Sometimes, a house is more than a home. It’s a love story. This Winnetka Heights American Four-Square is one of those stories.
Christopher and Allyson Harrison are among that rarest group of home buyers — those who are not looking to demolish or even flip but to restore a home properly. Allyson comes by her love of historic homes naturally. She was in kindergarten when her dad helped his brother move and restore a home in Waxahachie. Her memories of that experience and in that house cemented a life-long love of historic homes.
The couple were already living in Oak Cliff when they started looking for a fixer-upper. They found the perfect candidate, an American Four-Square in Winnetka Heights.
Winnetka Heights is one of the most charming neighborhoods in Dallas and our second-largest historic district. It became a Dallas Landmark District and was included in the National Register of Historic Places in 1983, and received a State Historic Marker in 1982. It’s filled with a collection of about 600 single-story frame Craftsman bungalows, two-story Prairie-influenced Four Square homes, and, according to the City of Dallas Office of Historic Preservation, is one of the most intact early 20th-century neighborhoods in Oak Cliff.
“Historic homes tell a story,” Allyson said.
“We were looking specifically for a home that needed to be brought back to its former glory,” she said.
Chris knew what he was in for as Allyson made it clear when they were dating that Joanna Gaines had nothing on her.
“We wanted a home with a story behind it, one that we could add our story to,” Chris said.
Their Winnetka Heights American Four-Square had never been updated. Original knob-and-tube wiring, an original Dearborn stove gas heater, and a complete lack of ductwork were the tip of the iceberg. Even the original front porch columns had been torn down and replaced with a 1950s update. To restore those, the couple had to track down photos of what had originally been there. Chris’ father helped with the research and located a previous owner who had photos.
“We found the granddaughter of a previous owner who told us her grandparents were married in front of the fireplace,” Allyson said. “She sent us tons of photos and told us the house had once been a boarding house and a restaurant was run out of the front living room. We have an ad about the back sleeping porch. It was advertised as a private room with a private entrance and bath for a respectable gentleman.”
The Harrisons did an enormous amount of research, spending time at Preservation Dallas and on the seventh floor of the Dallas Public Library pouring over Sanborn Maps. They found the original deed was pulled in late 1912 and building permits from that same year. Construction began in 1913, so never believe what you see on DCAD!
The property has a backhouse structure that is almost the same square footage as the main house but was never finished. That was a real deal sealer as Chris and Allyson knew they could tackle this first, then live in it while they worked on the big house. But of course, they had to live somewhere while the back house was being finished. That meant moving onto the sleeping porch of the main house.
The most challenging part of the journey was not restoration-related but more about their lifestyle.
“We were two adults with two incomes when we purchased the property,” Allyson said. “Then I found out I was pregnant! We moved all our stuff into the ground floor of the main house and lived like squatters. We had one window unit and one Dearborn stove that I refused to light because I was afraid of it, and my husband traveled a lot, so I just froze. Two weeks before our eldest was born, we moved into the back house.”
It was another two-and-a-half years before they could move into the main house. Then Allyson got pregnant again. That didn’t slow the couple down one bit. Of course, it helped that they found a great contractor, Richard Fitzgerald with Triple J Construction. Fitzgerald’s wife just happened to have been instrumental in the historic designation of the neighborhood.
Every single bit of hardware in the home is a reproduction of an original. Because they could only find lacquered hardware at the time, they spent months hand-stripping it. They removed and refinished baseboards, rebuilt the dining room window seat, pony columns in the dining room, and the upstairs phone nook. Two claw-foot tubs and a staircase were restored and original “Texas”-stamped bricks were used to rebuild their fireplace and chimney.
One of the things I hear undereducated buyers say about saving historic homes is that, oh, they will never be energy efficient, or you can’t put in the right mechanicals because it’s too difficult. Chris would heartily disagree.
“When we redid this house, we added the latest of everything from plumbing to electrical. We have the strongest water pressure you can ask for. We have a natural gas generator, and it’s a smart house. There is energy-saving glass in all of the original windows, and they are hung with their circa-1900 weights. It’s still all appropriate to the house,” he said. “When you have a 100-year-old house, there are very cost-effective ways to accomplish these things. Our house is more advanced than a lot of homes built in the 2000s.”
One of the couple’s most incredible accomplishments was moving the back of the house over seven and a half feet to fill city requirements. Dealing with historic preservation rules at the City of Dallas is not for the faint of heart, nor those in a hurry. Patience and being clever work in your favor every time.
“We had been approved by one office to do what we intended, and the back of the house was ripped open,” Chris said. The Landmark Commission closed for the summer, and the Harrisons were stuck because they’d been told the second floor was not grandfathered in, which prevented them from moving forward with their original plan.
Chris came up with the idea of moving the entire back part of the house over to meet the requirements. “It was all torn apart anyway,” he said. “We asked the city, and they said it had never been done before, and technically it was allowed. So, we picked the back of the house up and moved it over to meet the requirements.”
“We knew this project would be a labor of love,” Allyson said. “Our goal was a period-appropriate restoration. We wanted to save it from being gutted inside and ending up with a big blown-out open-floor plan. When you love historic homes, you never own them. You are just a steward, trying to do the right thing.”
And indeed, they have done the right thing. Preservation Dallas presented the couple with a Preservation Achievement Award in 2019 for their efforts.
The Harrisons now have a flawless 4,050-square-foot, five-bedroom, three-and-a-half bath Winnetka Heights American Four-Square with a Pinterest-worthy one-bedroom back house. Baby number three is now a part of the family, so the couple is on the hunt for a bit more space and, of course, their next historic home challenge.
“We are going to miss the memories in this home and how much of us is in it,” Allyson said.
This home is truly a love story and ready for another family to add their tale to its history.
Dave Perry Miller‘s Alicia Schroeder has this Winnetka Heights American Four-Square at 414 N. Windomere Ave. listed for $1.05 million.
