Harryette Ehrhardt
Dallas’s preservation efforts have reached an impressive milestone this year as Preservation Dallas celebrates 50 years since its inception. It’s been a long and many times difficult road, but the organization’s advocacy efforts and sheer persistence have made them one of America’s more successful preservation organizations. Small Beginnings, Big Actions What began in 1972 as…
Read MoreVirginia Savage McAlester was legendary in the historic preservation of our city. Without her, there would be no Swiss Avenue Historic District. There would be no Historic Preservation League resulting in the birth of Preservation Dallas. And Realtors would have no idea how to describe their historic listings without Virginia’s A Field Guide to American…
Read MoreDallas lost a reluctant icon last week. Preservationist Virginia Savage McAlester gracefully and patiently educated, not just Dallas, but also the nation about the importance of preserving historic architecture. I like to think she passed with the knowledge that she made a difference — because she did. Virginia would hate being called an icon, which…
Read MoreIn the late 1960s and 1970s, the preservation climate in Dallas was almost nonexistent. Historic buildings were routinely razed on a whim and the city lost quite a few prominent structures, like the Commonwealth National Bank in 1969, the Melba Theater around 1971, the Southland Hotel in 1971, and the Hotel Jefferson in 1975. The Swiss Avenue area, now one…
Read More