dallashistory

Please take a minute to look at at the link below we could lose another historiical landmark Please call Presevation Dallas and voice your support for this house it doesn't deserve to be torn down

http://forum.dallasmetropolis.com/showt ... post298884

Please Excuse me while hug the porcelien God. I am really feeling sick after reading the above link

I know that the city of Dallas can't really do a thing. This house wasn't a Dallas Lankmark, but a Texas Historical Commision Landmark. When an applicant applies for demo through the THS, the THS states that the applicant can't tear down said structure for 60 days. In this particular case, the THC gave the owners an additional 30 days on top of the 60 days. The most sad thing of all is that the current owners are the ones who had the house put on THC list!!! This has to be one my my most fav houses in Dallas, next to 4949 Swiss, of course. I read on a blog today that a group needs to go over there with torches, like in an old 1930's movie and show them that they better care, or else!

Saw this while looking for Belle Nora info:

Stanley Marcus estate on Nonesuch: The bulldozer is ready for action

Back Talk reader Kyle Rains passes along this Lakewood home development update, courtesy of Robert Wilonsky and the Dallas Observer: Retail giant Stanley Marcus' historic home in the heart of 75214 on Nonesuch Road (cost to build in the 1930s: about $150,000) is about to be torn down by the current owners, Mark and Patricia Lovvorn. Wilonsky did a great job of providing both information about the issue and plenty of links, so rather than repeat everything he said here, check his story out. Apparently, the Texas Historical Commission "governs" demolition of the structure — which basically means the owners have to wait up to 90 days from letting the THC know their plans before firing up the bulldozer. That means that, at the current pace, sometime around Nov. 1, Marcus' home will bite the dust unless the Lovvorns change their minds, because the THC is powerless to stop them. According to Wilonsky, the cited reason for the demolition and inability to utilize the current structure is "energy inefficiency". (Editor's Note: The photo is taken from the Observer blog post.)

http://backtalkeastdallas.typepad.com/b ... arcus.html

I seriously doubt we (the people) can do much, excpethand cuff ourselves to this house. I like it, but not that much....

One more reason to be glad I don't live in Dallas anymore! Not that crazy about the house - but still . . .

What's next?


OT:
Oh yeah - And didn't I hear something just yesterday that if you're in an accident in Dallas (no matter whose fault it is) the City will be fining you something?

Is that true?

One more reason not to drive in Dallas!

That just plain bites.

I have been perusing Mike's 1951 copy of The Lusty Texans of Dallas by John William Rogers looking for the cause of the 'duel" between A.M.Moore and Alexander Cockrell (I found it) and came across this about the Stanley Marcus house:

pages320 and 321
"...Stanley Marcus...bought the land adjoining his father's estate and opened a street which he called Nonesuch Road.......talked with Frank Lloyd wright about drawing plans for his house. He told the architect the amount of money he had to spend for it and Wright assuring him that he could design a house within that amount, the commission was given. Wright drew the plans...turned over to contractors for bids... bids came in and were just three times the amount stipulated could be spent. When Wright learned of the bids, he said in disgust the high price was all because the contractors did not understand the plans and that he himself could build the house for the amount in question.
"I will be delighted to have you build it,' answered Stanley Marcus, 'if you will give bond that the building will not exceed the original sum set.'
Wherewith Frank Lloyd Wright exploded with such fury that it was two years before the Wright-Marcus friendship was back in calm waters."

In the meantime Stanley Marcus worked with a Dallas architect, Roscoe Dewitt, on a house which is his present home at Number One, Nonesuch Road. This is characteristically modern in feeling with a liberal use of glass and natural woods. A recent addition includes a large game room with a projection booth for movies. The house contains the owner's extensive library of beautiful and unusual books, and perhaps most striking in its furnishings is the collection of masks from all over the world--African, American-Indian, Indo-Chinese- which have been set in an alcove built for them with special lighting.

One picture halfway up the stairs on the landing also deserves mention. Itis a nude by the contemporary painter Saul Schary and depicts a girl standing with her back to the spectator. The girl is a charming figure, and several friends, having often heard the master of the house remark that he wished the girl would turn around, decided to have the artist do the same picture with the model facing front as a Christmas present. The painting arrived on schedule and on Christmas Eve was slipped into the house. While Marcus was downstairs trimming the tree for his children, the new girl was hung in the place of the old.. Trimming the tree became a long and laborious job, and the father comforted himself with a highball or two before he started sleepily upstairs to bed about two o'clock on Christmas morning. He started sleepily but on the stairs-- a sight greeted him that made his eyes open wide.
He looked and looked again. The figure had turned around in its frame!"


(After touring many Wright houses I would think Marcus was better off choosing the Dallas architect--for a Texas feel for light and space and openness.)

Thanks Sharon I actually didn't know that was in that Book I guess I need to get it off the shelf.

In case anyone cared to know I have posted on the Dallas observer blog on the Stanley Marcus house article concerning getting photos of the inside and outside of the house. Allyson Smith who is descendant of the Marcus family is already planning to also document the home in the photographic sense.
Not sure what kind of luck I will have keep your fingers crossed and say a prayer.

I saw an article in the DMN that Mark Lovvorn has decided NOT to demolish the Marcus house

It'd be awesome to see the interior of that house...

It is my hope that Scott Dorn or another, in conjunction with an architect and a builder, be permitted to take all the photographs desired inside and out to record the signifcant features and period markers. That coupled with family photographs of parties and individuals, well known or otherwise, in and around the house would male an interesting collection. Maybe here would not be enough interest to publish hard copy, but what a what a neat digital record.

I am not sure that the house desrves preservation, more than several other Dallas structures that have been mentioned on this board. I don't know what ir could be used for, really. IMO. it can never have the appeal of a Graceland for tourists. If I were living in Dallas I might, repeat might, drive by to see it.

I do wonder about the relations of this dwelling to that of other important people in Dallas. As a youngster it was hard for me to look past Highland Park although I knew there were mansions in Preston Hollow and around the lake and grand houses closer to town. And I wondered what Hockaday was doing "down there" on Greeenville. Nowadays, and in large part because I've been reading this message board, I see that previous Hockaday location as perhaps fairly centrally located for day students for a long time.

I learn things all the time and make connections I would not otherwise because of this message board. Very obvious point I guess, but I think worth saying.

I wonder if the marcus home ibrary still has it's leather floor?

http://tinyurl.com/ofgjeg

owner of Stanley Marcus home now embracing preservation

09:19 AM CDT on Tuesday, May 19, 2009
By DAVID FLICK / The Dallas Morning News
/ dflick@dallasnews.com

It isn't easy living with a legend.

Mark Lovvorn, for example, would like to replace the windows in his living room, but they are – in the city of Dallas' eyes – Stanley Marcus' windows, too.

Lovvorn, who bought the house from Dallas' most famous retailer 15 years ago, was briefly the center of a local firestorm last summer when it became known that he intended to bulldoze the home.

The 70-year-old house at the end of Nonesuch Road in Lakewood was for decades among the most glamorous private residences in Dallas – host to celebrities that ranged from Grace Kelly and Eleanor Roosevelt to Lord Mountbatten to comedians Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.

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With television trucks camped in his driveway, Lovvorn changed his mind and announced he would renovate the 10,000-square-foot structure.

His enthusiasm for the project has grown over the months – to the point that he is being praised by local preservationists – but that hasn't made restoring the house easier, or less expensive.

Any work must take place under strict city restrictions, even though the house is not officially a historic landmark.

"I'd like to change out the windows, but I've found that windows are a central part to restoration," he said.

He plans to bring in a glazier who can fit the house with custom windows to match its modernist style.

"I can't tell you what it will cost. Really, I wish I could," he said.

Still, he adds, "at the risk of sounding corny, we look at it as a labor of love."

He didn't always feel that way.

After Lovvorn's initial decision to bulldoze the house became known, he received a certified letter, notifying him that city planning officials were initiating proceedings to declare the house a city landmark.

It was one of the few times involving a private residence – city officials say they cannot remember another one – in which such proceedings were launched without an owner's request.

City officials took the unusual step, according to Marcus Watson, Dallas' senior historic preservation planner, "because of the huge significance of the property and its role in the history of the city and because the owner had announced his intention to demolish it."

Once the preservation process is initiated, Lovvorn was told, there is a moratorium on any changes to the property. He was not pleased.

But he said he felt that, as Christians, he and his family had a commitment to the community.

"We're involved in various ministries," he said. "You have to pick your public battles carefully. There was so much emotion around this, and we'd rather be known for cooperation rather than for obstruction."

After some thought, Lovvorn has decided not to tear down a library and entertainment room that Marcus had added to the basic house, which was completed in 1938. He wants to renovate the kitchen and bathrooms and open up the rooms to the outside.

While he declined to say how much the changes will cost, he estimates that it will be about 50 percent more than the cost would have been to tear down the structure and build a new house in its place.

Lovvorn's architect has been working with city planners who are preparing a list of criteria for what will be allowed under the city's landmark rules.

The historic designation process is expected to be completed this fall, although, if city officials approve, Lovvorn could begin the restoration as early as next month.

Katherine Seale, director of Preservation Dallas, initially butted heads with Lovvorn over the house. Now she praises the family's flexibility in working with city planners.

"They've been very cooperative, even excited. I think they've taken a second look at their house with new eyes," she said.

She said preservationists hope that the Marcus house can serve as a model for cooperation between owners of historic structures and the city.

"There's a great misunderstanding that historic status is so limiting that an owner can't make any changes to the house, and that's not true," she said. "We don't regard a historic house as an object in a museum."

Nor does Lovvorn see himself as a homeowner victimized by overzealous do-gooders.

When the controversy first erupted in August, he said, "I got three or four calls from people I didn't know who were very strong about me taking a stand for property rights," he said. "They felt that this was my house and felt we should take a strong stand on this."

But he said city officials have been reasonable.

And there are times, he acknowledges, when living in the house occupied by Stanley Marcus can be a kick.

"You'll be watching a movie with Grace Kelly or Jerry Lewis in it," he said. "And you think – they've been in this house. That part of it is really interesting."