions’ Contemporary Designer Jewels Auction Sept. 26 in Beverly Hills.
Kennedy Onassis surprised Straight with the bracelets when she served as Straight’s maid of honor 21 years later.
“They were a gift from Jackie for my wedding to Michael Straight in 1974,” Straight said for an exclusive interview with Heritage Auctions’ Intelligent Collector Magazine. “We were married at St. John’s Cathedral in New York. Jackie gave them to me at the luncheon after the ceremony.”
The cuffs matched a pair Kennedy Onassis often wore. “Jackie loved hers so much that she bought me a pair knowing I would enjoy them equally,” Straight said. “I always viewed myself as Jackie’s ‘Sancho Panza’ or sidekick. We had so much fun. Ours was a very close relationship.”
Not sure those cuffs will be there, but you never know what happens at an auction. That’s part of the excitement!
Built in 1954, the 8900 square foot estate was the creation of O’Neil Ford, known as the grandfather of Texas Modernism and widely recognized as one of Texas’ most celebrated 20th-century architects. O’Neil Ford designed most of the University of Dallas campus in Irving; Braniff Memorial Tower, the Braniff Graduate Center, the Gorman Lecture Center, parts of the art village, the Haggar University Center, and the Haggerty Science Building. San Antonio, his home base, is covered in his work: the renovation of La Villita, the campus of Trinity University, the campus of Saint Mary’s Hall, the University of Texas at San Antonio Main Campus, and the Tower of the Americas.
He also created buildings for Skidmore College in upstate New York and for Texas Instruments. O’Neil Ford completed the design of the building of the Museum of Western Art in Kerrville in the Texas Hill Country, shortly before his death in 1982. His sturdy structures always utilized brick, glass, and wood, and were brilliantly attuned to their physical settings.
I have been in this home. The attention to detail and craftsmanship will simply blow your mind.
Thinking of picking up a historical Highland Park bargain? Then get thee to the auction. If you have never been, here is my primer on Real Estate Auctions. Like most auction houses, Heritage Auctions Luxury Real Estate bidders are required to pre-qualify for a property auction by submitting proof of guaranteed funds. Bids are only accepted in person or by phone. For more information on Heritage Auctions please call 855-261-0573 or email [email protected]. Auctioneer is Mike Sadler. Heritage created a 40-page marketing book, a veritable magazine, with detailed information not just on the Penson estate, but on the community as well.
With Heritage’s vast data base of fine art buyers, their luxury clients expect nothing less than the best.
