A $4 Million Dollar Spread With Bush, Helen Keller, Even Foster Grant Ties? Yes, Virginia, Farmers Branch Might Just Be Getting HOT!

This is one of my Christmas gifts to you: a multi-million dollar sleeper listing in, of all places, Farmers Branch. And you can thank the good folks at Inwood Mortgage for wrapping it! They would sure jump through some hoops here at year end to get the right buyer in this spread.

Wait, what? A $4 million home in Farmers Branch on 10.8 acres with 3 tennis courts and historic ties to famous people?

I have always thought that Farmers Branch was kind of a sleeper community. First of all, it’s so close to Dallas — just north of LBJ Freeway. If you meander off the main drags –Valwood, Josey– you find some really lovely homes on wooded, rounded terrain with creeks, trees, the same stuff that costs $2 millionish an acre (currently) in Old Preston Hollow. There is a sustainable home I toured off Webbs Chapel a few years ago that I simply must find and bring to y’all. We are talking about the residential areas, not the downtown off I35. There is lots of Farmers Branch to the east, buttressing right up to Brookhaven College.

This 10.8 acre property has trees that will give Mark Cuban’s place a run for the money. 

That is why I am telling you, 2710 Farmers Branch Lane bears a second, third or fourth look. If you are looking for a large investment property, a family compound or an understated place to raise a lot of kids, this spread has your name all over it. It includes a zen garden with babbling brooks feeding into the Farmers Branch Creek, which is dammed up to create a lake-like setting. You can even fish there. There are 100-year-old plus trees, a 7,953 square foot mansion with five bedrooms, five full  and two half baths, four living areas, bridge, two guest homes, huge garage storage, pool, cabana, three tennis courts, six fireplaces, all covering 10.8 acres. Agents who have seen it say they cannot believe the peaceful atmosphere they get once they (find it) and amble up the long driveway. You are close to the intersection of 635 and 35, yet you barely hear traffic. That’s because of thick vegetation that creates a natural sound barrier. Another nice surprise: Farmers Branch has slightly lower property taxes than the city of Dallas. Like Irving, there are so many businesses paying taxes, homeowners don’t get soaked.

And you are in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District, which is thriving.

The other thing that might surprise: part of this home was built in 1920. Yeah, Farmers Branch has history as the small farm community of it’s namesake. In fact, it was named for the rich soil that made such great farmland.

The estate is marketed by veteran agent Doug Chitwood of Nathan Grace, one of North Texas’ most innovative and fastest growing brokers. In the early 1950’s, Ebby Halliday herself sold the original home (prior to renovations) to Dresser Industries president Henry Neil Mallon, who was relocating to Dallas. (Dresser merged with Halliburton in 1998.) He turned out to be good friends with the Bush family, such good friends in fact, that Neil Prescott Bush was named after Uncle Neil Mallon. Many a Bush family member came over to Farmers Branch to play tennis on those courts in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Even Helen Keller was a guest when one of her relatives came to play tennis. Sundays were big tennis days, and drew out all the politicos. Eventually, Neil Mallon moved into the guest house, the Bushes moved to Houston, and Mallon let his sister and her family live in the main house. The current owners bought the spread from Mallon in 1998, but I think an owner in-between was also a major tennis jock.

Who’s hiding behind those Foster Grants?

It would be Ed Bonneau, a Farmers Branch businessman who owned a company called Bonneau sunglasses. Later, he bought the Foster Grant name, and the rest is eyeglass history. He is the current owner of 2710 Farmers Branch Lane.

So in a way, 2710 Farmers Branch Lane is the home that sunglasses built. It’s further evidence of the quiet kind of elegant living that goes on in these parts: homeowners so secure and happy they don’t have to be photographed by society cameras every weekend.

The original 1920’s home is charmingly historic and has been preserved on the western wing of the spread: two bedrooms with a living room and two full baths, original hardwood floors, wainscoting, fireplace, original windows and baths. I would totally use this wing for a fabulous home office — it even has a separate entrance right off the kitchen. The original home space offers authenticity,  something you cannot find anywhere but on Swiss Avenue in Dallas, plus it is contained in such a way that the newer wings seem to be built around it.

As for the main house, you walk into a large foyer with a huge original reclaimed pine wall and stone floors. Ed Bonneau’s son is Todd Bonneau of Bonneau Custom Homes. His company has built up half of Carrollton and Farmers Branch. Thus it became a piece of cake to remodel and add onto his parent’s home when they bought it. The family reached out to use many historical materials from previous homes and the West Texas Bonneau family ranch.

Off the foyer is a library that leads to an expansive master bedroom suite. And I do mean expansive. The master takes up one whole wing of the house. The master even has a second kitchen with sitting room, a room that was, at one time, an enclosed patio. When Bonneau started working on the room and pulled up linoleum, they discovered a stunning limestone stone floor. In fact, the adhesive coming up served to “clean” the stone so it looks brand new. There is also a huge fireplace in this room, and full access to the deck overlooking the lake.

The master measures 24 by 19 and has a huge fireplace. It has a large spa bath with a free-standing tub, enough room for two massage tables and a couple of chairs by the fireplace, plus an indoor exercise therapy pool with flat screen TV. The master closets are huge, and there is storage in every nook and cranny.

This wing also hold two bedrooms with en suite baths and fireplaces.

Now, go right of the entrance way and you will find the great room and dining room, kitchen and breakfast wing, a huge living area with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Farmers Branch Creek, which looks like a lake from the house. Every window in this wing has full 180 degree views of the grounds.

“I can sit in this dining room and look out at nature like I’m in a movie theater,” the owner, Ed Bonneau told me. “You should be here to see it in the winter when there is snow. Our grandchildren learned a grade or two of science in this backyard.”

Mr. Bonneau, a proud family patriarch, also told me his wife oversaw the design and decor of the home.

“She has a way of making every inch of a home feel comfortable,” he told me.

The home has been a family entertainment mecca for years.

The huge kitchen is attached to the open great room and dining room, all crowned with timber beams reclaimed from the family ranch in west Texas. Both kitchens in the home have been remodeled and furnished with new appliances, including a farmhouse sink and stainless top of the line appliances. As if this isn’t enough living area, there are two detached guest quarters of about 750 square feet each with full baths and kitchenettes.

Now, the grounds: six acres on the opposite side of the creek have now been included in the sales price of $4,125,000. They would be great to hold for future development, though the acreage is accessible via a little overspill bridge. Two of the tennis courts — I believe they were grass originally — have been grown over but could be rescued. Or new homes could be built on them. At one point Mr. Bonneau told me his children all lived in the neighborhood. I see this property as the perfect place for a family compound. A quiet family compound. If Randall Stephenson, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of AT&T, Inc., for example, did not want to place his family compound in this conspicuous property on Walnut Hill Lane, he might very well want to go build it all in Farmers Branch. How smart would that be. Can you imagine the reaction when people learn that the CEO of AT&T lives in Farmers Branch?

This is what I’m saying. This home is located in a lovely, lush neighborhood of nice homes I would not call understated, just undiscovered. And no matter what you think of when you hear “Farmers Branch”, the truth is Dallas infill south of LBJ is getting more expensive as land prices rise. The square footage and land on this estate is unprecedented. And it’s as close to Plano as it is Elm Street.

“We have had real estate agents here who have no idea a property of this size exists in Farmers Branch,” Doug Chitwood told me. He and I have become friends, and I am anxiously awaiting his next listing

“They love the peace and quiet so much they never want to leave,” says Doug. “You are 15 minutes from DFW, the Galleria, heck you can see downtown Dallas, but it feels like you are 60 miles away in the country.”