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, progressive-minded, with a great sense of humor. Arch jokingly referred to his home as a mid-continental, crude style, probably because it was not in the style of his modernist esthetic. He and Patsy did enjoy living in the home, staying there through the 1980s, and raising their children Before he purchased the home, he designed the home across the street at 4335 Rawlins for Miss Frances Thompson in 1954. The Swanks loved that the home had plenty of room for their family and there were several families with children in the neighborhood at that time.
Arch was an award-winning architect with his own firm that designed Wynnwood and Preston Center shopping centers, the Texas Instruments complex, as well as beautiful modernist residential homes in Dallas. Early in his career, he designed and oversaw the Little Chapel of the Woods in Denton which was always his favorite project. Patsy was an award-winning journalist for The Dallas News before starting her family. She was credited for alerting Life Magazine about the existence of the Zapruder film after the Kennedy assassination. She was then an arts reporter at KERA and later had her own show, “Swank in the Arts” where she was the writer and producer.
Arch and Patsy had strong moral standards when it came to their community. Arch was credited with refusing to redesign Parkland Hospital in the 1950s with a separate entrance for Black patients as well as insisting the charity ward was air-conditioned, which was not in the original plan. He and Patsy also opposed the City of Dallas’ plan to enlarge Turtle Creek Boulevard into a six-lane thoroughfare for faster access to downtown and formed the Save Turtle Creek Committee which led the effort to oppose this widening plan. Ultimately, the boulevard between Blackburn and Routh streets was widened, but with a larger median, and saving more mature trees, while giving the community more say in its design. The Swank’s involvement caused Arch’s firm to be fired from all future projects by Neiman Marcus since Stanley Marcus was a supporter of the plan. Arch and Patsy had the courage to speak up when nobody else would. Their commitment to high ethical and moral standards continues to make life a lot better for the rest of us.
Patsy served on the board of directors of the Dallas Art Magnet School, co-founded Aids/Arms, one of the first public AIDS services in Dallas, and served on that board for six years. She also initiated one of the first arts magazines in Dallas. Arch served on the Allied Arts of Dallas, Dallas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, The Charter League, and The Dallas Jazz Society. Arch passed away in 1999 and Patsy passed away in 2006.
Patsy was a good friend of my mother and Arch of my father. Their son was a playmate of my brother. We lived a block away. I never new how important they were for the community. Thanks for posting this story