Parks Estate // Norman Alston Architects
Officially described as Spanish Revival, this City of Dallas landmark is a typically eclectic but charming combination of architectural expressions and details that were popular in 1920s Dallas.
Prominent Dallas businessman Joseph Parks and his wife, Lucy, hired the up-and-coming local architect Clarence Bulger to design a home on the family farm just outside the city limits. The resulting country estate, completed in early 1924, earned its own pullout section in The Dallas Morning News.
Thirty-three years later, the family sold the house to the East Dallas YMCA, which added a brick and concrete wing and an almost Olympic-size pool. Over 50 years later, in 1999, the YMCA moved to new quarters. The house sold again, but this time it underwent an unsuccessful and incomplete renovation that left it on the brink of demolition.
After a community effort to save it, the house landed with new owners sensitive to its intrinsic beauty and rich history. Their restoration required a creative solution to the YMCA’s additions, resulting in a basement-level garage and studio, with the pool converted to a hidden rainwater cistern. The work brought back the extraordinary natural light of the living room, dining room, and entry hall and restored the beauty of the plaster molding, inlaid wood floors, and two Batchelder tile-covered fireplaces.
Frances Parks Rains, 85 and the youngest daughter of Joseph and Lucy Parks, provided invaluable input on the missing and altered features with her memories of her childhood home. The new kitchen and bedroom layouts were faithful to the original home but carefully adapted for modern lifestyles and conveniences.
Architectural Design Team: Norman Alston, FAIA
Contractor: The Carter Company
Interior Design: Robyn Menter Design Associates
Landscape Design: Ron’s Organics
Structural Engineer: John Rives Consulting Engineers
Decorative Art Conservation: Stashka Art Conservation
Built: 1924 / Restoration Completed: 2009
Square Footage: 7,000
Photography: Shaun Menary
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