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SPEAKER_03 0:00

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Welcome And Guest Introductions

SPEAKER_03 0:49

Welcome to the Bubble Lounge. I'm Martha Jackson. Today we're diving into the history and architecture that gives the Park Cities its unmistakable charm. I'm joined by Jason Morski, president of Preservation Park Cities, and Larry Good, architect, author, and board member of Preservation Park Cities. Together, they're helping ensure that the character and legacy of our neighborhoods are protected for generations to come. We'll talk about the mission of Preservation Park Cities, highlights from their recent luncheon, and the inspiration behind Larry's beautiful book, 100 Houses of the Park Cities. We'll also get into some of the big questions shaping our community's future, from landmarking and architectural standards to upcoming events like the Spring Home Tour and collaborations that tie fashion, philanthropy, and preservation together. So pour yourself a cup of coffee and let's step back in time and forward in vision for two people helping preserve the heart and history of the park cities. Gentlemen, welcome to the show. Please introduce yourselves.

SPEAKER_00 1:49

My name is Jason Morski. I'm the current president of Preservation Park Cities and Highland Park Resident.

SPEAKER_01 1:55

And I'm Larry Good. I'm a retired architect and I'm on the board of Preservation Park Cities.

SPEAKER_03 2:01

Very nice. Well, I am super excited to talk to

What Preservation Park Cities Does

SPEAKER_03 2:04

you guys. But for before we get started, can you explain what Preservation Park Cities is?

SPEAKER_00 2:08

Absolutely. So Preservation Park Cities is in an organization. We've got uh roughly 400 members today. And, you know, our mission stretches across, you know, several fronts. One is preserving the history of the park cities, and that can be a lot of things, uh, including archives and the historical significance of homes. And we're also a resource for the homeowners that want to preserve and restore uh these these great homes here.

SPEAKER_03 2:36

Wonderful. Well, you guys do so much, and I really appreciate all that you do because I love all the historical homes and buildings that we have in this community. I really think that that's a big part of what makes it so unique and so special. And you guys have had quite a few events recently.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

That's right. Um, we've had uh quite a few events recently, um, including the Distinguished Speakers Luncheon at the Dallas Country Club. Uh that was last week. We had almost 300 guests, and um, our special speaker was Brent Hull out of Fort Worth, who is working on a fantastic restoration project on a Delbeck home here in town. And he does a lot of things. He's got a great YouTube channel, he's got a great Instagram, uh, and he's really just, I would say, more of an artist than a um than a contractor. And he specializes in the restoration of historic homes.

Events And Brent Hull’s Restoration Work

SPEAKER_03 3:33

Oh, wow. That's awesome. I love that. Well, Larry, and uh, I mean, kind of tying in with the Dell Buck Holmes, you have written and illustrated this most amazing book, The Houses of Park Cities. And I just I really enjoyed having it the past few months. Tell us about your book.

SPEAKER_01 3:48

I'm gonna tell you about two books. Uh in 2020, I was recruited by Bobby Clark, former UP City Council member and an incredible uh design build home builder to uh help save the Albert Williams House. This is one of the most important houses ever built in the state of Texas, sits on McFarland. And we wrote a book. Bobby asked me to write a book called A House for Texas. And uh, thanks to that book and Bobby's hard work, Trevor Reese Jones bought the Albert Williams House and beautifully restored it. And uh it's uh great victory. That led to Preservation Park Cities asking to start an initiative called the Top 100, saving the top 100, in which we needed to do the research that would lead to what are, it answers the question, what are the 100 most architecturally significant historic homes in the park cities? That became a slideshow

The Top 100 And Larry’s Book

SPEAKER_01 4:55

that went on the road. We did that a number of times. And then the board uh said, let's do a book, let's let's uh convert all your research and the the uh PowerPoint presentation into a book. And hence uh the Houses of the Park Cities was created. It's a guide book, it's intended to allow people to walk, bike, ride uh the streets of the park cities and pick out, understand which houses are most important and why.

SPEAKER_03 5:25

Right. Well, the book is a good size where you can just kind of pack it up and take it with you and keep it in the car, right?

SPEAKER_01 5:30

That was the idea. That was the idea.

SPEAKER_03 5:33

Well, that's the goal, is what you were describing with Trevor Reese Jones is getting a historical home, refurbishing it, you know, keeping it kind of in the same uh era and all the things that it that it originated in, but we're not always seeing that. And that's a big part of why you guys are here, right? Do you like for example, the Ed Cox Mansion is a really big hot button right now. If you're on the neighborhood Facebook page, there's a lot of discussion, a lot of people upset about what's happened there.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

Yes. Um I used to make the point that it was the single most important house uh in Highland Park.

SPEAKER_03 6:13

Number one of 100.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

Uh number one of 100. We uh we created the top 10, the top 40, and the 100, and it was at the top of the top 10 because of its site on the corner of Lakeside and Beverly and overlooking the park. It was built in 1913, a very early home and of great importance. Uh Herbert Green was the architect. He's the architect uh of Neiman Marcus, for instance, back in the day. And uh this house was a Palladian um villa, you might say. And so it was it was horrible to lose it. And that's why everyone was upset. Right. Can we ensure that that doesn't happen again to number two on the list or number three?

SPEAKER_03 7:00

Yeah. Well, well, what steps can you take to

Loss Of The Ed Cox Mansion

SPEAKER_03 7:03

make sure that that doesn't happen again?

SPEAKER_01 7:05

There is a great appreciation of and um uh priority placed by both the UP City Council and the Highland Park Town Council on individual property rights. And as a result, what we can't do, at least in the short term, is have an ordinance or a protection of some sort, an architectural control committee or review committee. So what it what it's gonna rely on is what we call changing the culture. What can we do to cause preservation to be front of mind, top of mind, and everyone to really treasure and appreciate these great historic homes, change the culture because we're not gonna have laws that are gonna protect things in the near term. We hope that'll change, but that

Culture Change Versus Ordinances

SPEAKER_01 7:55

may be a decade down the road.

SPEAKER_03 7:56

Once somebody buys that property, it's theirs and they can do whatever they want to, right? There's not there's no stopping them.

SPEAKER_01 8:02

Well, that's the Texas way, and the town council and the city council are uh cognizant of that, they're protective of that because it's important to their constituents. Right.

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Education, Windows, And Outreach

SPEAKER_03 9:32

Well, Jason, what type of things are you guys doing to help change that culture and just help educate people that we really need to think more in terms of preserving these beautiful properties?

SPEAKER_00 9:43

Yeah, absolutely. You know, um, education is one of the top things that we're prioritizing at Preservation Park Cities. Um, it really begins with the luncheon that we just had. And I really think, you know, we chose Brent because it was a great way to kick start preservation. That's a specialty. And we touched on a lot of topics, you know, including uh preserving old wooden windows. It's something that you don't see a lot of folks do, but I think they should because, you know, they're they are actually pretty energy efficient when they are restored properly and they're just beautiful. Uh, that's the main reason. We've got a um an education series, so we're working on uh our speaker for the spring. We'll probably have an education series in the fall. Uh, and we may do something in the middle. Uh we're we're also looking at our social media efforts and saying, you know, are there educational topics we can do there as well? Because we tend to highlight some of the great, beautiful homes in the neighborhood, and that really gets everyone's attention on social media. But I think, you know, there's an opportunity to use that to educate as well.

SPEAKER_03 10:47

Well, what what about just above and beyond your membership? You have a huge membership of 400, you said, and 300 at the luncheon, but above and beyond that, how are you communicating to help educate people?

SPEAKER_01 10:59

Jason, let's mention the home

Home Tour As Public Education

SPEAKER_01 11:01

tour. You know, the home tour is one of the best ways that Preservation Park Cities causes more and more people, even outside the organization, yes, be aware of and have an appreciation for the best of these homes. Um, each year we put four houses on the home tour. These are uh residents owners that are extremely gracious and welcome hundreds. Jason, how many people?

SPEAKER_00 11:31

Almost a thousand, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:32

Oh, wow. And so that really is great outreach because people will come out of those homes and they will just be stunned. And they'll say to themselves, there is so much value in the idea of carefully restoring a home rather than tearing it down and starting a new craft that you can't duplicate these days, just uh incredible quality of workmanship.

SPEAKER_03 11:58

Well, I love that. There's another home tour that I do every year with friends, and I just think that that's such a neat way to spend the day. And I agree with you, that's such a wonderful way to just open up everyone's eyes of um who might not even be in your organization and just let them see these wonderful details of the older homes and why it's important to keep them that way.

SPEAKER_02 12:17

Yes.

The “Mushroom House” Update

SPEAKER_03 12:18

Well, another thing I see people talk a lot about is they're curious what the status is of what I always call the Smurf House. I know you call it something else. Tell me what you call it.

SPEAKER_01 12:28

The workman house. And that that's because Tom Workman was the architect and original owner of the house. Okay. So I I think it's respectful to call it the workman house.

SPEAKER_03 12:41

It's more fun to say smurf than it is.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

It is shroom, shroom for a view.

SPEAKER_03 12:46

Yes, it definitely looks like a mushroom. And I think it was on the front cover of D Magazine, right? Like this month or last month. So, what has been going on with that and what's to become of it?

SPEAKER_01 12:56

Well, uh, we're pleased to say that Clay Cooley, the uh auto dealer magnet, uh, has purchased three lots there at the point of Armstrong and Preston and Bordeaux. And um the the mushroom house, the workman house, uh, and the one next to it, 4208 Armstrong, which is a beautiful house uh designed by the architect Anton Korn back in the early 20s, um, are the two that he will be demolishing in order to build his dream home. And uh he's hired an excellent architect. He hired Larry Border, who uh really understands traditional architecture, and I'm confident will do a beautiful job with the replacement home. But we're gonna lose we're gonna lose two important houses. One of them is funky, the the mushroom house is funky. And what I've said and what D Magazine has quoted is they ought to harvest all of the great materials and little details and the copper shingles, the uh handrails on the inside, the windows, amazing stuff. So hopefully some of the parts and pieces of that will uh be found in another home someday. Right. But I think I think Clay will do a good job. He's a thoughtful man. Uh he came to our board and talked to the board. He sort of uh allowed us to learn more about his plans and he asked what was important to us. And that's what I say about the culture changing. That's an example of that.

SPEAKER_03 14:32

Okay. I like to hear that because so many people

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SPEAKER_03 14:35

are just buying it and saying, this is my property, I can do whatever I want to. I think that is really respectful that Clay came in and talked with you guys.

SPEAKER_01 14:43

And all signs are that 4209 Bordeaux, which is the third house that he bought, uh, it there's no demolition fencing around it. It does not look like he's gonna demolish it. So we think that came out of the conversation he had with the board. And uh we may say that was designed by Hal Thompson and another very important house. So hopefully we'll keep it. He may sell it to another buyer. We'll

Upcoming Landmarkings And Events

SPEAKER_01 15:11

see.

SPEAKER_03 15:11

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SPEAKER_00 16:18

Well, we've got a lot of events coming up here in the next 30 days. Um we've got a landmarking event coming up Saturday, November 22nd, 9 30 a.m. And we're gonna landmark uh three excellent houses, uh 3505 Beverly, 4726 Drexel, and 4214 McFarland. Uh, these are wonderful homes, wonderful owners, and uh really excited for that event on the 22nd. Um on December 3rd, uh we've got the Veronica Beard Gives Back event. So on December 3rd from 11 to 2, um all purchases, 15% will be donated back to the organization. So just in time for holiday shopping. Uh we have our holiday party coming up December 8th. It's gonna

Student Playhouse Collaboration

SPEAKER_00 17:08

be at Park House uh again this year. That's a that's a great event. And although our car show was double rained out again two years in a row, um, we've got a a sister event to that. Uh Wednesday, November 19th. Uh, this is gonna be at the shop club, uh, which is a car storage facility. And um, you know, this is open to anyone. Uh, we hope a lot of the folks that RSVP'd for the car show make it. But we've got a great special guest speech speaker, Lou Gelotti, um, who's a race car driver, and he developed uh G2 Motorsports Park up uh up near Prosper. So a lot going on. And um, even though it's far out, I feel like we have to announce the date for the home tour since we have it.

SPEAKER_03 17:52

Oh, good.

SPEAKER_00 17:53

It's gonna be Friday, May 8th, and we've got some fabulous homes already lined up. So everybody marked their calendars. Every year it's a great home tour. This one's gonna be extra special.

SPEAKER_03 18:06

Okay, I can't wait. I will definitely come this year. Well, I have one I wanted to ask you about that you didn't cover, and that is how you've been partnering up with the Highland Park Maps program. I went to the mall and saw your beautiful house last year. Tell us about that.

SPEAKER_00 18:19

Oh, that was such a fun project. I was so glad to be a part of that. Um, you know, every year uh we choose a home and um we give it to the maps department and have the students do their own interpretation of some of those architectural features and actually design a small playhouse to mimic it. It's super cool. This goes back to the community outreach, the education. It drives some buzz because that particular house was really cool to start with. And um, you know, from there it actually gets built, it goes on display, uh, and then I think it gets auctioned off for charity. So it was absolutely wonderful working with the faculty and the students there. Uh, it was it was just of such a fun project.

SPEAKER_03 19:05

I absolutely love that group. I'm very impressed with maps and everything that they do, and I love that you partnered up and built the house for to raise money for Dallas Casa.

Holiday Lights And Neighborhood Traditions

SPEAKER_03 19:15

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SPEAKER_01 19:57

Oh, I do. Uh 3752 Armstrong, which is uh a new house. Uh but uh what an incredible job they do with their Christmas decorations. They must have, I'm gonna say, 40 trees in the front yard. New house, so recently planted, so the scale of these trees is smaller, but all wrapped from base of the trunk to the tips of the branches in different colors, and they put it to music. So if you tune your FM radio in your car to 107.1, I believe it is, might be 107.5. There's a sign out front that tells you that the uh music uh the lights dance to the music. Oh, and it it just is not to be missed. And admittedly, it creates a lot of traffic in the neighborhood, and maybe somebody complains, but it's delightful. So everybody needs to see that.

SPEAKER_03 20:58

That sounds amazing. Well, I it doesn't sound quite as over the top as that house in Preston Hollow that's really upsetting the whole community. At least we don't have anything quite that spectacular.

SPEAKER_01 21:10

Well the Volca States is also a

Building A Historic Register

SPEAKER_01 21:14

great place to go to look at Christmas lights and decorations. Those houses north of University Boulevard in the Volca States in UP are are great.

SPEAKER_03 21:24

Yeah, they always go all out. It's a fun, it's a fun area to to drive around in.

SPEAKER_00 21:28

Agreed. I would second that home on Armstrong 3752. We went no less than five times last year. Like every time we had family dinner, uh the kids are saying, Hey, can we go see the lights over there again? I said, Absolutely. You know, it's uh uh such a blast. Um, and then obviously Beverly Drive. Uh it's just it's easy. Um, we walk it all the time during the holidays, and it's a must see on Christmas Eve. Every year, Christmas Eve, we walk up and down Beverly. Um, it's just so much fun.

SPEAKER_03 22:04

Well, you guys do so much. I'm really excited to learn about everything that you're doing. You do a lot more than I even knew about. But what other initiatives do you have that are going on?

SPEAKER_01 22:14

We've got something that's been in the works now for about six months, and I I really think it's of great importance. I had said that uh the UP Town Count uh City Council and the Highland Park Town Council were reluctant to take away individual property rights, but what we want to provide to them, and it's really an offshoot of the book, The Houses of the Park Cities, is what we're calling the Park Cities Register of Historic Houses. And what uh what we've done, and this has been led by an architect named Craig Meldy, who is on our board, and one of the most uh well recognized and well respected preservation architects in the entire state of Texas. This register of historic properties will have initially in this first tranche, something in the neighborhood of eighty, five to ninety houses that are documented in much more detail than in the book. It will include some photography of each house, and then it will have information about who the owner was that commissioned the house to begin with, who the architect was, what the significance of the house is, why is it worth saving. And uh this this documentation is going to be given to the uh town of Highland Park and the City of University Park. And here's the message. The message is we understand that you're not going to build a preservation ordinance around this uh this year, but this is incredibly important and valuable research that should be in your archives, in your files, that tells you about the history, the legacy uh

How To Join And Member Benefits

SPEAKER_01 24:02

of the built environment here in the park cities. And who knows, maybe 10 years from now, maybe 15 years from now, the councils, because of input they're hearing from their constituents, is gonna say, let's create an official register of historic homes, and there would be protections built around it where a uh landmark commission or an architectural review board, before any permits could be issued for demolition or for uh an addition, uh it would have to go before that board, that body, to uh get permission. And that way we can really save the houses. But this is tremendous uh work. It's it's really I think one of the most important things Preservation Park Cities has ever done relative to its mission.

SPEAKER_03 24:51

Yeah, Jason just pulled out a little bit of the information here, and I can tell just at first glance how important this would be. You said it would be turned into a book or not?

SPEAKER_01 25:00

It it wouldn't be a a book. It it would be a a file, both uh an electronic file and a hard copy file that would be in the in the archives, in the files, in the records of the town and the city. And it would be available to the to the general public. And as I said, at some point maybe they build an ordinance around it. Right. You know, many many cities with important historic architecture Santa Fe, Charleston, Tech, Santa Barbara,

Closing Thanks

SPEAKER_01 25:30

um, Carmel have historic districts or have something that uh facilitates their protection of of those important properties. Uh we can't really do a district because the whole town and the whole city uh have these historic homes. So we have to identify them through a register. So this would be the way that we could protect some houses without at all influencing the property rights of everybody else.

SPEAKER_03 25:56

Right.

SPEAKER_01 25:57

This is only so far, this is, as I said, 85 to 88 houses. We'll keep expanding that. There's 165 houses in the book, so maybe it'll double in size at some point.

SPEAKER_03 26:09

Well, I absolutely love the direction you guys are going. It's been so nice just hearing and learning everything that you do. How can people get involved?

SPEAKER_00 26:17

Well, you know, today we've got roughly 400 members, and you know, we don't do any advertising, so this is really word of mouth, grassroots. Um, and you know, our website is preservationparksities.org. So we would encourage anybody to get on there, check it out. You're also going to find links to our events, uh, and there's easy ways to sign up and become a member. Um, we'd love to have more homeowners in the park cities uh join Preservation Park Cities. We do a lot of great events, and um we could certainly use the additional support because the membership really helps support a lot of these uh initiatives that we have, like the Historic Homes Project.

SPEAKER_03 26:57

Well, what are the benefits of membership?

SPEAKER_00 27:01

Sure. So the benefits are you know, we we host, you know, about a dozen events per year. Um also uh you know, there's a membership directory that they'll have access to. And you know, you're really networking with a lot of other folks uh in the industry. So when I think of homeowner advocacy, I think about you know being able to find the right people to help with your home project.

SPEAKER_03 27:27

Well, Larry and Jason, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me today. This has been such a pleasure just to learn more. I'm super excited about everything that you guys are doing.

SPEAKER_00 27:35

Thank you for having us. Thanks so much.

SPEAKER_03 27:37

That's been another episode of the Bubble Lounge. I'm Martha Jackson, and I'll see you next time.