Our Story on the Swan House Really WAS a Swan Song: Who Is the New Buyer?

In July, Joanna wrote about the sale of the famous Swan House at 3503 Hillbrook.

A fixture in Lakewood for years, the eclectic home is located just off Bob-O-Link on a large, private lot complete with a pond. That’s where the late Alma and Neal Stanley kept the big, beautiful birds they loved so much. Styled like a gingerbread house straight out of an eastern European fairytale, the 1959 brick rambler features oodles of cool details, hundreds of pieces of custom-carved woodwork, and accessory structures that add so much personality to the home.

Or, as the Dallas Morning News put it recently, 

it was that memorable, rambling ranch house with glorious, storybook acreage, complete with a large pond, fountains, handmade bridges and swans.

Much to the chagrin of some nearby residents, the home was marketed as a teardown. Both listed and sold by Realtor David Ross, the huge lot (DCAD says it’s almost 2.3 acres) was first listed at $1,500,000 in June, 2015, then reduced to $975,000.

(Joanna said it’s on the tax rolls for $1,039,470, with 86 percent of the value in the land.)

The home traded on August 28, 2015 for a mere $700,000. That was a steal. Turns out the owner/seller was Comerica Bank.

Turns out the buyer is John Alexander Investments. From some quick perusing, Mr. Alexander seems to be a real estate investment guru who has several companies listed at his home at 4115 Bretton Bay Lane up near Midway and Trinity Mills Road, including a home contracting company. At the estate sale last summer, the new owner said she planned to not sub-divide the lot.

When Joanna reached out to Ross regarding the Swan Song’s sale, he declined to comment. The neighbors were not pleased with yet another teardown in Lakewood. But they did populate the estate sale.

Now we learn that the artifacts and architectural elements of the Swan House are being sold off by Tom Hirosky’s Discount Home Warehouse:

The salvage bid went to Discount Home Warehouse, a longtime Dallas salvage company and reseller of architectural elements. The company takes pride in carefully removing reusable house and property items for implementation elsewhere. Co-owner Tom Hirosky, 45, says he was elated to get the bid and was hoping that people will cherish the Stanleys’ architectural details, letting them live on in other homes and gardens around the city.

“From what I understand, the previous owners did a lot of work on this place themselves,” Hirosky says.

From the Hansel-and-Gretel-reminiscent cupolas, sloped rooflines, fascia boards with tiny sculpted birds to the fence posts with heart cutouts and ornate European chimney caps, the whimsical woodworking details are amazing.