Contemporary Sylvan Ave. Home Stays in Touch With Its Turn-of-the-Century Past

Everyone knows that Oak Cliff has some of the best topography and native landscape in the city, but I found some compelling proof in quite literally, black and white. Yes dear readers, this is another of my historical storytelling rabbit holes into the Dallas Morning News archives from the past century. It’s also this week’s Highlight Home of the Week, sponsored by Dallas mortgage broker Lisa Peters of Cardinal Financial.

First off, let me tell you about this featured home at 1404 Sylvan Avenue in Oak Cliff, listed by Cynthia Paine-Drennan of Dave Perry-Miller Real Estate. It’s a 4,460-square-foot home with four bedrooms and five baths that was built in 2004. If you’re familiar with Oak Cliff, you might take a double take because this home that looks straight out of Preston Hollow or the suburbs. The size, the style, hey, even the year the home was built, seem like anomalies in midcentury-predominant East Kessler Park.

But 1404 Sylvan was custom-built to go above and beyond the finest materials and commercial-grade appliances.

It doesn’t just have high ceilings. It has 11-foot ceilings — in the primary bedroom alone. It doesn’t just have a sitting area in the primary — It has a hidden door in the closet that opens to a completely private workout or zen room. Those are some of the features the Realtor, Paine Drennan, can share that show how much work was put into the home.

From the MLS listing:

“Beautiful, palatial, 4-or 5-bedroom 3-car garage home, located at the entrance of East Kessler. Offering a perfect blend of elegance, comfort, and luxury.

The entertainer will be thrilled with the temperature control, built-in wine, refrigerator, the wet bar that serves guests indoors or out, the large covered patio that has a fireplace and TV to keep the party going. The gourmet kitchen overlooks the living room, bar, and fabulous swimming pool. Plus there’s an additional bedroom that’s down along with the office.

The primary suite is stunning with a fireplace that is shared with the bathroom, lovely marble, and a slate shower. Located off the closet is a ZEN room for stretching or an escape to read a book.

Upstairs you will find two additional bedrooms, media room that is being used as a playroom, and a game room upstairs with a balcony overlooking the fabulous pool in large yard.”

Listing agent Cynthia Paine Drennan

So here’s the rabbit hole. Paine Drennan says the home is located at the entrance of East Kessler Park, so it piqued my interest when I saw the legal description for 1404 Sylvan to be Guggenheim Acres. That’s specific.

Before this palatial home was built, there sat the turn-of-the-century home of Dr. Victor Guggenheim. He was a “country physician who drove in horse and buggy over a wide section of the county serving the sick,” the Morning News once wrote about him. I’m sure his home began more modestly in 1900 when he first came to Texas from New York, but by 2004 the home last grew to 1,600 square feet with three bedrooms and one bath.

From the MLS description in June 2004:

“East Kessler historic property. The Guggenheim home circa 1900. Eclectic design, artist workspaces and ADA-type access. Outdoor amenities include pool, ponds, and gardens. Two-car garage now used as workshop.”

Dr. Guggenheim died of a sudden illness in December 1928 at the age of 70, leaving behind his wife, two sons, and a daughter. He practiced medicine in Dallas for thirty years, but he also helped shape the landscape that remains today in East Kessler Park.

The Doctor’s House

“Around the beauitful old Guggenheim estate, 1404 Sylvan Road in the northwestern outskirts of Oak Cliff, has grown up one of Dallas’ most beautiful residential sections. When Dr. E. V. Guggenheim, dead many years, came here from Switzerland, he picked this site, then far from other habitation, for his home. He spent his time beautifying his home. Victor Guggenheim, in the more than 30 years he has lived in this beauty spot, has watched adjacent areas gradually build into the lovely additions of Kessler Park and the Stevens Park Estates.”

Cynthia Paine Drennan of Dave Perry-Miller Real Estate has listed 1404 Sylvan Ave. for $1.25 million.