We live in a city rich with historically significant homes and buildings. But all too often, they see the wrecking ball instead of preservation and protection.
With so many of our Dallas historic structures having uncertain futures, Preservation Dallas creates an annual Most Endangered Historic Paces List to call the public’s attention to sites that are too meaningful for us to lose.
“We stared the list in 2004 and ran it until 2010, skipping 2009—we then brought it back in 2015,” said David Preziosi, executive director at Preservation Dallas. “The purpose is to raise awareness about the threats many of our historic places are facing. The nominations are collected and a jury reviews them and selects the new list for 2016.”
Nominations are due soon for that 2016 list, which will likely feature some of the homes and buildings we know and love.
Historic places like the Aldredge House and Cabana Hotel are invaluable and irreplaceable community assets that tell the story of Dallas’ development.
As Preservation Dallas notes, their list recognizes the many significant properties that make up our neighborhoods and reflect the lives of community leaders, important architects and builders, and the families who made Dallas their home. The list also focuses attention on the value of the city’s architectural styles and building types of rapidly disappearing residential, commercial, and educational architecture. They are places that are important to the diverse history of Dallas and are tied to their neighborhoods and communities.
“The value of the Most Endangered List lays in its education of the public,” said Donovan Westover, events and development coordinator at Preservation Dallas. “Constantly reinventing itself, Dallas typically looks beyond the past for the shiny, modern, and new. Our list brings historically significant—not just old—buildings into purview. It is important to Dallas to avoid referring to our built past in past tense. Unfortunately, the 2016 list will not include the Mayrath House, which was most recently demolished.”
To submit a nomination, download the form HERE. The deadline is Aug. 5. The 2016 list will be announced mid-September.
