HomeMy WebLinkAbout4416.Mockingbird Lane.cNeighborhood Gets New Face
These Are the Houses That John Rebuilt
By JEANNE BARNES
Home Editor of The News
Neighborhoods don't die; they just fade
crumble, change faces.
Lucky ones are rehabilitated and go
right on as favored places to live for
generations.
Such a one—and rather unlikely, too
—is the 4400 block of Mockingbird, the
North Parkway between Lomo Alto and
the T'ol'l Road.
An area of fairly affluent but quite
modest homes by today's standards, its
homes were built in the 1920s when it
still was Dallas County, out in the
country.
fMe neighborhood early in the 1960s
was a rapidly deteriorating area of undis-
tinguished houses, often obscured by over-
grown shrubbery. The first owners long
since had moved off to larger, fancier,
further out places.
THEN ALONG CAME John Gresham,
a talented, progressive young designer
a graduate of University of Cincinnati —
who was looking for a place to settle in
Dallas. He had gone through one rehab
house in Richmond, Va., that one of 1890
vintage.
Familiar with the townhouse concept
end geeing it as a, good possibility for this
area, he pioneered by purchasing one of
the more unlikely candidates, the very
first house :built- in the area, known as
Loma Linda.
The Loma Linda home started life as a
red -tiled, white stucco edifice in that era's
pseudo -Spanish fad. It had fairly good au-
thentic details. A later owner had defaced
it and put on a Bauhaus -style 1930s cube
front with louvered paneling, cork floors
painted over.
Gresham, knowing what he was doing,
purchased it, stripped off the front and
remodeled it into a ,neo-classic gem,
painted soft yellow with cream trim.
His interior :remodeling was extensive:
handsome brown and white cane fretwork
paper on the walls and black and white
vinyl tile on the now -wide entry, along
with glass doors on the east side.
THE BOXY LIVING room also was
opened up with French doors on either
side of the firep'laice. Fluted columns sep-
arate an upper level and white carpeted
hall is lightened with a skylight.
The room is glowing with raspberry
color, taken from an antique Savonnorie
rug that shows off under a big round
glass cocktail table. White and raspberry
silk covered chairs group around it with
crystal and chrome gleaming accessories.
Across the hall, Gresham did a study,
with chocolate brown walls, white rug,
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Monday,
June 7, 1971
bleached wood secretary for storage (the
one big lack in old houses Gresham notes),
another glass table, white sofa, yellow ae-
cents with a red, white and black print
fabric for curtains and a chair.
Behind is a small card -conference:
room, with. white painted ceiling, bda
and white floor and storage cabin {
flanking a, window.
And then there's the elegant dining
room on the west with raspberry shiny
painted walls, heavy matching draperies,
formal fruitwood table and marble wall*
hung server.
THE KITCHEN, which took in an 014
porch, is long, narrow and very countri.
with cream stained oak cabinets and ba
red molding and lots of iron racks hold
ing utensils.
There is a porch, still, added on first
as a deck, now screened in. It overlook
a lovely kidney -shaped deep pool, pav
all around.
The old garage behind now is a st
dio-cabana, in azure blue and chrome y
low and white. It is divided by a whi
wall with open, green -painted shelves
one side, and skylighted drawing boa
opposite.
Gresham points out that though on
narrow lot, every room has exterior e
sure now, a bit of green of its own.
His work was duly noted, and whe.
other people moved into the convenie
neighborhood, they asked him to r
their homes.
THE FIRST REQUEST came from two
doors down, the Jimmie Herefords, a41
4428 Mockingbird, who moved bac$ to 44
street where their daughter, Ann, had
first gone to school, up at Bradfield.
They had moved out to Bluffview to a
larger, wooded acreage sprawling house
with pool.
It was quite a contrast to come into
the 1 -bedroom house, a non-descript
Dallas version of the English cottage.
Gresham transformed it by removing
the gables and replaced them with a
standing seam metal mansard roof. Brick
was painted a nice putty, with white trim.
Windows were recessed, as was the
front door (now a double chocolate one),
in shadow 'box framing. A triple circular
step entry was added, along with a circu-
lar drive.
Inside, the ceiling joists were removed
in the foyer and living room so there is a
soaring 15 -foot high vaulted ceiling now
(that did take away some of the attic
space).
Two side bedrooms were combined to
make a den plus a guest bath, leaving
just one bedroom for the Herefords. Since
then, they have had another bedroom and
half -bath added, along with the pool and
cabana in back enclosed by a 74bot
fence which also shields the side yard,
provides a patio.
THEN THE WILLIAM I. Hendersons
arrived, a young couple moving out of an
apartment into their first home.
Their purchase, between Gresham and
the Hereford's, at 4424, was an even more
non-descript cdtCage with a pair of win-
dows flanking the front door.
Gresham gave this house a French
country look, from Bordeaux Province.
The pink brick walls were given a frosted
look by spraying on a thinned white la-
tex, also matching old and new.
The front door was recessed in a hand-
some brick frame. A pair of stone pineap-
ple finials were put up on the columns on
either end, and an entire new foyer creat-
ed.
The back bedroom was doubled in size
and made into a den, with French doors
opening to the back garden. A powder
A house with
personality and
lots of livabil-
ity, including a
p o 01, is the
transformation
achieved for the
Jimmie Here-
fords at 4428
Mockingbird.
The first house
in the Loma
Linda neigh-
borhood to un-
dergo a reha-
bilitation is
John Gresham's
,own home. The
1925 original,
Spanish at
4420 Mocking-
bird, has gone
through three
stages.
mom was constructed in front from two
closets, and the master bath was doubled
by taking in a side drive porch.
The upstairs is the domain of young
Arthur, 1 year old. And it has lots of
storage, even under the eaves.
The Hendersons cedar shingled the old
garage and turned it into a workroom. It
is glimpsed beyond the handsome green
iron gate cutting off the old drive.
IT'S NOW A HAPPY, new neighbor-
hood, with more and more houses being
rehabilitated, many in -the mansard roof
style. Many age levels mingle congenial-
ly; everyone feels he has both space and.
privacy.
A .brick wall cuts off street traffic
from the 4400 block of houses, which is
the southern limit of University Park.
And Gresham isn't through yet. He
plans to add a motor court, .behind another
wall and go up a story on the still -flat
roofed east side of his house, for both es-
thetic and space reasons.
And a P.S. note for those contemplat-
ing such a project: All the houses had
complete new kitchens and baths and cen-
tral heat and air-conditioning added.
Gresham had the work done by putting
out contracts, for competitive bid, the
least expensive way, he says.