Robert Wilonsky at the DMN Did What We Do Every Day: Dive Deeper Into a Home

This article has been updated with quotes from the agent representing the property.

It’s “tucked among some 500 trees on a five-acre spread of land worth millions at one of the busiest intersections in one of Dallas’ wealthiest neighborhoods. This Preston Hollow house — feted in this newspaper in 1956, written about in an essential 1988 guidebook to native Texas plants — is now considered a tear-down cluttering up five acres at Walnut Hill Lane and Inwood Road for which the owner, a limited partnership, is asking $6.4 million cash-only.”

Well done, Robert Wilonsky, and welcome to our world of dirt worship.

One of the multiple intentions I had when I started CandysDirt, nee DallasDirt (but we include Fort Worth and Plano-Frisco, too, so Candy), was to create a museum for homes just like 9910 Inwood Road. Or 3756 Armstrong. Or the Mayrath House. 4307 Armstrong. Or  the former home of Trammell and Margaret Crow, now gone and buried under the strong new bones of Andy Beal’s new place. 

Or 5511 Park Lane, once my own home.

You see, I have always thought that homes are so much more than two by fours, sheetrock, stone and a roof. This weekend I visited someone who has put more into his home than I can possibly ever describe! It’s detailed, complex and the total passion of the homeowner. The pride in ownership and creation was evident in every cranny.

I am a home tender: I will scrub floors and dust and do whatever needed to keep my home healthy and clean. I love every home I have ever lived in, found it hard to leave each of them. (You don’t want me as a real estate client for that very reason!) And I left each one in what I like to think is better shape than when I first moved in.

With maybe the exception of 5511 Park Lane. Not too far from 9910 Inwood — could have walked —  built in the mid 1930s’, then added onto in the late ’80s. You see, she was a tear down.

(Now that I am getting older and sometimes FEEL like a tear down, I sympathize.)

Our house was on the market for two years with no offers: that was the nineties for you. I was about to give up, then an offer walked in the door. I remember it was a lovely couple who had just lost a baby, and they were looking for a project to focus on. My home was a project indeed. I was elbow deep in kids, schools, practices, sports, dogs, duck, bird, freelancing on the side, a busy husband. I wanted zero project. I couldn’t even get the wallpaper in the foyer replaced. I kept the house clean and decorated — Sherry Hayslip kindly offered advice. Being an older home, the windows were thin and often froze in winter. There were also a ton of them and I ended up covering one entirely with the chinosserie that is now in my dining room. It would be years before I could have the luxury of planning a home around my belongings.

So we got a first offer, not terribly exciting, but hey, it was an offer. At least they were going to keep the house and improve it. We were excited that another human being wanted our home. But of course they were no where near my magic number, my “reserve”.

While we back-and-forthed with that contract, the zinger came in. Another offer, almost full price. And they never mentioned the “T” word, thankfully, because I don’t think I could have handled it. I would have just kept the house and checked my building desires under a cushion. 

And bam, like that, we sold it.

The night before we gave up possession, I was in the spa at 3:00 am with one of our four dogs, soaking up every last second. 5511 Park Lane was our first real “dream house”. Sometimes when I am alone and in a quiet place, I think about the moment and how it is gone instantly. You know, how this thought is history the moment you think it? I clearly recall “a moment” when I was about 21, sitting in my parent’s back yard on the diving board of their pool, one beautiful June day. All this will be gone someday, I thought, this good life — my parents, my childhood home, this pool.

I had a feeling that, like my moments, 5511 Park Lane would all be torn down someday, maybe sooner than later.

But I had made the decision to move on, to help the present become the past.

9910 Inwood Road is a flicker of the love and solace it once provided to an individual, and to a family. The children of the Fixes actually sold the home 12 years ago; of three descendant children, two are surviving and they live out of town. Here is what the daughters of the original owner and builder of 9910 Inwood, George Fix, Jr., say about their family estate:

“He (their father) once said that when he was having a really difficult time in India, desperately sick, he thought, ‘If I survive this, we’re going to buy that land and build that house,'” Nancy said. “I was born in ’41, and we always heard about ‘the property, the property.'”

That’s what I mean: it was a home of passion.

George Fix was a Legion of Merit Award recipient, engineer and businessman. The home was designed by Robert Johnson Perry, a somewhat familiar architect in Preston Hollow and the Park Cities. 

Its interior was designed by Neiman Marcus, which had a strong interior design department at one point.

As for the real estate story, the current owner is Dominion North Tower Properties LC, who holds the lot.

It has been on the market for quite awhile: the estate was sold in April of 2006 for $3,600,000. Claire Dewar, now retired from Briggs Freeman, was the listing agent and says the original landscaping was by Armstrong Berger. In 2008, the home was listed for $8,926,200. The listing price has been all over the place, from a low of $4,400,000 to $6,950,000. There is a reason, as you shall see. 

The last MLS listing was at $6,750,000 with Andrea Pittman of Modtown Realty. The listing is now a hip pocket with Lisa Richardson of Dallas City Center Realtors at $6,490,000. Her sign is on the property. She tells me the owner is even open to financing the property with the right offer.”

“This is the last parcel of multiple acreage for sale in Preston Hollow,” says Lisa. “That’s it, there is no more. And heads up developers: this estate can be divided into five uniform lots.”

Andrea tells me the reason for the price fluctuation is 1.8 acres adjacent to the property, owned by a separate party, that was once bundled to create a 7 acre parcel, hence the higher priced listing when it was almost $8 million. The Fix estate is really 5.2 acres. Andrea tells me the 1.8 acres are available again, too, so now the sales price may go even higher. I mean, it’s pretty prime dirt.  

Still, nice to stop and go deep on a listing sometimes, beyond the square footage and the aspirational pricing. Your home, no matter how stylish, well-decorated, well-maintained, clean, crisp or fruity  represents a dream, a landing place at a particular time, a stake in your family history.

But there is never a guarantee that it, like anything in life, will last forever.