Architecturally Significant: Perry Heights Home of Arch Swank For Sale

When Dave Perry-Miller agent Meg Read told me her listing near Oak Lawn was once owned by the renowned architect Arch Swank, I let out an audible ”Wow!” And then I immediately had questions. Like, Why wouldn’t you put that in a giant all-caps headline in the listing? ARCH SWANK OWNED THIS HOME AND NOW YOU CAN BUY IT. Or something like that, you can wordsmith it.

Read’s listing at 4316 Rawlins Street is a one-of-a-kind classic Craftsman located in the Conservation District of Dallas’s Perry Heights. This four-bedroom, 6,407-square-foot home was architecturally inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright design.

Why would a Texas modernist icon like Arch Swank purchase a Craftsman home he didn’t design?

It’s a funny story, actually. “It’s a midcontinent crude style,” Swank once joked flatly to a reporter. His wife, Patsy, a former Dallas News writer, had a more practical answer. “We have four children and we needed space,” Mrs. Swank told the newspaper in 1965. “We couldn’t afford this much space in a new home.”

Why was this home built in 1944 when nearly all the other homes in the neighborhood were built in the roaring ’20s?

Well, that’s a little unclear. In the News archives, I found prior owners dating back to its first in 1923, a prominent Dallas dentist named Dr. Athol Lee Frew. But that new home had a single steep eave that doesn’t match the roofline it has now.

So, who designed Arch Swank’s home?

Famed architects Foshee and Cheek designed several showcase homes in the new Perry Heights addition in the 1920s, including the lavish home of Perry Heights developer Gordon Perry. But original owners that purchased lots on Rawlins St. could select their own architect as long as the home was two-stories tall made of brick, stucco, or hollow tile. No wood frame homes were allowed in Perry Heights. Advertisements in the Dallas Morning News archives show that Allen Burton designed the 1923 home. But the 1944 home there now? That’s unclear.

By 1946 (per the ad above), this Craftsman beauty arrived with many of the architectural elements you still see today. Two large porches — front and back — provided protection from the elements while allowing pass-through breezes for lounging and sleep. That is, until Swank installed air conditioning in the mid-60s, according to a Dallas News feature.

Fast forward six decades and this Craftsman was taken down to the studs and renovated with the highest quality details. Structurally, the homeowner added extra insulation, sound absorption for the windows, and custom woodwork including new Craftsman-style cabinetry, molding and doors.

The updated kitchen features top of the line appliances including a Wolf Range, Miele steam-sous Vide built-in oven, a SubZero Pro built-in refrigerator, pellet ice machine, and two Cove by SubZero dishwashers.

The living room features an Batchelder tile fireplace of earth-tone square tiles. Batchelder tiles were used nationwide in everything from fireplaces, to floors, fountains, and bathrooms.

There’s a uniquely designed hand-built staircase, and top of the line finishings with Anne Sacks tile and Robern medicine cabinets. Plus, an elevator shaft was added to access all three floors.

So back to my original headline: THE Arch Swank Lived Here and You Should Buy It.

Meg Read of Dave Perry-Miller Real Estate has listed 4316 Rawlins Street for $2.7 million.