“I’ve never lived in a house, so I don’t even know what that would be like,” says retired optometrist Tom Sakler. When he came to Dallas in 1978 at the age of 28 to open his practice, he moved into one of the new modern high-rises on Turtle Creek. “I think I leased an apartment that had a downtown view for $685 a month,” he says. “The world has certainly changed.”
He wasn’t in town six weeks before a friend invited him to a party down the street at the ornate dwelling of renowned designer Sigmund Mandell. “It was a one-bedroom apartment, but it was the most exquisite thing I had ever stepped into,” Sakler says. “At that time, he had the largest Fabergé egg collection in the world. He had 13 pieces of Fabergé. And Sig came over and said, ‘You need to redecorate, and I’m going to help you.’ ” For the next 15 years, the two had a standing Tuesday lunch date at The Mansion, where Mandell would tip the maitre d’ for the best table. “It was his eyes and my checkbook,” Sakler says, laughing.
The first piece he bought was a black lacquer table from the collection of Ben Read and Roy Pate. By the 1970s, Read and Pate had established themselves as the best French decorators in the city; Read had even advised Jacqueline Kennedy on her update of the White House library. The designers had a stylish shop in a house at the corner of Fairmount and Wolf streets, just up the block from their penthouse apartment at the Park Towers on Turtle Creek. But then tragedy came calling. Pate died suddenly in 1976, and, just over a year later, Read was murdered by an unknown assailant in their apartment. Their entire collection was subsequently sold off. Over the years, Sakler picked up a number of pieces, including the chandelier from Read’s study.
The tufted seat in Sakler’s bedroom is a rare French Napoleon III rope and tassel bench. Sakler spotted this one at a Help Me Ronda estate sale in Dallas. He bought it for $595; they generally run around $6,000 to $12,000 online.
Elizabeth Lavin
“There are two things that Joe Minton was right about: the paint color and the banquette in the middle room,” Sakler says. “I told Joe Minton I wanted a pair of gueridon tables with rock crystal lamps wrapped in gold. I said, ‘I want it to look really rich, Joe.’ He said, ‘No, you need a banquette.’ I said, ‘Oh, Joe, I don’t want a sectional couch. They’re too big and bulky.’ He said, ‘No, it’ll be correct.’ Well, I let him do what he wanted, and I think it’s perfect.”
Elizabeth Lavin
Sakler’s father was a professor of ophthalmology in Louisville, Kentucky, and his mother was a former model. “Well, Daddy of course wanted me to become an ophthalmologist,” he says. “But I was not good with needles, and optometry was the right thing for me.”
Elizabeth Lavin
In a strange twist of fate, Sakler ultimately ended up moving into the same building from whence the chandelier had come. When Sakler’s mother broke her hip, he was unable to find a wheelchair-accessible apartment in his building, so he leased one for her in Park Towers. She was never able to move in, but he ultimately did. “When I moved into this apartment, I was fortunate in that I had the dream team,” he says. “Nickey Oates was the contractor and Joe Minton from Joseph Minton in Fort Worth helped with the interior.”
His old apartment had been painted a dramatic Empire Red, but Minton convinced Sakler to be even more daring and paint the entire 1,900-square-foot apartment a dark bronze. “This wall color, when it first started going up, the painter said, ‘Oh, Dr. Sakler, the ceiling’s going to come down and hit you on the head,’ ” Sakler says. “So I called up Joe Minton’s office, and Joe came to the phone and I said, ‘Joe, the painter says the ceiling’s going to come down and hit me on the head.’ He said, ‘Get rid of those people. Tell them to come back when it’s finished.’ ”
When the sun first set after Read’s chandelier was hung in the dining room, Sakler understood the contrast. “The darker it gets, as the lights of the city come on, you’ll find that the walls just go away,” he says. “Joe was absolutely correct.”
Also perfect: the view of the city skyline and a bustling Katy Trail Ice House from the wraparound patio. “When I bought the apartment, really none of this was here,” Sakler says. “There wasn’t the Residences at the Stoneleigh, there wasn’t the Azure, there wasn’t the Marriott hotel. None of this was here.”
There have been plenty of other changes over the years. For one, he’s seen the value of the condos skyrocket. For another, the average age of the residents continues to go down. (“I’m now seeing children at the pool,” Sakler says of the “magical” tree-shaded amenity. “It’s really cute.”) But there is still a sizable aging population; Sakler has several neighbors who are approaching their centenary. “People go on a long time here,” he says. “The air must be good.”
Although he bought a place in the building for his mother, he chose to stay even after she passed. “To be honest with you, when I retired, I could have lived anywhere,” he says. “I could have gone off to Florida or someplace, but I practiced here for 30 years. And it’s your friends—other people will tell you this. Dallas doesn’t have an ocean or mountains, but the people are wonderful, and it’s a good place to live.
“A friend of mine bought a place in Palm Beach, and I’m like, Should I have done this? or Should I do it? And then I come back, and I’m busy here. And I have my friends and the answer: Dallas is wonderful.”
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$899,000: Press-time listing for a 2-bedroom, 2-bath, 2,300-square-foot corner apartment in Park Towers on Turtle Creek.
This story originally appeared in the July issue of D Magazine. Write to kathy.wise@dmagazine.com.
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