The Sharrock Niblo Barn is a Preservationists Dream

Our series on the 2020 Preservation Achievement Awards presented by Preservation Dallas continues this week with the Sharrock Niblo barn.

Historic preservation is not just about restoring homes or repurposing office buildings. It’s also about preserving original pioneer structures like the Sharrock Niblo barn. This is one of the most important aspects of preservation because it shows us how Dallas settlers lived.

You are probably familiar with the John Neely Bryan cabin in downtown Dallas. It’s a replica — not the real deal by a long shot.

Sure, it’s cool to see a representation of the past, but it’s so much better to see an original structure. Hopefully, by the next bond election, you will be able to see the Sharrock Niblo barn because it is certainly the real deal, and its historic significance is exceptional.

The Sharrock Niblo barn and surrounding structures date from the first years of Texas statehood. Everard Sharrock Jr. arrived a few years after John Neely Bryan established the first settlement in Dallas in 1841

Sharrock moved to Texas around 1846 and settled a 320-acre land grant known as Peters Colony, part of the White Rock Escarpment, in Dallas County. Land grants required settlers to build a permanent home and live and work on the land for three years. Sharrock built a one-room log cabin, a well, a root cellar, and a large barn.

Judge Grady Niblo Sr. bought 100 acres of the original Sharrock acerage in 1934. The family owned the property until 2005 when Marlin Atlantis White Ltd. purchased 78.33 acres to develop as homes. The company donated 33.74 acres, including the original historic structures, to the City of Dallas Parks and Recreation Department for use as an eventual city park. They are among the oldest structures to survive in Dallas County.

The site became a City of Dallas Landmark in 2013 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 2015 and 2016, it was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, and a State of Texas historic marker was placed at the site.

If you think it’s a herculean task to create a plan and restore structures from the 1800s, you are correct. It takes a village of preservation specialists and restoration experts. Trent Williams, Senior Program Manager with the City of Dallas Parks and Recreation Department headed up the project. Nancy McCoy, of McCoy Collaborative Preservation Architecture and Dan Sellers, owner of Phoenix 1 Restoration, were the teams behind the restoration.

“It was a two-part exercise,” Williams said. “A master plan was created for the property. The second part was an assessment of the historic structures through a series of surveys and archeological investigations. This process took almost five years.

Can you imagine the daunting task of stabilizing a structure from the 1800s, much less reconstructing a stone and bois ‘d arc foundation, replacing deteriorated logs, and installing a wood shake roof?

“Our hope is that this site will tie a child in the suburbs to history,” Williams said. “We want them to see that simpler way of life and think about how and why people settled here. It’s not only a historic site, but it also creates an experience for the nature lover. It’s also a great birding and geological site.”

The next bond program will create access to the Sharrock Niblo site so people can get into the park and take accessible pathways up to the historic sites.

Do you know what that means? Get out and vote, so we can all have access to this unique historic site!