Hot Property: A Delightful ‘Mini Estate’ in Kessler Park

Built in 1925, the blonde brick home at 1111 N. Edgefield Ave. is about to turn 100. “I think that’s always something to celebrate: The fact that the house has survived and been loved up all these years,” listing agent David Griffin says.

Griffin doesn’t know much about the property’s first quarter-century of life. However, since 1952, the home has had only two owners. One woman lived here for nearly 50 years, running a telephone answering service in a shed attached to the property’s detached garage. The current owner has lived here since the early 2000s. A photographer, he “had fallen in love with the house even before it was ever on the market and had told the woman who owned it that if she ever sold it, he would love to buy it,” Griffin says.  

The property sits right in the middle of one of the oldest areas of the Kessler Neighbors United—commonly called the Kessler Park—conservation district. However, the house “doesn’t look like many houses in Dallas,” Griffin says, nor other homes in the neighborhood. 

While most houses in Kessler Square, which was founded in 1923, are Tudor and Colonial revivals, 1111 N. Edgefield Ave.’s architectural style is more a mix of Arts & Crafts, Prairie, and Mission elements. Plus, it’s the only original two-story house on the block—and it’s the only house on the block with a basement. 

When houses like this are done well and well maintained, “they’re always delightful,” Griffin says. 

Neighborhood Spotlight

North Oak Cliff

Originally the center of one of Dallas’ first upscale master-planned communities, the neighborhood fell into economic decline as middle-class residents fled to the suburbs during the last half of the 20th century. Fortunately, reinvestment over the last 20 years has transformed North Oak Cliff into a trendy home base for young “urban pioneers” drawn to life in updated old houses set among the slew of new restaurants, bars, entertainment venues, and shops.

Over the past century, some things have been updated—the current owner has replaced the roof and the sewer line, redone the electrical and second-floor HVAC, repainted the exteriors, and installed new kitchen appliances. However, many of the home’s original features have been well-maintained, Griffin says. “The house is very intact.”

The oak floors, wood trim, and fireplace are all original, for example. The custom curtain rods are decades-old. No one’s covered up the plaster walls either, nor have they gotten rid of the leaded built-in stained glass bookcases. There are lots of beautiful tactile details about the house, Griffin says. “There’s nothing prefab about this house.” 

And that’s what makes it so special, he continues. “It stands out because it’s so different than what’s being built today.”

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Author

Catherine Wendlandt