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 …
Category Archives: Houses with History
The Preservationist
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 …
The Opera Stars in the Kitchen
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 …
The Collector
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 …
Perry Heights Home of Oak Lawn Pioneer
Llora Cullum Pierce moved into this home at 4322 Hall Street in 1924 when she was 59, with her three children after her husband died after two years of ill health in 1923. Her husband was Rev. John Foster Pierce who taught at Southern Methodist University since 1920 after preaching all across Texas in various …
The Flamenco Genius on Vandelia Street
Eddie Freeman was a noted English jazz musician of the first half of the 20th century (1909-1957) and a transcriber and teacher of flamenco music in the latter half (1957- 1987) while living in Perry Heights in Dallas. Edward J. Freeman was born in London and ran away from home at 14 and survived by playing …
Edward Gordon Perry, Sr.
Edward Gordon Perry grew up in a little town called Woodville, Tennessee, about two hours east of Memphis. As a young man in 1908, he moved to El Paso and was the first businessman in El Paso to begin selling Fords in 1912 (the model T type) along with his brother-in-law. Three years later he …
The Master Gardeners of Perry Heights
We appreciate the annuals and beautiful trees in our neighborhood, however, our neighborhood has had quite a history of Master Gardeners and flower gardens. Craddock Park was known in the 1930’s for the massive rose garden that was maintained by the Women’s Garden Club. The rose garden would get 1000’s of visitors a year. Unfortunately, …
House of Lila
In 1927, after a bitter, ugly divorce, Lila Adams Titley took her two young children and moved from Oklahoma to Dallas to carve out a new life for the three of them. She went into business as an interior decorator and raised her children in Perry Heights at 4412 Rawlins. She opened her business at …
The House with the Best Plumbing
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 …