Sip, Stroll, and Admire Munger Place’s Impeccable Collection of Arts and Crafts Homes

It’s little wonder why Craftsman-style homes are consistently near or at the top of the list when we talk about America’s favorite architectural style. It’s timeless and offers clean lines and angles that are eminently pleasing to the eye.

That’s why Munger Place remains one of Old East Dallas‘ most popular enclaves of historic Arts & Crafts architecture, and why you should also jump at the opportunity to attend the annual Munger Place Wine Walk on April 23.

The event, which showcases five Munger Place historic homes for a wine tasting from 4 to 8 p.m., is an excellent way to get a taste of this historic neighborhood and what makes it special — the people who live there.

There are two types of tickets — standard and premium — both of which are available right now on the Munger Place neighborhood website. You can purchase a standard ticket to the wine walk for $30, which includes two wines in each home and appetizers. A premium ticket is available for $60 that gives patrons access to two sensational, hand-picked wines from Jimmy’s Food Store — an Old East Dallas institution. Premium ticket buyers also receive a Munger Place wine glass complements of Talulah & Hess. The ticket price increases by $15 if purchased after April 16, so make sure to secure your pass now.

A party and raffle will be hosted after the tour at the neighborhood’s hidden treasure restaurant, Garden Cafe. Prizes will be given away and the ticket holder has to be present to win. The full map of the Munger Place Wine Walk is available here.

For more information on these incredible historic homes, read on.

4926 Junius Street 

Sitting near the center of a stately, tree-lined block, this house fairly glows with a warm shade of butter yellow, and the comfortable wraparound porch proves inviting all year ’round. From 1914 to the present, music has been a persistent theme in this very well-preserved, classic four-square. Mrs. Margaret Keehan, the daughter of the first owner, gave lessons in the music room and there’s been a piano in that room ever since. The few successive owners have each passed along a small collection of house memorabilia, which will be on display. Among the original features reflecting 100+ years of loving care are the light fixtures, the pocket doors, the picture rails, and pine floors. The home was awarded a Preservation Achievement Award from Preservation Dallas following its original rehab in the late 1990s. More recently, the kitchen had a makeover, with updates to the appliances, countertops, backsplash, and color scheme. The garage serves as a family exercise and game room, and the upstairs sleeping porch has been converted to a home-office overlooking the swimming pool, which was added by the current owners in 2012. On your way up the stairs, admire the hand rail – salvaged from an Oklahoma hotel. (Feel free to ask the owners why it was installed upside-down.)

5107 Tremont Street

Remaining true to the house’s historical character while adapting to modern livability has been important to the current owners of this 1919 classic four-square. Under their care, several walls were removed or altered to expand certain spaces within the 1900-square-foot home. To provide increased comfort, spray-foam insulation was added under the floors, as were additional venting and zoned mini-split units. A new mantlepiece was chanced upon and installed and the fireplace was retrofitted to accommodate a very effective gas-burning heating system.  Other renovations include the entire kitchen and the three bathrooms, each of which now feature reinforced floors and meticulous tile work – all done by the owners. In fact, most of the renovations have been DIY projects. Neighborhood lore tells of previous owners who divorced but continued to live in the house – each on his or her own floor – with a separate, external stairway. Traces of that second-floor entry are still visible on the side of the house. Inside, the top section of damaged stairs was recently redone with reclaimed-pine stair treads.  Out back sits a large garage and workshop, a greenhouse, and some lovely flower beds and even grapevines.

4933 Tremont Street

If there’s something vaguely familiar about this home, you may have visited it on the 2014 Home Tour, when it was featured in a somewhat raw state as a work in progress.  Painstaking, largely single-handed work went on for nearly ten years, and now, as of last September, a new owner is in the final stretch of bringing the house back to its deserved luster. The 3,450-square-foot home, built in 1910, is a classic four-square with four bedrooms upstairs.  Although the house served time as an eight-unit apartment – a first-floor room still has its own entry and porch – the spaces have been re-opened to provide a natural, airy flow.  Where the backyard had previously been beleaguered by a tumble-down carriage house, a transformation is well underway.  Stepping out onto the soon-to-be-screened back porch, one now finds cedars, elms, ginkgo, and catalpa gracing a tasteful yard.  It’s remarkable what six dump trucks of soil and a bulldozer can do.  A brick patio (and a door from the kitchen) are also planned for the side yard.  In front, take note of the rarely seen pipe beam used to enclose the porch.

4908 Worth Street

As might be expected of one of the oldest homes in Munger Place (circa 1905), this address comes with many stories.  Before it was even built, the first owners apparently came out to the site for a picnic, then planted the now-massive pecan tree that dominates the backyard.  A towering crape myrtle and a grand gardenia have also lent company to the house for many, many years.  When the small, backyard pond was dug and fitted decades ago, it set off a trend in the neighborhood that continues to this day. It’s a frequent refrain that homes in the neighborhood were split and reconfigured as boarding houses; one of the boarders here reportedly wrote the old-time classic “Home on the Range.”  Once it was a single-family home again, renovations included adding on a back porch, enclosing that porch, adding a porch beyond that, and enclosing that one, as well.  More recently, the home received the 2004 Preservation Achievement Award from Preservation Dallas.  The newest owners have been in the three-bedroom house less than a year and are forming plans to finish out a third floor. 

5019 Tremont Street

Porches abound in this 1908 home – in front, on the side, in the back, and on both stories – with the second-floor sun porch now serving as a spacious office.  Purchased by the current owners in 2019, it had been the long-time home of a wood sculptor and then of a photographer.  The spacious studio out back now serves as a sunlit entertainment space, a retreat, and (when the curtains are closed) a casual home theater.  Inside the house, the crafty hands of the current owners are very much in evidence.  A series of projects has kept them very busy for the last three years.  Walls have been stripped down, a fireplace was uncovered, and every electrical outlet and switch was removed and replaced. While scrubbing and rehabbing all of the doorknobs and escutcheons in the house, they confirmed that each doorknob is a unique piece of a fully matched set. This is just a partial list of the efforts the owners have undertaken themselves to make this home uniquely their own.  Oh, and just between me and youse, a fella might need to know the secret knock to get into a certain room here.  (The basement has been kitted out as a cozy speakeasy with high-top tables and hand-painted “brick” walls.)