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, …
Category Archives: Houses with History
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 …
Deep Roots in Perry Heights
William R Gilliland (Bill) lost his father when he was two. He was raised by his mother along with his younger sister Ann at 4511 N. Hall. He attended SMU where he met his future wife, Patricia. Bill’s father, Roy Chester Gilliland was only 39 when he died. Roy Gilliland was born in 1890 to …
The Movie Star’s Family
The blue-tile roofed home at 4433 Rawlins St. was designed by Sadler & Russell, architects and constructed by H. F. Self and Son, contractors, for owner Jack P. Burrus. To the new owners, the Maloney’s, it was a larger home than the one at 4332 Livingston where, until the late 1940’s, they raised their family. …
Service and Sacrifice, A Perry Heights Family
We hear Gus Thomasson’s name almost every day on the news in connection with the road that is named after him. However, Gus Thomasson and his family gave so much to North Texas and our country. Not only is he a historic figure, but a famous past resident of Perry Heights. Gustavus “Gus” Winzo Thomasson …
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The Artist of Perry Heights
Rosealie Speed was an early Texas artist, painting professionally since 1929, who has one painting in the permanent collection of the Dallas Museum of Art. She has had exhibitions in the museums of San Francisco, Kansas City, Panhandle Plains, and Tyler, Texas. Her favorite subjects were landscapes and flowers and favoring oil and watercolors. She …
The Perry Heights Power Couple
Arch and Patsy Swank moved into this large craftsman, Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired home at 4316 Rawlins with over 6,000 square feet built in 1944 with a huge front porch to accommodate their family of four children in the Spring of 1958. They were a Perry Heights super couple. Both were known to be smart, cultured, …
The Most Fabulous Party Planner in Dallas
The most fabulous event planner in Dallas! Perry Heights was home to one of the most sought-after men for decades. He lived at 4322 Rawlins with his life partner, Earl E. Jones in the ’50s and ’60s. In the 1960s, no one who was anyone gave a party in Dallas without calling Harry Bullard. It …
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Perry Height’s Last Known Debutante
In 1936, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Irwin Payne hired architect, Ralph Bryan, to design their home at 4524 Rawlins Street in the style of a Louisiana plantation home. They toured several Louisiana plantation homes to collect what Mr. Payne wanted in his own home. The site was at the corner of Rawlins and Hawthorne, right …