J. Wesley Hubbell and his wife purchased the lot at 4310 Rawlins in 1925 and knew exactly what house they needed to build. J. Wesley was a locally famous tenor. He taught voice at the Bush Temple of Music at 307 Elm St. He also lectured and directed while performing in productions and on radio shows. His wife was a classically trained dancer. They had a son, Jack, who also followed a path into the arts.
J. Wesley needed a house that could be filled with music throughout. The house’s unusual front entrance through the side under the porte-cochére leads directly into the heart of the home. A two-story hallway that is open to most of the rooms on the first floor and open through internal windows to the second floor lets sound carry up stairs.
The Hubbell family could only enjoy the home they built for a short time as the 1929 Stock Market Crash caused financial difficulty for them. They sold the house to Edward and Gladys Duff and their daughter Doris in 1930.
Gladys Winnifred Horner Duff was the daughter of the Louis and Lettie Horner, owners of the Electric Express Company (a private plane company). Louis was also head of the Dallas Transfer Company and a director of the Mercantile Bank in Dallas. Born in New York, Louis came to Dallas as a young man as an engineer on the Katy Railroad when he was young. Gladys and her parents lived at 3001 Routh St. in Dallas.
Gladys divorced Edward soon after they moved into their home. A year later, she married Mortimer Raguet Irion, the grandson of former Texas Republic Secretary of State, Robert Irion. The elder Irion is namesake of Irion County in West Texas. Mortimer was in the first class of lawyers that graduated from SMU Law School. He and Gladys were married in the home in 1931 by a Bishop Harry T. Moore. He and Gladys enjoyed living in the home throwing parties, hosting luncheons, and raising Doris. Gladys was a member of the Idlewild, the Dallas Country Club, Symphony League, and the Southern Society. She was a part of the small committee that raised funds and had the replica of General Lee’s Arlington home built in Oak Lawn Park, the Park which later became Lee Park. Mrs. Carrell, Mrs. Lemmon, Mrs. Buckner, and Gladys were the primary advocates of this change. in 1939 Mortimer and Gladys moved in to a larger home at 3640 Beverly Dr. in Highland Park. She remained committed to her duties as an attorney’s wife and socialite status.
The Skaggs family moved into the home in 1939 and lived there for the next forty years until 1978. Harron Hayes and Lula Faye Skaggs raised two sons, Harlan and Thomas in the home along with a live-in maid and cook, Bertha. Harron co-owned an auto service station at the corner of Maple and Lucas streets and later was sold real estate. Both their sons joined the Navy to fight in WWII when they turned 18. Faye became a tireless Red Cross volunteer during the war as she waited for her sons to complete their service. They both returned home safely to raise their own children, often visiting the house on Rawlins for Sunday dinner. They were a very close-knit family. One of their many grandchildren, Sandra, is a real estate agent and prepared a memory book of the Skaggs family to be left in the house for future owners. The book is filled with great memories of dinners and holidays celebrated in the home. She also had pictures of the family and how the house was furnished in the forty years they lived there. And yes, there was a goldfish pond in the entrance hall when you entered the home that is no longer there. There is picture of the water feature in the photo gallery below. Goldfish not included.
The gracious current owner of the home is moving and the house is currently on the market. I thank him for allowing me to share what a well-loved home this house has been to several families for over 100 years.