I’m certain each of us has their own personal list of COVID deprivations. Mine include waiting in a line in the heat at Trader Joe’s, the closing of concert halls and operas, and my empty dining room.
Then there is social distancing. The phrase has a vexing, Orwellian ring that really masks (pun intended) a deeper sadder loss, which is the loss of community.
I can aver that there is no neighborhood in the Dallas-Fort Worth area that has a stronger sense of community than the National Historic District of Fairmount. The reopening of the Fairmount Home Tour is another jubilant manifestation of life returning to normal.
Well, nearly normal.
The 39th Home Tour will be held over Father’s Day weekend. The previous 38 tours have been held on Mother’s Day weekend. And we will be deprived of the gratifying guilty pleasure of critiquing housekeeping and interior decoration. This tour can be best described as a porch and patio tour.
This being Fairmount, the home tour committee has gone the extra distance to be creative and make this tour a special and memorable event. There will be a record sixteen houses on the tour in easy-to-walk clusters. And furnished porches will in effect be turned into small stages with actors impersonating some of the memorable original owners.
“This year’s tour will focus as much on noteworthy past owners as the houses,” notes David Westy, whose College Avenue home is on tour.
Built in 1909, it was once the home of one of Texas’ leading suffragette, Clota Terrell Boykin, who was the president of the Fort Worth Equal Suffrage Club and later the president of the League of Women Voters. She went on to serve as the first women delegate elected to the Texas Democratic Convention. In 1918 she and other women leaders established the Fort Worth Baby Hospital which later became Cook’s Children’s Hospital.
Another colorful character who will be brought to life on the porch of his former home is Ernest (Soapy) Gilliam, founder of Gilliam Soap Works, which made him a wealthy man.
In an era when 10,000-square-foot houses are hardly unusual, it may be difficult to grasp that many movers and shakers in the city were content to choose the charming bungalows of Fairmount for their homes in the neighborhood’s heyday.
“It’s the people that make the difference in Fairmount.” says David Westy. That seems to be built into the history of Fairmount.
Notable among the gardens is the South Adams oasis created by homeowner Todd Edson. He owned two adjacent houses on South Adams. Four years ago a truck struck one of them, knocking it off of its foundation. Edson took the bold decision to dismantle the house, using plenty of the home’s salvage to construct a fence and a pergola in an enlarged garden.
“I throw a bunch of seeds and see what happens. I let nature take over and let plants grow where they want to grow,” says Edson, echoing the philosophy of fame gardener Vita Sackville-West.
One interior open to the public, is the remarkable Southside Preservation Hall which has had more lives than a cat.
It began its existence as a Methodist church evolving and expanding from 1910-1954. The Panther Boy’s Club bought the complex in 1972. In 1995 Fairmount rallied to prevent its demolition, creating the Southside Preservation Association. The rejuvenated structure is now a popular wedding venue and, pre-COVID, the host of first Friday swing dances, which attract a young crowd.
Festivities begin Saturday, June 19th, at 10 a.m. with a lively parade. Tours will be from noon to 5 p.m. Photography and generous support for this piece were provided by the multitalented Stacey Luecker.
