Junius Heights Home Tour Highlights Neighborhood’s Rich History

The 180 acres that make up the Junius Heights Historic District are rife with brick and mortar exemplars of Dallas history — and its annual home tour is always popular because of that. This year’s tour, which will be held next weekend, is no exception.

The tour will boast two homes that are on the National Register of Historic Places, a former hippie commune, a church, and a busy arts and crafts fair for anyone looking to get a jump on their holiday shopping by supporting local artists. The tour will be held Sunday, Nov. 4, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“From cozy bungalows to restored grand mansions, this year’s tour has something for every home tour lover,”  Terri Raith and Rene Schmidt, JHHD board member and president, respectively, said. 

Raith also is the owner of one of the homes on the tour — “The Shack,” which is the home built by venerated stained glass artist Roger McIntosh, whose stained glass work graces many spaces in Dallas. The 100-year-old home is filled with his glass designs and woodwork. It’s an artful, quirky cottage that is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places.

One of the two grand and freshly restored Gaston mansions on the tour was known as “Shepard’s Bush”, a hippie commune where thirty flower children once lived and loved together in the 70s. This time around, the newly landscaped grounds will host a happy beer garden for JHHD tour guests.

Through a partnership with Friends of Aldredge House, the elegant 7,000-square-foot 1917 mansion at 5500 Swiss, a National Register home designed by Dallas architect Hal Thompson, will be open for come and go guests from 11 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.

The Friends of Aldredge House will conduct a free costumed Living History Enactment in the home at 1 p.m. and at 2 p.m. Note: The Aldredge House tour stop closes at 3 p.m. and no tour ticket is required to visit this location.

Almost 40 vendors, selling everything from food to fine art, will be selling their latest creations at the JHHD Arts and Craft Fair, held in the parking lot of Lakewood Library on Abrams.

JHHD Home Tour Tickets are $15 in advance at Buzzbrews Lakewood and Tallulah & Hess. Day-of tickets are $20 and may be purchased at the Junius Heights Craft Fair at the Lakewood Library or any home on the tour. For more information about the historic district and the tour, click here.