We love our park, but who was Craddock?

Today’s Craddock park

Our beautiful park, as you know, was donated to the City of Dallas by the Craddock family in 1922 when Gordon Perry platted Perry Heights. It was the first privately donated tract of land for the purpose of a public park in the City’s history. The land was just short of 10 acres and it was highly valuable. But what did Lemuel Craddock do to make all of his money? Who were the Craddocks?  

Lemuel Craddock was born in Alabama in 1847, served in the Confederate army in 1864 and 1865, and moved to Dallas in 1875 where he opened a distribution business at Main and Austin Streets. He married Nanie Legg of Cleburne, Texas and had one son and two daughters. 

So as we walk under the trees and breath some fresh air, which industry should we thank for this lush gift of a park? Oil, lumber, grocery stores, or maybe cotton?  No, we should be thankful for liquor, specifically whiskey.  

Craddocks Whiskey and Liquors was the largest direct to consumer shipper of whiskey in the South by the start of the 1900s.  Craddock was well known for having the best whiskeys and Cuban cigars. Mr. Craddock was making massive amounts of money until one historical point in history arrived, Prohibition.  He quickly sold off his inventory and retired to Denver, Colorado. He returned to Dallas often, including the visit he made to gift the park to the City. The one condition: it would be a public park. In 1922, the land was valued at about $90,000. Adjusting for inflation, that would be $1.6 million in today’s dollars, but it’s doubtful that it would sell for that little in today’s real estate market.

Mr. Craddock was a great Dallas philanthropist in many other ways. In addition to giving the parkland, he worked with other civic leaders to help establish the Texas State Fair at the current fairgrounds. He opened a theater on the second floor of his liquor business on Main Steet. The Dallas Opera used this space from 1878 to 1883. The opera house was rather primitive and only held 500 seats, yet it kept the company together to thrive and it brought international artists to the City. He was also a senior member of the Dallas Lodge of Odd Fellows, which is philanthropic club that is still active in Dallas today. He held a deep belief that he had a responsibility to improve the lives of others.

Around the turn of the century, Mr. Craddock moved the business to a larger building at 911 Elm St. This building still stands today. The name of one of the more recent owners, Milliniar’s Supply Company, is still painted on the front. Mr. Craddock’s turn-of-the-century home at Ervay and Cadiz St. has long since been torn down. After his first wife’s death, Mr. Craddock married Mattie Long in 1881 and then after he was widowed a second time he married Belle Christy Craddock. He died in 1933, three days before the repeal of Prohibition.

Mr. Craddock would be disappointed that his donated park would be threatened several times over the following 100 years. First, in 1966, the city built a tollway along the unused Cotton Belt Railway that ran behind Perry Heights and the park. Dallas North Tollway bought 91,881 square feet of the park to put in exit and entrance ramps. Dallas sold that land for $213,762. (In 1970, the City park board decided to hold some of this money, along with donations from other private businesses in a park fund totalling $200,000.)

In 1985, developer Harvey McLean had plans to build a small “city” on 41 acres near the corner of Lemmon Avenue and the Tollway that would have taken even more of Craddock Park for an additional exit ramp. Thankfully, Cay Kolb, a Perry Heights resident at the time, led the charge to have the plan rejected by the city.

The park has held many memories for nearby residents. They remember the formal rose garden from the 1940’s to the 1960’s, the baseball diamond, the playground with a merry-go-round, and the picnics. Some residents even chose to have their ashes spread in the park. It is up to our neighborhood to preserve and improve this gift of a park so future generations can enjoy this slice of nature and a place to walk and sit under the trees.

The Preservationist

4403 Rawlins as it looks today

Catherine (“Cay”) and Nathaniel (“Key”) Kolb moved into the house at 4402 Rawlins in 1964 and in it raised three boys and three girls. They had met in Dallas in 1958 while Cay, who had just graduated from Drake University in Des Moines, was working as a buyer for Sanger-Harris and Key had just graduated from Texas A&M University. After receiving his Master of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania, Key began a distinguished career with the Omniplan firm designing commercial retail, office, and university buildings nationwide and serving as the firm’s president from 1972 to 2000. Key was president of The Institute of Architects in 1979 and was active in Dallas civic affairs such as urban design, historic preservation, the arts, and the environment. Key Kolb also served on various boards such as the Urban Design Task Force, Neighborhood Conservation Alliance, Dallas Ballet, Fidelity Bank, Peacock Alley, and DART. He served as chairman of the Dallas Historical Landmark Committee, helping the West End, Cedar Springs Fire Station, and the Mobil Building achieve landmark status. One of the couple’s three sons was Franklin Dial “Bubba Kolb”, a jazz pianist, and trombonist who, from 1975 to 1981, led a jazz trio, “The Bubba Kolb Trio.”

Cay shared many of the same interests and devoted herself to civic contributions in order to preserve and protect inner-city neighborhoods and advance the quality of life for its residents. She started by joining a few others in forming the Oak Lawn Preservation Society in 1973. The Society was formed in response to increased commercial development efforts to redevelop Oak Lawn’s quiet neighborhoods, such as turning Turtle Creek Boulevard into a highway. She became a neighborhood activist and community leader fighting for responsible land use, public transportation, airport noise abatement, and zoning.

In the 1970s, several houses bordering Perry Heights on Lemmon, Cedar Springs, and below Wycliff were being demolished and replaced with strip malls, fast-food businesses, and office space. The entire area was declining with absentee landlords not keeping up their properties, and an increase in crime, drugs, and prostitution. The Kolbs knew they would have to protect Perry Heights and the surrounding area so they formed what would become the Perry Heights Neighborhood Association. Their first challenge involved a house in the 4400 block of Vandelia, owned by an absentee landlord that had inherited the property and wanted to offer the house as a transitional home for recovering addicts that would spend six months living in the house. Their group raised money for an attorney and successfully denied the owner that specific use of the home. Cay and Key also knew they need to restrict access through the neighborhood if they were going to preserve it, so they worked toward closing off three intersections on Herschel and Prescott to vehicular traffic. They were finally successful in 1975 after some opposition from outside interests and even a lawsuit brought on by other Perry Heights residents. They first began with barriers and then after the city council approved it, the neighborhood created concrete curbs with flower beds that cut off the streets to traffic. The Kolbs and 100 other neighbors celebrated with a block party while a few longtime neighbors who objected continued to complain. Later, in the 1980s, another push to cut off pedestrian traffic at those intersections was also successful, led mostly by David Wagner and other neighbors to further reduce crime in the still transitional neighborhood.

In the early 1980’s Cay also thwarted attempts by one developer to take additional land from Craddock Park to create a northbound entrance to the Dallas North Tollway and another developer to build a large-scale rental development on Lemmon.

The then-owner of the plantation-style house on the corner of Rawlins and Hawthorn was the Director of the Dallas Museum of Art at the time and was also involved in that fight. When his family left the neighborhood, he gifted his neighbors a drawing showing how much he appreciated the strength of the neighborhood association in preserving Perry Heights. One of our neighbors found it in a recent estate sale.

Cay was involved in the Dallas Homeowners League, Love Field Citizens Action Committee to hold Love Field accountable for airplane noise, Friends of the Katy Trail, and the Oak Lawn Preservation Society. Cay spearheaded the push for the Katy Trail, starting with a petition and then pushing the new trail through the city. Cay was also behind the first tree preservation ordinances in the City of Dallas. She played a vital role in developing the master plan for Oak Lawn known as Oak Lawn Planned Development District No. 193, which was designed to protect the neighborhoods of Oak Lawn and provide limitations on new commercial development. PD 193 is still in effect today and the committee that Cay formed is upheld by the Oaklawn Committee. She was the chairperson and president through the 1980s and 1990s.

Cay was also involved in some controversies in her time.

She was the OLC president in 1991 when a push from the city council representative, Lori Palmer, to hold bars in her Oak Lawn district, which included many gay bars, to conform more to PD-193 by providing more parking for patrons. This caused many gay bar owners and gay rights activists to protest. Cay stated that this was not a targeted gay community issue, but unfortunately, it was taken as one. One of those bar owners was another Perry Heights resident, Howard Okon. The campaign was soon dropped. In recalling the controversy, Howard stated, “Cay was a tough cookie, but we always got along great. She had no problems with the gays.”

The Kolbs led the adoption of the Rawlins Conservation District in the early 2000s. Initially, the Kolbs and a few other neighbors wanted to preserve the character of Perry Heights by changing the zoning for the entire neighborhood into a conservation district. There was a great deal of opposition from homeowners on Hall and Vandelia streets. Those residents were concerned that they would be limited in what improvements they could make to their homes. After months of contentious meetings, the Kolbs along with supporters living on Rawlins decided to break off and make Rawlins the one street in the neighborhood protected by a conservation district. Some homeowners on Hall and Vandelia felt either abandoned by that decision or upset that a conservation district was pushed, and blamed the Kolbs. Still, the decades-long work that Cay and Key put into preserving Perry Heights as a quiet spot within Oak Lawn and establishing PD 193 has helped save Perry Heights from being transformed by developers in ways we see every day in the areas surrounding us. We continue to be a smaller, but cohesive, historic neighborhood at 100 years and counting.

Cay and Key were married for over 47 years until Key’s death in 2006. Cay passed away in 2014.

Cay Kolb deserves a collective thank you from each of us who enjoy this special neighborhood, Perry Heights. We also should feel a responsibility to preserve it and protect it for future generations.

Perry Heights Grocery?

Advertisement for Dallas Grocery Stores from 1939 in the Dallas Morning News

Perry Heights Grocery opened in 1929 just outside the neighborhood down Wycliff on the corner of Hartford boasting of their new refrigeration system. Felix Alfieri was the owner of the grocery which was a two-story building with the grocery on the ground floor and an apartment on the second. The grocery was sold to James DiCarlo in the early 1940’s. His name may sound familiar. James is the “Jimmy” of Jimmy’s Italian Grocery on Bryon Street in East Dallas.

James DiCarlo and his father bought Morningside Super Market on 2nd Avenue in Dallas as well as Perry Heights Grocery on Wycliff. Shortly thereafter in 1946, James met Marie Anna Duca and married her. James and Marie lived above the Perry Heights Grocery and started a family. She made a good meatball from her family’s recipes and James started selling them in his grocery. They kept the grocery until the 1950’s when the pair concentrated on Morningside and in 1966 opened Jimmy’s Food Store.

So, yes, there was a Perry Heights Grocery at one time and you can still find Marie’s meatballs at Jimmy’s, where the family is still running the now Italian-focused grocery.

Save Perry Heights

Home of first Perry Heights resident, Mr. and Mrs. Milburn Hobson after being model home for summer campaign.

“Fighting for your neighborhood is just a part of living in this area of town,” said Wendell Patterson, incoming president of the Perry Heights Association, an Oaklawn neighborhood interested in the proposed ordinance. “If you don’t fight, you’ll wake up some morning and find you’re being bulldozed.” February 10, 1986

The proposed ordinance he was discussing would allow areas that have significant architectural or cultural attributes to become conservation districts. They would be similar to historical districts, yet not need to be as old or stately, and the restrictions on owners’ rights on what they can do with their homes would be much less rigid. Rawlins Street eventually became a conservation district that would help protect the street from future development. 

There have been several times Perry Heights had to fight. Here is a quick timeline of some of the events when our Perry Heights Neighborhood Association was essential in giving us a voice. 

1975– Perry Heights neighbors get three street closure barriers to traffic approved and installed. The traffic cutting through our neighborhood was so bad during the construction of the Wycliff/ Douglas split construction to the tollway entrance that neighbors had trouble crossing the street in their neighborhood. After the barriers, the traffic was cut to a quarter of what it was. 

1985 – Keeping Craddock Park Intact.  A developer wanted to create an extensive mixed-use project that included building a tollbooth and a northbound entrance to the tollway using more of Craddock Park.  The neighborhood had to hire an attorney to prevent this from happening and eventually the project was defeated.  Key and Cay Kolb along with many others in the neighborhood are credited with protecting our neighborhood and the park. 

1987-91 – The same developer who was defeated foreclosed on the buildings in the planned block creating a slum that was described as a war zone, Beirut, and a drug-infested eyesore just over the tollway from Perry Heights at 4500 Cedar Springs. prostitution was also so common that the city was considering posting the names of the “johns” arrested each week. 

2001– A serial arsonist had set several fires in and around Perry Heights before spreading to East Dallas. The arsonist was eventually caught and prosecuted. 

2001– Perry Heights Neighborhood Association and the Oaklawn Committee defeat tearing down what was described as the last historic block in Oak Lawn along Rawlins for a townhouse complex.  The defeat was only temporary. The city eventually allowed developers to take pieces of the block and built a few different townhouse complexes. 

2012– Developers started an apartment project on Wycliff and Cedar Springs. The developer worked with the Oaklawn committee as well as the Perry Heights Neighborhood Association to come to some concessions on heights, access, and parking. Nancy and Howard Weinberger were essential in representing our neighborhood’s concerns to a better outcome. 

As Mr. Patterson told us, there are bound to be challenging times in our neighborhood’s future. It is so important to stay involved and know our neighbors.  Perry Heights is a rare, 100-year-old idea of a beautiful urban neighborhood and it will take us all to protect it and nurture it so future families can enjoy it.  Please be involved in the board, committees, and events in the coming year to build a more vital Perry Heights. Make an effort to meet your neighbors and talk about how unique this lovely six-block retreat is to us. 

Gone, but not forgotten

The house was built in 1924 and almost made its 100th birthday. The house will be demolished due to fire and structural damage over the last few years and a new chapter at that address will begin. Luckily, current Perry Heights residents have purchased the lot and will be rebuilding in 2023.

However, for close to 70 years, the house was home to the Chantly’s who are best known as the owners of one of Dallas’ favorite seafood restaurants of the 1950’s and 1960’s on Lemmon Ave.

James Nicholas Chantly, the son of Nicholaos and Maria Tsantili of Terpsithea, Nafpaktos, Greece immigrated to the U.S. in 1909 when he was 17 and lived in Fort Worth, Texas with distant relatives. He worked hard and learned the restaurant business and planned to open his own restaurant. He returned to Greece to meet Vassiliki Panayotou of Patras, Greece (close to his hometown) and eventually married his young wife in Athens in 1945 and took her back to Texas. They opened Chantly’s Seafood on Lemmon Ave at Throckmorton in Dallas (where Taco Cabana stands today) which served mostly fried seafood. The restaurant was packed especially on Friday nights with patrons vying for a table. James and Vassiliki raised a family of two boys (Christos and Nicholas) and two girls (Maria and Pauline) in Perry Heights. The Chantlys were also involved members of the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church. The children went to T.J. Rusk and North Dallas High School with Chris on the football team and Maria on the Vikingetts drill team. The family lived in the Perry Heights home from the 1950s through 2022 when it was sold.

James bought the land and ran the restaurant from the late 1940s through the 1960’s. The restaurant had a huge second floor used for parties and groups where several special occasions in Dallas took place. James passed away in 1976 at 84 and his wife passed away in 1994 at age 85. In the years following, two of the three remaining children who inherited the home resided there. They died in 2019 and 2021, leaving only one surviving daughter who lived elsewhere in Texas to sell the home. The land where the original restaurant sat, is now a Taco Cabana and is still owned by the family.

The Perry Estate

The first photographed meeting of the Perry Heights neighbors

The Perry Estate facing Craddock Park

This photo was taken in the dining room of the neighborhood founder and resident, Gordon Perry Estate with what is believed to be the neighbors at the time. The second photo is colorized to show details of the subjects and the room.

The Perrys sold the big home and briefly lived in the house at 4327 Rawlins before moving to San Angelo. The estate has since been demolished in the 1960’s and now is the site of townhouse condominiums.

Thank you to Gordon Perry III for the family photos.

The Opera Stars in the Kitchen

3327 Prescott as it looks today

If you were lucky enough to get an invitation, your senses would be overwhelmed with garlic, lemons, and sweet oregano while listening to the chic couple talk about their adventures living all over Europe, singing in the most beautiful opera houses, and probably tennis. Plato and Dorothy Karayanis loved to entertain in their condominium at 3327 Prescott in Park Place. He came to Dallas hired by the Dallas Opera as the General Director to save it in 1977. The Opera company was at a low point financially and needed some new ideas to survive. Plato was able to increase donations tenfold and take the budget from $1.29 million for 12 performances of four operas to a budget of $9.5 million for 21 performances of five operas achieving record ticket sales with one of the highest subscription audiences in the country.

Plato was born in Pittsburg, PA. His parents were immigrants from Cyprus and Mytilene (Lesbos) and married and settled in Pittsburg. Plato was brought up bilingual and his mother made sure he knew how to cook the Greek classics. After seeing his first opera, La Boheme in high school, Plato became a member of the Pittsburg Civic Light Opera upon graduation and began training for a life in Opera. He worked his way through college studying voice and opera. One of his scholarships was to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where while learning stage directing, he met the love of his life, Dorothy Krebill.

Dorothy was a mezzo-soprano and soon after she married Plato in 1956, they went to Europe for eight years performing in opera houses in Germany and Switzerland. Dorothy and Plato then moved to San Fransico in 1964 where Plato started his management career. They joined the Metropolitan Opera National Company in 1965 where she was a leading mezzo-soprano and he was an assistant stage director and administrative assistant. Plato joined Affiliate Artists, Inc in 1967 before becoming the General Director for the fledging Dallas Opera in 1977 and staying 23 years to build it into a stunning success.

Plato and Dorothy

Neighbors knew Plato by his bright orange BMW pulling into the complex and often washing and polishing that car on weekends. He loved tennis and regularly had tennis workouts until he was 89. He loved classical music, jazz, and hand-tailored suits. Dorothy was often compared to Mary Tyler Moore because of her beauty and her bright, dazzling smile. She loved to cook, entertain her friends, and of course, opera. Both Dorothy and Plato were also involved, neighborhood activists in Perry Heights, and often had their neighbors over for those delicious Greek feasts they both would prepare.

Plato retired in 2000, and the couple moved to Sante Fe, NM, and was active in the opera company and other arts groups there for years. Plato passed away in April of 2022 due to cancer complications and was survived by his wife of 65 years, Dorothy. The couple was known for their gracious hospitality and outgoing spirit. We should all be so lucky to have a couple like the Karayanis as neighbors, however, they give all of Dallas the gift of a world-class opera company.

Better Together: Perry Heights and Our Heroes

This drawing was a gift to Perry Heights’ neighbors commissioned by Harry S. Parker, a past 13-year resident of the Plantation Style home at Hawthorne and Rawlins. It depicts the neighborhood’s activism against greedy developers. Mr. Parker was the Director of the Dallas Museum of Art.

Over the years, the lush, peaceful Perry Heights neighborhood we see today has seen plenty of challenges. As the neighborhood turns 100, it’s good to look back at some of the challenges our neighborhood has faced over the years.

From the beginning of our neighborhood in the Roaring ’20s to today, we are celebrating what our founder, Gordon Perry, dreamed of: a well-built, brick neighborhood that attracts people from every stage of life and various economic backgrounds into a true urban dream neighborhood where we can enjoy attractive tree-lined streets, gardens, and friendly neighbors. Without air conditioning, the original homes had sleeping porches to use in the summer to catch a breeze. This was the inspiration for the Perry Heights advertising slogan, “Cool at Nights.”

The ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s were a time of togetherness and community, with neighbors giving each other wedding showers, holding weddings in their homes, sending men to fight in WWII, and caring for war widows. After the war, a surge of children in the neighborhood would constantly be playing in front yards and in the park. But as we know, every neighborhood has cycles.

The late ’60s and ’70s were a difficult period for Perry Heights and the Oak Lawn neighborhood. As in the rest of the country, white flight and panic over integrated schools drove families into the nearby suburbs. Areas in and around Oak Lawn became less desirable. Many of the homes in the neighborhood turned into rentals and their tidy appearance began to suffer. Counterculture types such as hippies and artists, attracted to the low rents, began to move into the area. The decline in value also attracted developers who wanted to buy up lots, demolish homes, and build more dense apartment buildings. About this time developers purchased the old Perry Estate and eventually tore it down and built Park Place condominiums in 1968. Developers demolished most of the homes around Perry Heights along Lemmon and Cedar Springs by the mid-1970s and built apartment buildings, retail strip centers, and fast food businesses. The Wycliff-Douglas couplet that was created to connect the Dallas North Tollway to U.S. 75 (Central Expressway) had already claimed 30 homes in Oak Lawn that had to be demolished for the project. The increase in density also brought crime, traffic, homelessness, and prostitution into the neighborhood streets.

In the 1970s, the neighborhood faced a new challenge. An absentee owner had inherited his parent’s home in the 4400 block of Vandelia. He was offered significant rental income to turn the home into a group home or halfway house. Because our neighborhood is zoned for single-family use, the neighbors hired an attorney and fought successfully to keep this type of housing category out of the neighborhood.

It was around this time that a group of Perry Heights neighbors also realized that they needed to do something to protect what was left of Perry Heights and preserve the peaceful, quiet community they knew. They banded together and, in a two-year struggle, were able to convince the city to close off vehicular traffic with curbed diverters at three intersections: Herschel and Lemmon, Herschel and Cedar Springs, and Prescott and Lemmon. Not everyone in Perry Heights was in favor of the closures, but 90% were, according to the petition. The closures reduced cross-traffic by an estimated 6,000-8,000 cars per day and helped unite the neighborhood. A block party with entertainment by the Paul Guerro Orchestra celebrated the achievement. Thus, 1974 saw the beginnings of what would become the Perry Heights Neighborhood Association.

Neighbors had other concerns including the noise from Love Field airport. Oak Lawn Residents began what was called the Oak Lawn Preservation Society in 1973 to fight some of these local problems. The founder and many of the members were also Perry Heights residents.

In 1985, the neighborhood thwarted an attempt by a developer to take additional land from Craddock Park to create a northbound entrance to the Dallas North Tollway and build a large-scale rental development between Lemmon and Cedar Springs. The Springs project was defeated by the neighborhood opposition. The Springs was developed, but in a much more pared-down form and without the tollway entrance ramp or the retail plan.

In 1985, the neighborhood formed the Perry Heights Neighborhood Association (PHNA) making everyone who owns a home in Perry Heights an automatic member of the association.

By 1991, absentee apartment building owners and the real estate crash left buildings and construction projects surrounding Perry Heights abandoned. This created more serious urban problems such as drug houses, prostitution, and increased homelessness. The city didn’t have the money to raze the two dozen buildings on 17 acres beginning with 4500 Cedar Springs Road that, according to news articles, was referred to as Beruit, because the area looked like the bombed-out remnants of war. It would take another decade for the area to be rebuilt.

It was during this time that PHNA began working with the city and had fundraisers such as neighborhood sales and other events to build the walls at the blocked intersections. The intent was to stop the flow of pedestrians from Cedar Springs and Lemmon by way of Prescott and Herschel. This goal was finally achieved in 1995 when the city conditionally deeded the dead-end streets to the Association. The conditions include keeping the Association active, maintaining the walls and streets, paying property taxes, and carrying liability insurance. Much appreciation goes to David Wagner and John Mahoney for making certain many of these conditions have continued through the years with the voluntary contributions from the neighborhood residents.

By the 1990’s, Oak Lawn had become a destination for the GLBTQ population in Dallas. Many whom had been renters were now purchasing homes in Perry Heights and renovating them. This new gay wave in the area was not without some controversy. So many gays and lesbians were moving to Perry Heights that it was often referred to as Fairy Heights.

With the increase in renovations in the neighborhood, some residents began pushing for a Conservation District to preserve the look and feel of the neighborhood. Although noble in theory, some homeowners did not want a committee restricting what they could build or how their homes should look. The Association experienced its first “civil war.” Ironically, the same owner that wanted the group home on Vandelia, demolished that house and began building a house that many felt did not share the same character of the neighborhood. During the quarrels and calls for code enforcement, a group of Rawlins residents splintered off and established a Rawlins-only Conservation District in 2007. This left some neighbors feeling abandoned and bitter.

There was a call for significant change to the PHNA bylaws at that time. The change in articles of the Association’s updated bylaws was to be more equal in the representation of the entire neighborhood and more transparent and inclusive. Current resident, Howard Weinberger, along with David Ellis, Weston Woods, and Mike Sawicki were the architects of the updated bylaws. Since the unification of our Board, the Association has successfully worked with the developer of a townhouse project at the edge of Perry Heights at Wycliff and Vandelia and the apartment building on Wycliff and Cedar Springs to alter the plans to be less impactful to our neighborhood. Many Perry Heights residents are also members of the Oak Lawn Committee, which is designed to protect the Planned Development District 193 district (est 1985) and work with developers requesting variances on projects in Oak Lawn. This district stretching from downtown to Inwood has different zoning and building restrictions than other districts within Dallas. The neighborhood around us has become more gentrified and this has lulled many in the neighborhood into a false sense of security and, unfortunately, apathy. This is troubling as there is a significant uptick in development in the last few years.

We have recently elected a new Perry Heights Neighborhood Association board. They will serve an important role in protecting and preserving Perry Heights for generations to come.

While it’s impossible to note every neighbor who fought to protect Perry Heights over the decades, there are numerous past neighbors whose names, initiative, and leadership should not be forgotten:

Celeste and Paul Guerro, Ann & Bill Gilliland, Brian Hayes, Plato and Dorothy Karayanis, Cay and Key Kolb, Howard Okon, Harry S. Parker, Patsy and Arch Swank, Patricia Evans, and Stephen Rosenthal .

There are also many neighbors that are still in Perry Heights and continue to fight for our neighborhood.

We owe each of them our thanks and our appreciation for being active and taking their time, concern, and resources to preserve our unique neighborhood.

Marvelously Modern in a 1930’s bungalow

Austin, Chris, Parker, and Bentley ( photography by William Bichara Photography)

Austin and Chris moved into their 1931 bungalow on Vandelia in 2020 and have already transformed the house into a stylish home. The house reflects the young couple’s fresh sense of style. It’s also a testament to how to retain the charm of the past while still accommodating modern needs.

As soon as they saw the white cottage and opened the door to the expansive living area and then caught a glimpse of the backyard pool, they were hooked on this house. The pool needed work with its old coping and cracked concrete and the largest bedroom was still tiny without access to a bath, but they knew the bones were there. They made the changes to the primary bedroom, borrowing spaces and creating a fabulous owner’s suite with a walkout onto the pool deck. They then took a while to decide on the main color of the home, which would be painted everywhere for cohesion. (They finally decided on Ibis White by Sherwin Williams, by the way) The decorating began at that point. All whites and creamy neutrals give the interiors a California coastal look, especially with the light wood flooring.

The couple loves to gather around the fireplace in the colder months and watch television on the sectional and then spend most of the warmer months around the pool and outdoor decks, entertaining.

Chris enjoys pairing up high and low-end items to give the home a relaxed and lived-in vibe. Not only the placement of items, but the fragrance is important to him as well. You will find perfectly placed, luxury candles in every room. There is a front den off the living room where you can entertain a few friends and see the neighbors walk by. The guest house is a favorite of anyone visiting since it shows a sense of fun and you almost expect to look out the window and see the waves come softly up the sand. Of course what you do see is a chic, perfectly arranged pool with loungers, a table shaded by a pergola, usually set for an alfresco meal.

The bedrooms carry an airy, casual vibe throughout the house.

The office, although lovely, is the next to get a makeover into more of a sophisticated gentlemen’s lounge where you could choose from collected bourbons and have conversations. The house is perfectly dreamy and perfect for this busy, professional couple.

The Collector

The 1923 built house at 4415 Vandelia as it looks today after an expansion and renovation.

Edgar Lee Smith moved into the house at 4415 Vandelia with his mother, Ethel Smith, in 1955 when he was 28 years old. He had just received his MA from the University of Texas after graduating from SMU with his BA. Before he could obtain a higher education, he served in the Navy during World War II. The family had just lost their father, Ray V. Smith, and moved out of the family home at 1820 North Pearl St., now the site of the Myerson Symphony Theater. Ray was a shipping manager for Western Union Paper in downtown Dallas. The family had already lost their other son, Ray Jr., who was two years older than Edgar, in France during WWII.

Edgar in his latter years in his home filled with Antiques
Article reporting on first Gay Rights March in Dallas demanding Equal Rights

Edgar’s mother had some medical issues and Edgar always made his mother his first priority since it was just down to the two of them. Ethel was very involved in the Gold Star Mother’s Organization and became the Dallas Chapter President. They both enjoyed searching for antiques and spent their days looking for the perfect additions to their collections. Edgar also had a passion for bromeliad plants and began collecting several varieties along with orchids. Edgar would persuade his friends to go on road trips just over the border in Mexico so he could find new plants to add to his collection. After several years, he formed the Dallas-Ft. Worth Bromeliad Society served as President and then was voted into the International Society, serving as Director, Vice President, and President between 1974 and 1987. He also enjoyed hybridizing bromeliads and served as a judge in regional shows into the 1990s. Bromeliads encompass over 3,000 different species, the pineapple being the most recognized.

His friend, Jim Apkin, recalls that Edgar was a bit of a loner, and wasn’t much of a drinker or barhopper, however, he loved going to the movies. Edgar most likely avoided bars in the 1950s and 1960s known to be requested by gay men for fear of being raided, beaten, and outed. Edgar also enjoyed going to parties with his friends who appreciated his very dry sense of humor. He enjoyed being a member of the leather community of Dallas, which at the time was very underground, gathering in private residences and using speakeasy codewords to enter parties. He and his friends were very involved politically in Dallas and fought for better treatment of gays by the city and the police. At that time in the 1960s and 1970s, it was still against the law in conservative Dallas for gay men to drink, dance, dress in non-gender-conforming clothes, and kiss in public. Police raids were carried out frequently to suppress attendance in what was known to be gay establishments. Being arrested meant having your name listed in the crime section of the newspaper and being fired from your job or being turned out by your family.

After his mother passed away, he lived with his collection of antiques and his plants in the Vandelia house. He drove well into his 80s and all of the neighbors knew him by his large green 1970 Chevrolet Impala sedan. Because voting for the candidate that has the best interests of the community is so important, he was at the Oaklawn Library volunteering as an election worker for every election. Several neighbors on Vandelia routinely checked in on him and helped him when needed. When he died in 2014, his collections were actioned off and his house was sold. The house still has the front facade that it did when Edgar lived there and the small oak tree twigs he planted when he first moved there in 1955 are huge and still strain for more room in the parkway in front of the house.