Charles Osgood to Feature PaigeBrooke, the Charles Dilbeck Home in Westlake That Was Moved, on CBS Sunday Morning News

May 30, 2015 | Candy Evans | | Dallas Architectural Wonders, Famous Architects

Share News:

Update 10:59 a.m: Kelly tells me the CBS producers have postponed the story for a week or two, because they didn’t want to cut the piece to fit into a shortened time slot. We will keep you posted!

This is a home that has never left my heart, and never will. I have always thought that homes are like lovers — you have relationships with them over the years, and each one builds your heart, creates a page in your life book. Some are novels — like a long, solid marriage — some are short stories, some are horror stories. Some are lovers you just admire from afar and think wistfully, what if?

Paigebrook is that house for me. Apparently, Charles Osgood thought so, too. It’s an historical North Texas home/ranch that was so loved and revered by it’s owners they moved it, all 4500 plus square feet, piece by piece, wrapped in Tyvek, for a whole lot of money to keep the historical integrity intact and give it a new breath of life. That’s why the owner, Kelly Bradley, tells me Charles Osgood is doing a feature on Moving Houses Sunday morning and her Charles Stevens Dilbeck home is in that segment. It runs on the CBS Sunday Morning News program at 8:00 to 9:30 a.m.

“We’ve lived in this home for 38 years now,” says Kelly, “and loved it so much that we moved it in order to preserve it, from one Westlake location to another, in our same town.”

It’s an incredible story, probably one of the most incredible house moving stories in the nation.

Valley Lake Ranch was built by Ted Dealey, who was publisher of the Dallas Morning News, in 1938, as his get-away ranch. The Bradleys renamed it Paigebrooke Farm after our two daughters, Paige and Brooke. According to legend, Mr. Dealey would have parties there, about 12 miles from Grapevine, long before DFW Airport was a gleam in Dallas or Fort Worth’s eyes.

“Seafood would be flown in from the coast, and distinguished guests would mix and mingle,” says Kelly. “We have 1940’s photos of R. L. Thornton giving a speech out on the front lawn of this home while members of the Pan American Exposition are dining under tents.”

Joe Dealey, Jr. gave the Bradleys those old photographs, they were taken when his grandfather owned the home.

“They are delightful, and I have always wanted someone to identify some of the men in these pictures,” says Kelly. “They have to be from old Highland Park families, and I think one might be Mr. Fitzhugh.”

One of the biggest fans of Paigebrooke, besides me, is Pat Dilbeck, widow of Charles, and their daughter, Elaine. Kelly and Scott Bradley remain close friends with the Dilbeck family, even though the Dilbecks recently moved to Arkansas. I have interviewed his grandson. They all talk frequently, and Pat, at the age of 90+, is active and alert.

“She beats me every time we play a game of Gin,” says Kelly.

This story comes on the heels of news that developer Monte Anderson recently sold the Belmont Hotel, designed by Dilbeck, to Behringer Lodging Group LLC. We’ll have more on that. I’m going to re-post the PaigeBrooke story next — because this is a house you simply have to know about if you live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

And then, of course, watch Charles Osgood on Sunday morning!