Dallas Woman’s Forum Set to Raise The Roof with Skip Hollandsworth

It’s an aging beauty in need of some maintenance. But its long and storied place in Dallas history makes the Alexander Mansion worth continued efforts to preserve it, the group that has owned it since 1930 says.

The mansion was built in 1904 and was first the home of C.H. Alexander — a hotelier (according to a brief story in the Houston Post from 1906) and ice house owner. He also apparently earned a great deal of coin ($500,000 then, probably around $12 to $13 million in those days) selling the track and equipment to build 27 miles of the Dallas Consolidated Electric Street Railway.

The mansion was designed by skyscraper builders Sanguinet & Staats of Fort Worth and has seven fireplaces, stained glass windows, and front columns crafted from Italian marble. At the time of its building, it was one of many mansions on Ross Avenue.  Sanguinet & Staats had a hand in several other mansions, including those along Pennsylvania Avenue in Fort Worth and Courtland Place in Houston.

Almost every tall building in Fort Worth built before 1930 was designed by the firm. The 20-story Amicable Insurance Company building in Waco was designed by the firm in 1911 and was for a time the tallest building in the whole Southwest.

In 1930, the mansion passed to the Dallas Woman’s Forum, a service group that hit the ground running from its inception with its mission to protect families in Dallas — it championed the first Pure Food Law in Dallas.

“Members have volunteered endlessly to end hunger and assist teenage mothers and children who live in low-income homes,” current president Wanda Hensley said, adding that the group supports Birdie Alexander Elementary School, the Landauer ChildCareGroup Center, Alley’s House, and the music education program at Booker T. Washington.

“By providing school supplies, books, diapers, or simply a place to hold a recital or an Easter egg hunt, The Dallas Woman’s Forum leaves its mark on the lives of those in our community,” Hensley said.

But the mansion is in need of renovation — the roof being the first order of business. Hensley said fundraising has been slow-going, but they’re applying for grants as well to raise the funds for the desperately needed roof.

“We got $80,000 supplies donated for the roof from a great roofing company,” she said. “But with it being a historical building, you just can’t hire any roofer to fix it because it has to be done a certain way.”

Hensley said the current estimate to repair the roof is $180,000. “We just don’t have enough to do it yet,” she said. “We’re at risk now, if we don’t repair it soon, that the house will probably have to be torn down.”

“If we can fix the roof, we can stop the immediate damage,” she added. “Every time it rains, the water comes into the house.”

Hensley said they are also trying to raise awareness regarding the need, because “we don’t want the community to go, ‘Oh my God, we didn’t know, if we did we would’ve done something!’”

The group has grand plans for the home once it is again up to snuff and dry. “We want to hold it open for school kids to come and see how people lived back then — to see what one of the first showers in Dallas looks like, to see one of the first homes with electricity.” Dallas real estate icon Virginia Cook has been a solid supporter of the Alexander Mansion for decades.

As part of the fundraising effort, the group is hosting “Raising the Roof,” an event featuring Texas Monthly writer and book author Skip Hollandsworth, who will talk about the infamous Dallas Cat Burglar case.

“Thank God, he’s such a sweetheart — he agreed to be the speaker for this fundraiser,” Hensley said.

Hollandsworth is an award-winning journalist who has been a four-time finalist for the National Magazine Award, and a National Magazine Award winner in 2010. The Richard Linklater movie “Bernie” was co-written with Hollandsworth. Last year, his book, The Midnight Assassin, became a New York Times bestseller.

The event, which takes place from 6 to 8 p.m. Sept. 21, will include refreshments and a tour of the historic mansion.

Tickets to the event are $60 per person, and all proceeds go towards the roof repair fund.  For more information or to pay online, click here. Free parking is available behind the Mansion off Annex Street. The Alexander Mansion is located at 4607 Ross Ave., Dallas.

The Dallas Woman’s Forum is also a participant in North Texas Giving Day, on Sept. 14.