Greenland Hills is winding up its year of Centennial celebrations by partnering with Preservation Dallas on their neighborhood home tour this Saturday. Any lover of historic homes will find this to be one of the most charming home tours in town.
What is now Greenland Hills was originally bought by a traveling salesman Elmer J. Bennett in 1898. He stopped in Dallas, liked what he saw, and purchased 200 acres of land for $60 an acre. That’s $12,000 if you are quick with your math. Twenty-five years later, all of this land ended up in the hands of Mr. Bennett’s 16-year-old son. He must have been as smart as his father because in 1923 he sold 100 of those acres to developers Fletcher and Frank McNeny for 3,000 percent more than his father paid for the land.
With Dallas rapidly expanding, the McNeny brothers applied for annexation to the city in 1925. Greenland Hills was a hit before the first shovel of dirt was turned because the McNeny brothers understood how to create a cohesive neighborhood that would stay relevant 100 years later.
Not only did they do practical things like ensure utility and telephone lines were laid and the Interurban streetcar and bus lines extended into their development, but they also added touches most developers did not take into consideration. Their design of the neighborhood included ornamental street lights on equally ornamental standards to be placed at street corners.
Most of these residences, for a number of which plans are being drawn, will be of brick in old English architectural style.
Dallas Morning News- April 1923
And the McNenys were brilliant marketers. Advertisements at the time noted this new development was at an altitude of 155 feet above Main and Akard Streets!
Greenland Hills Charm
What has not changed in a century is what draws people to Greenland Hills. Those early marketing efforts are still working today. Greenland Hills is still a charming neighborhood with excellent proximity to town, even though the streetcars that ran every six minutes are long gone. And it’s still one of those tight-knit, family-oriented communities.
That’s what drew Pedro Vergnemorell to Greenland Hills years ago.
“I was just driving and liked the neighborhood,” Vergneorell said. “At that time, there was a coffee shop on Greenville Avenue much like the one on Friends, and it felt like a cool little community. Central Expressway and Mockingbird were also nearing completion, so it seemed like a great location.”
Vergnemorell moved here in the late ’90s and has made a lot of improvements to his 1927 Tudor cottage. When he added a second story, he had moldings made to match the originals on the first floor, replicated the doors downstairs, and matched the hardwood floors. A media room was added under the front peak, and just a few years ago, a pool rounded out this picture of perfection.
“I was the young person buying into a neighborhood of original owners, and they would invite me to dinner. It was very welcoming then and has continued to be,” Vergnemorell said. “Our girls go to Mockingbird Elementary. We looked briefly at moving when our daughters were starting school. But after looking, I knew I could not live in a newer neighborhood where people don’t know each other. We love the school, and we’ve made friends with other parents. This is still the cool community I found all those years ago.”
Preservation Dallas Greenland Hills Centennial Home Tour
