When Allie Beth Allman listing agent Pete Livingston called to tell me about a 1,588-square-foot, two-bedroom, two-bathroom, 1933 Park Cities cottage my first thought was, “How far off are the bulldozers?”
I’m not the only one.
Last week, Dallas architect Larry Good, author of the book A House for Texas, presented a slide show and talk about the top-100 significant homes in the Park Cities to a private audience at the Dallas Country Club. Candy was there, as was the mayor of Highland Park, who lamented how the loss of so many older homes was ripping touchstones to the past out of our lives. Candy says she came away with more positive vibes than ever before that preservation would become more important in the Park Cities. It’s rare, these days, to come across any home for sale in the Park Cities where preservation is a priority.
But the family that has owned this Park Cities cottage at 3332 Rankin Street since 1954 cared. A lot. They were absolutely determined the home would not be demolished.
Lived History
What so many people forget about is the life of a historic home. There is not just architectural character and texture. There is the character and texture of the lives lived in the house.
Bill Haughton’s grandmother, Jennie Lou Haughton, bought this home in 1954. His grandfather, an owner of Haughton Brothers Printers, built a family home for Jennie and the three children at 4425 Hall Street. He passed away in 1942, and Jennie became a Realtor with Ralph Porter. She moved to this Park Cities cottage on Rankin to be closer to Porter’s offices in Snider Plaza, where she worked until she was 83.
“Between the three children, there were 10 grandkids, and my grandma was the center of everything,” Bill said. “She came to Dallas from Center, Texas, in 1915 to attend SMU the first year it opened. She was the youngest of seven kids who all went to college. Her dad was from Shelby County in Alabama. After fighting in the Civil War, he walked back home, found it had changed, and decided to move on. He looked on a map, saw Shelby County, Texas, and walked there from Alabama at 18. He worked for a farmer, began acquiring farms, married, and then bought a lumber yard. He was very successful, so that’s how all the kids could go to college.”
The 10 grandkids were very close, and grandma Jennie’s Park Cities cottage was always the gathering place.
“We are more like siblings than cousins,” Bill said. “We had many family gatherings in the backyard and lunch after church on Sunday. We spent every Christmas Eve here. We had wonderful times in front of that fireplace and learned to drink coffee there! She made pallets on the floor, and we’d have big sleepovers. My grandmother was the center of our family. She was a great leader and very entrepreneurial. She taught us about hard work.”
She was also creative with the home’s design.
“The front porch has an old wrought iron fence railing from Center, Texas. The marble on the shelf in the entry hall came out of the hardware store in Center,” Bill said. “The legs of the shelf are from a church my grandmother grew up going to as a girl.”
“… this is our house.”
Bill’s parents inherited the house and did a remodel in 1991. When his mother died in December last year, the siblings thought about keeping it, but with one in Montana and another in Colorado, it was not in the cards. They agreed, however, that they would do whatever it took to ensure this Park Cities cottage was not demolished.
There were five immediate offers, but the one the family accepted fell through. At almost the moment this Park Cities cottage came back on the market, Claire and Patrick Conner were closing on the sale of their large Park Cities home. They had raised their family in the Park Cities and hoped to stay. But finding a smaller home here is a tall order because of the current teardown frenzy.
“We called our Realtor, Compass’s Amy Detwiler, and immediately asked to see it. She got us right in, and we made an offer that day,” Claire said. “It has great curb appeal and is charming. We wanted something that felt warm and inviting and was architecturally interesting because I’m not a person drawn to the white box. We walked into the living room with the beams and paneling and looked at each other. Patrick took my hand, and we had that moment between us of knowing that this is our house.”
Claire pointed out that the real heroes in historic preservation are the sellers.
“To resist the builders and those wanting to raise it and buy it for the lot is a temptation. This house meant something to the sellers, which is the unique part,” Claire said. “Oddly enough, the reaction we’ve had from our friends that live in large homes has been positive. They tell us they’ve been thinking about downsizing and what’s next.”
A cottage makes perfect sense so let’s hope this is the start of recognizing why we save these smaller historic properties.
“If it was demolished, that touchstone is lost forever,” Bill said. “Now, a new family can make as many great memories as we have had.”
Love saved this adorable Park Cities Cottage, pure and simple.
Thank you for calling me Pete. Keep them coming!
