Why does this house have two huge master bedrooms on each side of the home? This was quite unusual in the twenties when it was built. Clarence L Dickerson and his closest friend, Ward Downs went into business together in 1918 after Clarence had the opportunity to buy the plumbing business he had been working in since 1903. They renamed the company The Dallas Plumbing Company and set up the business at 1620 Bryan in Dallas with Ward serving the plumbing needs of Dallas with a horse and buggy.
Clarence married Mary Sherman of Georgia and Ward married Fay Apperson, a Dallas native and they decided to continue to live in the same house together and share the responsibilities of the house and the plumbing business at 2712 Hibernia in Uptown. The business grew and found a new larger headquarters at McKinney and Fairmont Avenues. They purchased six REO Speedwagons (Ransom Eli Olds) to cover the city. They also built a beautiful colonial-style home for all four of them at 4420 Rawlins Street in Perry Heights with equal-sized masters bedroom suites. The Downs had two children, Dee and Fred Downs, who loved being raised by the two couples. Fay ran the house and cared for the children, while Clarence, Ward, and Mary ran the business. The boys always said they had two fathers and two mothers. In their personal time, Clarence and Mary loved to travel by car and garden on the home’s large lot. In 1933, the company installed the plumbing for the Highland Park Shopping Center at Preston and by 1938 had 80% of the plumbing permits for Highland Park. The business was incorporated in the late 1940s, several months before Clarence died in 1950. Mary Dickerson was then named President of the company, Ward Downs as Executive VP, and his sons also named Vice Presidents.
By the mid-sixties, when the company was celebrating 60 years in business they had 95 employees and 38 vehicles where they installed air conditioners in addition to plumbing needs. The boys, Dee and Fred, the company’s vice presidents, with Mary still leading the company as president and still lives at 4420 Rawlins with Ward and Fay. Johnny, of the third generation Downs, was named president in 1981. After over 100 years, the third and fourth generation still owns and operates the business.
Fay died in 1979, survived by 8 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren. Ward died in 1984, followed by Mary who died later that same year. Clarence and Mary left a beautiful chapel at The First Methodist Church named the Dickerson Chapel on Ross that the couple funded as well as being lifelong major donors for the Scottish Rite Hospital.