Our Inwood Home of the Week is an English Arts and Crafts movement stunner at 5816 Swiss Avenue, and it has a pretty serious fan base. Before all of you jump on me and say this is an Eclectic Tudor, yes, absolutely it is. But let’s learn a bit, shall we?
Just look at it. You’ll also see elements of Gothic Tudor and darned if it doesn’t look like a grand, romantic, storybook cottage. So, I consulted one of our favorite architects, Lloyd Lumpkins, who knows a thing or two about Dallas historic architecture, for a more precise description, and he had the following to say:
“Because of the white color, the gables, leaded glass, and the scale and proportion, it’s really an English Arts and Crafts movement home and owes its heritage to Charles Voysey, Sir Edwin Lutyens, and Charles Rennie McIntosh. It has a bit of American bungalow elements as well. It’s Romantic architecture.”
Or as my British ex-husband would say, “It’s a marvelous mashup of great architectural styles, isn’t it dahling?”
But I digress. Let’s get back to this home’s huge fan base. Our entire Daltxrealestate.com team loves this gorgeous English Arts and Crafts movement home. We are not alone. D Magazine has named it to their list of the “Ten Most Beautiful Homes in Dallas.” It was also awarded the Preservation Achievement Award in 2014 by Preservation Dallas for the rehabilitation of a historic residential property.
And here’s the best part. It’s for sale! But you are not going to find it on MLS. You’ll have to call Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s Swiss Avenue savant Elizabeth Mast. She has this incredibly gorgeous English Arts and Crafts movement home on offer for $1.825 million. I know, right? That’s an astonishingly reasonable price for a historic home that’s been completely renovated and updated.
I think the owners were destined to be the stewards of this home. Allan Moore and Brendan Martin purchased the house in 2010 because, let’s face it, they fell in love with it.
“The picturesque exterior elevation, even before all of the renovations, had us at ‘hello,’ ” Moore said. “We knew the house had a story to tell and was speaking to us to let her shine and be the author of her new destiny.”
“Our favorite memory is walking in the front door for the first time,” Martin said. “We were amazed at the impressive entry with the squared, reversed staircase highlighted by the prominent leaded and stained glass windows bathing the area with natural light.”
As I said, these two were destined to own this English Arts and Crafts Eclectic Tudor home and renovate it. They just got it immediately, and were completely up to the project.
The house was built in 1924 by Marshall Barnett and owned by the same family for 57 years. Moore and Martin got to work removing layers of pink paint— yes, pink, don’t ask, from the Batchelder fireplace, exposing windows that had been sealed up for decades, and breathing new life into this beauty.
The renovation was beyond successful, and the house has been featured on both the 2012 and 2017 Swiss Avenue Mother’s Day Home Tours. The tour brochures offered the following information on the renovations:
With meticulous planning, the current owners achieved an aggressive renovation and restoration, completing the home in just five months. The entire home had sunken to the center requiring extensive foundation work. Most walls were taken down to the studs, and the more than 60 windows, were restored to working condition. All moldings and doors were restored, and any that were added were milled to match the originals.
I was lucky enough to see this home recently, and I could not find a thing I’d do differently or add. It is absolute perfection, and by now, you know my standards. At 3,836 square feet with two living areas, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a powder bath, a full basement, full attic, and guest quarters, this fantastic Arts and Crafts movement Eclectic Tudor is not only a great family home, it’s also exactly what you want if you like to entertain — indoors or out.
Let’s get to the outdoors. Talk about no stone left unturned! The back porch is paradise and looks out onto a resort-style pool added in 2014. Then there is that carriage house! It’s everything you need with a bedroom, a complete living area, and full kitchen. I don’t know how Moore and Martin managed to exactly match the kitchen countertop material color to the cabinetry paint. Well, yes I do, because Moore is not just any homeowner, he’s the founder of Allan Moore & Associates. To say he knows a bit about project management and design is a grand understatement.
I hope, dear readers, if you are interested, that you have an opportunity to nab this home, but don’t be surprised if someone else is in line ahead of you, because this is a rare opportunity to have the best of both worlds. Now if you can only get Moore and Martin to leave their furniture!
Karen Eubank is the owner of Eubank Staging and Design. She has been an award-winning professional home stager and writer for over 25 years. She teaches the popular Staging to Sell class and is the creator of the online course, The Beginners Guide to Buying Wholesale. She loves dogs, international travel, history, white paint, champagne, artificial turf, and homes with personality. Her father was a spy, and she keeps secrets very well. Find Karen at www.eubankstaging.com.
