While driving around Highland Park last month, I noticed signage popping up (often alongside vibrant blooming azaleas) that caught my eye. The signage denoted the home as a “Park Cities Centennial Home.”
During Preservation Month, Preservation Park Cities delivered these signs to the remarkable number of Park Cities residences — 62 and counting!— celebrating their 100th birthday. Built in 1926, “during one of the neighborhood’s most architecturally vibrant decades,” these homes introduced a wave of Spanish Revival, Colonial Revival, and Tudor designs, “as the Park Cities matured into the garden suburb its founders envisioned,” according to the Preservation Quarterly spring newsletter.
Preservation Park Cities’ mission is to celebrate and promote the preservation of Park Cities architecture, history, aesthetics, and cultural traditions. As a native Dallasite who loves history, architecture, aesthetics, and cultural traditions — count me in! I recently dipped my toe into the community by attending a members-only Candlelight Cocktails and Conversation happy hour.
In addition to the promise of an evening devoted to the art of preservation, I feel quite certain I know one core reason the event was so heavily attended (by the most punctual of crowds). The event took place in one of the most dazzling and spectacular homes in all of Dallas.
Architect Peter Pennoyer and interior designer Ashley Avrea Cathey reimagined the Hollywood Regency-style Dallas home owned by Jeremy & Cate Ford. So astounding was the preservation that Architectural Digest even featured “the century-old Hollywood Regency grand dame in Dallas’s tony Highland Park enclave.”
Architectural Digest praised the home’s “restrained glamour and easy elegance, with gentle touches of whimsy and fantasy thrown in too.” Guests, myself included, meandered through each room (shoutout to the aubergine lacquered lounge!), marveling at the quality and craftsmanship in each choice and how it was brought to life.
A peek inside the Highland Park jewel, originally designed by architect Wilson McClure as his personal residence, more than justified the membership fee to join Preservation Park Cities (general memberships start at $250 for two people). Many members buzzed from room to room, while others held court in the magnificent “White Chocolate”-colored main living room to have a prime seat for the speaking moments from Jason Morski, President of Preservation Park Cities.
The evening also included a special surprise when Lindsey Doramus presented the Tie Davis Preservation Award to board member Christina Dandar (a.k.a. “The Potted Boxwood“). Dandar remarked that when she first joined Preservation Park Cities, the organization’s Instagram account had just over 200 followers; it now has nearly 12,000. “I stepped into the social media role after feeling heartbroken watching the beloved yellow Hal Thomson home on Beverly come down. I wanted to do more — to help raise awareness for the architectural treasures disappearing around us and remind people that once these homes are gone, there is no true way to replace them.”
Dandar, who recently moved from Dallas to Connecticut, wrote on Instagram, “Preservation in Dallas feels at a pivotal moment. The passion is there. The awareness is growing. Now is the time to turn that momentum into meaningful change.”
One thing’s for sure. 100 years old has never looked more glamorous!
PC Seen: Connie Harkins, Doug Newby, Courtney Petit, Rebecca and Harry Slack, Lauren and Porter Fuqua, Carolyn McCartney Colbert, Mallory Colbert, Rachel and Chris Trowbridge, Angie and Brad Iles, Mary Catherine Bishop, Rylie Davis, Wendy and Phil Hansen, Kathryn and Richard Jodry, Bob and Barbara Sypult, Sara Fay and Merrick Egan, and Meredith Ferrell.