Are you ready for the fall tour?
Save the date for the Fall Architecture Tour coming up in October! This year the tour will feature Modern Masterpieces from the 1950s the 1970s designed by significant architects. The collection on the tour will feature a broad spectrum of mid-century residences across Dallas highlighting the amazing modern design of these impressive homes with unique architectural details created specifically for these masterpieces. More details will be coming soon!

Photo by Stephen Reed.
Get Up and Give to Support Preservation Dallas!
Next month North Texas Giving Day will be here with another opportunity to support the many outstanding nonprofits in North Texas, and we hope that Preservation Dallas will be one of your top choices! On September 19th, if you donate to Preservation Dallas on NorthTexasGivingDay.org between 6am and midnight, your dollar with be stretched with bonus funds and prizes raised by Communities Foundation of Texas!

Not available on September 19th? No worries! Schedule your donation between September 9th and 18th and make your gift count!
Historic House Specialist seminar
 is coming up next month!
Become an authority of historic Dallas neighborhoods! This popular two-day seminar returns September 11 & 12. It includes lectures from local experts on architectural history and styles of Dallas, the preservation ordinance, property tax incentives, how to research the history of a building, and more! It also includes a bus tour of historic neighborhoods in Dallas. Participants receive a copy of Virginia McAlester's  A Field Guide to American Houses and a complimentary one year Individual membership to Preservation Dallas. Don't delay! Enrollment is limited to 25 people. The past sessions have sold out with a wait list!
 
REGISTRATION:
The workshop is $230 and includes lunch and a light breakfast on both days. Anyone is welcome to attend but realtors will receive 8 hours MCE credit. Register with MetroTex Association of REALTORS or at 214-540-2751.
Two Dallasites Elected to
Preservation Texas Board
Last month, five new board members were elected to the Preservation Texas Board of Directors and among them were two from Dallas and big supporters of preservation in Dallas. They are Katherine Seale and Ron Siebler. Katherine is of course the former Executive Director of Preservation Dallas, current Landmark Commission Chair, and Preservation Dallas Dorothy Savage Award winner in 2014. Ron is a preservation contractor and has worked on many wonderful preservation projects across north Texas including the Sharrock Niblo Cabin restoration, several buildings at Dallas Heritage Village, and many more. He is also a multiple award winner from Preservation Dallas for his projects and won the Craftsman Award in 2016. It is great to have two wonderful preservationist on the Preservation Texas board representing Dallas. For more about Preservation Texas go here.
Most Endangered Places Nominations Being Accepted
Do you know of a threatened or endangered site in Dallas? If so, nominate it for the 2019 list of the Most Endangered Historic Places. Download a nomination form below. .

Nominations will be accepted until Friday, October 4. The new list will be announced at the end of fall.
Your Braniff International Super Jet is ready! On Saturday, September 14, 2019 the third Braniff History and Architecture Conference will take place. Sponsored by Braniff Airways Foundation and Preservation Dallas, this exciting event at the Braniff Place World Headquarters will feature Braniff International Art | Fashion | Design and highlight the Designers and Architects of Braniff.

Presenters will include Bob Meckfessel – Principal with DSGN in Dallas and Docomomo US board member; Alan Bruton - Director of Interior Architecture at University of Houston; Lawrence Azerrad – international author and noted graphic designer with LAD Design, Annette Baker – Chief Curator of the Texas Fashion Collection at University of North Texas; Laura Addison - Curator of European & American Folk Art Collections at the Museum of New Mexico Alexander Girard International Folk Art Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico; and more!

Registration includes morning and afternoon sessions, the highly anticipated Braniff fashion show, and a wonderful lunch. Registration closes on September 9.
Mark Doty Leaves Dallas for McKinney
Mark Doty, the Chief Planner for Historic Preservation for the City of Dallas left this month to take a position with the City of McKinney as the Assistant Director of Planning. Mark has been with the City for over a decade and has worked tirelessly on historic preservation, even at one point being the only staff person in the preservation division before the staff was expanded to its current level of five. A decision hasn’t been made on his replacement yet as there is talk that the historic preservation division might move to its own department out from under Sustainable Development and Construction and if so the position would need to change a bit. That will be decided rather quickly as it would have to be worked into the city budget undergoing review right now. We thank Mark for his incredible service over the years to preservation in Dallas and wish him well in his new position with McKinney.
Frances James, 1922-2019
Some people are so famous in life they are known by a single name, others are known mostly by their nickname. Not everyone knew the name Frances James, but many knew “The Cemetery Lady.”  

Frances came to her passion some 40 years ago after she repeatedly drove past an unkept lot in Pleasant Grove. The lot turned out to be more than an unkept site. It was the long forgotten Glover Cemetery. In researching the site she found more than weeds, she found the remains and stories of some of Dallas’ first settlers. That discovery led to decades of research and advocacy benefitting our community.     

Frances led countless cemetery tours, wrote almost 50 historic marker designations, and was not adverse to a political fight to ensure that the deceased and their stories could be properly remembered and honored.  Her work being its own reward. 

She began her work decades before personal computers, Google, and online archives. She poured through paper documents and microfilm, typed on a manual typewriter and wrote notes long hand to uncover the stories of our ancestors. From Glover, to Greenwood, to El Camposanto de Cemento Grande, she dedicated her life to ensure Dallas’ history was complete.    - Veletta Forsythe Lill
Corporate Partner Highlight - Candy's Dirt
CandysDirt.com is the brainchild of journalist, entrepreneur, and editor Candace Evans. She the Founder and Publisher of CandysDirt.com and SecondShelters.com, vertical business-to-business websites devoted to the North Texas real estate industry and vacation home sales market. Her unique sites, founded in 2011, are among the most widely read in Texas for local real estate, insider updates, and breaking news. News is published daily by a staff of journalists, with a subscription base of more than 33,000 readers. 

The site's award-winning staff has worked to highlight the importance of preservation through the platform, telling the story of our city's rich architectural heritage through views into our historic housing stock. Evans was the keynote speaker at the Park Cities Historic Preservation Society Luncheon in 2019 presenting on the critical importance of Mid-century Modern architecture in Dallas. 

Find out more about Dallas' architectural heritage through CandysDirt.com's weekly column on historic preservation, through their daily coverage of homes throughout Dallas/Fort Worth, and on their social media channels. 
PRESERVATION ISSUES
Eagle Ford School - The Eagle Ford School became a City of Dallas Landmark approved by City Council on August 14. The former school located off of Chalk Hill Road in Oak Cliff dates back to 1923. The Gothic Revival masonry school was constructed with materials from the nearby Trinity Portland Cement Company and served the Eagle Ford community, Trinity Portland Cement Company's residential villages, Arcadia Park (an unincorporated community) and rural residents in that area of the county. The four room school plus auditorium has been converted into an event space.

McAdams Cemetery - City Council approved McAdams Cemetery as the latest City of Dallas Landmark at their Council meeting on the 28th. The cemetery is located just west of I-35 in Oak Cliff and was part of the McAdams farm. The earliest burial dates to 1882 and contains members of the McAdams family.

Tenth Street - The City Council at their August 14 meeting they took up a resolution introduced by D4 Council Member Carolyn King Arnold proposing the city not spend any funds or resources on demolitions in the Tenth Street Historic District. The resolution was in response to the numerous court ordered demolitions that have taken place over the past few years in the district with the Landmark Commission powerless to override the court orders. After testimony from the public, including Preservation Dallas, and discussion, the resolution passed with a unanimous vote. Although an addendum was added to the resolution that if the Fire Marshal determined that the structure presented a “clear and present danger” it could be demolished. In fact, a house was just demolished the weekend before the Council meeting using that determination. Preservation Dallas, Heritage Oak Cliff, Preservation Texas, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation all submitted letters of support for passage of the resolution. This is a good step forward for Tenth Street, although it remains to be seen if the Fire Marshal clause will now be used to approve demolitions of houses in the neighborhood instead of the court order process. Thank you to everyone who requested support for the resolution from the Mayor and City Council! 

James and Molly Ellis House - Sadly the Ellis House on Pine Street burned recently destroying the 114 year-old house. The house was placed on the Preservation Dallas Endangered List in 2005. From the Endangered listing that year it stated that "the Ellis House is one of the most interesting early 20 th century buildings in South Dallas. In 1995 the National Park Services listed the property in the National Register of Historic Places for its significance in architecture and as part of a larger set of listed buildings in South and East Dallas. Since listing, ownership changed a number of times and the property continues to be on the City of Dallas’ docket of substandard houses. New owners purchased the property, but as for now; it is endangered from long-term neglect and vandalism."
Director's Letter
David Preziosi
This month has been quite busy as you can tell by this newsletter going out later than usual. We had lots of stuff going on plus items to work on for the fall. Whatever happened to summer being slow??
 
We ended our Summer Sizzler series this month and had a great turnout for the various programs with over $3,000 in ticket sales. Thanks to everyone who came to one, several or all of the programs! And thanks to Irene for putting together a stellar series this summer.
 
The Events Committee has been busy working on the Fall Architectural Tour and getting houses lined up for the tour. With Donovan gone we have a committee, yes it takes a committee to replace Donovan, to work on the tour. Speaking of Donovan, he is doing well up in Canada and enjoying the cooler weather but dreading the upcoming winter. As far as replacing Donovan, the board has decided to morph the position into one that is more strictly development focused to bring in new major gifts for Preservation Dallas above and beyond what we have coming in now through memberships, sponsorships, and corporate partnerships. So, to handle the events like the tour and the awards the board has set up an Events Committee to pick up the slack and I will be adding some extra duties on those events to my workload. We will hire a contract Events Manager, like we did for the awards this year, to handle the logistical duties of putting those events together. The board also formed an ad-hoc Personnel Committee which is working on finalizing a job description for the new position to get out soon. Hopefully we will have someone on board by the end of the year or early 2020. 
 
August also means report time for me as I have to compile an end-of-the-year report for the Meadows Foundation as part of our agreement for use of the Wilson House. In conjunction with the bookkeeper, I also have to put together several reports for the auditor who will start our yearly audit next month. Plus, we had to approve the budget this month so there was work on that as well.
 
This summer the Preservation Solutions Committee has also been working on matching funding for the Historic Resources Survey project for downtown for which $100,000 was allocated in the city budget last year. The City also acquired a $45,000 grant from the Texas Historical Commission for the project and Preservation Dallas acquired a $5,000 grant from the National Trust. We also submitted a grant request to a local foundation this month and have another one due next week. The full cost of the project is estimated to be around $300,000 and the city will hopefully award a contract for the project by October.
 
Speaking of grants, I was also able to obtain a $3,000 grant from the National Trust to update our web site. The web site is about 7 years old now, which is ancient by web site standards. We are also having issues as the current version of WordPress we are using for the web site is no longer supported so we have run into bug issues and occasional crashes. With the new site we will make it more mobile friendly and easier for Irene and I to update and add new information to, which can be a little challenging now. We will also add some new features and hope to have the new web site up by the end of the year.
 
All of the above is on top of my advocacy work, including the work this month on getting support for the Tenth Street resolution that came to council earlier this month to stop city funding of demolitions. Besides getting the word out to the Preservation Dallas members about the issue and sending in support, I also worked with our partners at Preservation Texas, National Trust for Historic Preservation, and Heritage Oak Cliff to get support letters from them for passing the resolution. All of that really paid off when I was up at City Council asking for passage of the resolution.
 
And after two months, I am finally back in my office from the relocation due to the work on the foyer mural restoration. That is complete and the ceiling mural looks great! A big thank you goes to the Meadows Foundation for funding the restoration work. Even though I am back in my office I still need to get all my files organized after moving them around. Plus, I need to clean old files out and move materials into the organizational or resource files. Well, I hope that summer hasn’t been as hectic for everyone else and that rest of the dog days of summer go well for everyone!
EVENTS
PDYP Happy Hour + Local History: Gensler
Tuesday, October 8

PDYP in partnership with the Design Society, an affiliate of the Dallas Architecture Forum, join together for a happy hour in Gensler’s offices in the newly renovated Meadows Building. Drinks and hors d’oeuvre will be provided, followed by a brief history from Architexas and tour of the Gensler offices.
Advanced Historic House Specialist Seminar
Wednesday, October 9

Have you taken the Historic House Specialist and are you ready for the Advanced class? October 9th will be your next chance to take the Advanced Historic House Specialist class. The class is one-day and covers: materials and methods of Pre- and Post-WWII housing in Dallas, the economics involved in historic preservation, historic landscapes, and how to do an advanced research of a historic building on site at the Dallas Public Library. Don’t delay! This class fills fast!
Support Preservation Dallas
by shopping for groceries!
Preservation Dallas participates in the Kroger Community Rewards program. Enroll your Kroger Plus card with Preservation Dallas as the benefactor. Our number is TX617. Enroll your card here!

Preservation Dallas participates in the Tom Thumb Good Neighbor program. Link our Good Neighbor number to your Tom Thumb loyalty card and a percentage of your purchases will be credited towards us! Our number is 11352. Enroll your card here!
Please Welcome our New Members!
Sustainer
Mahlon Hight
Judi Freeman
Mike & Lynette Hajduk
Barbara Guynes Sloan

Individual
Julia King
Allie Farooq
Jules D. Roberts

Young Professionals (PDYP)
Abhishek Aggarwal
Jackie Byndas
Erin Granberry

Urban Armadillos
Rita Jones
Thank you to the following members for renewing!
Lauren Amos
Rachael Anderson
Beth & Rick Bentley
Travis A Boothe
Clare Carona
Michael A Cheever
Richard Devero
Michael Jones
Sara Jane King
Andrea Madison & Katie Aiello
Irene & Gilbert Pena
Karen Pierre
Olive Schad
This newsletter is sent to all current and past members, and those interested in preservation in Dallas. To become a member or to renew or upgrade your membership, please click below.
CORPORATE PARTNERS
Joe M. and Doris R. Dealey Family Foundation
Preservation Dallas | 2922 Swiss Avenue | Dallas TX 752518