Historic Murphy House May Get the Uptown Treatment

A  proposed project in Uptown is in need of a PD update, and it’ll be going in front of the City Plan Commission next month. If ultimately approved by council members down the line, a 24-story tower will replace a piece of Dallas history: the over-a-century-old Victorian mansion still sitting on Maple Avenue.

In 2023, Hotel St. Germain closed its doors at 2516 Maple Ave, where it had been operating out of the seven-room historic residence. Developer and restaurateur Robert Colombo ended up acquiring the quaint piece of architecture, which is known as the Murphy House.

Originally built in 1897, the mansion came into the possession of pioneering Dallas real estate developer John Murphy in the early 1900s. A historic marker at the site says the building stayed in his family for five decades. It’s been rehabilitated a number of times before becoming the city’s first bed and breakfast inn.

Robert Wilonsky of The Dallas Morning News recently put a spotlight back on the property, calling up preservationists who have been busy trying to save Dallas City Hall. No doubt a sign of the times, the Victorian mansion is being reimagined(?) as The Monclaire Hotel & Residences.

Uptown’s Newest Hotel and Residential Tower The Montclaire Gets Committee Nod

As previously reported by CandysDirt.com, Colombo secured the endorsement of the Oak Lawn Committee back in May. The property is in a Planned Development District, and plans call for an amendment to allow for a maximum height of 310 feet with proposed lot coverage of 8,100 square feet and 80 dwelling units (a mix of condos and hotel rooms), according to the zoning application.

Neighborhood residents were worried about the valet parking and traffic implications, but Colombo managed to assuage the concerns, at least enough to get the Oak Lawn Committee’s backing.

If everything goes according to plan, The Monclaire would open sometime in early 2029. It would feature expansive balconies, landscaped surroundings, and pedestrian-friendly setbacks along Maple Avenue, according to the developer’s pitch deck. The property would include a boutique hotel with oversized rooms and suites and a number of private residences on the top floors, and, of course, there will be plenty of amenities.

The seeming trajectory of the site likely won’t do much for preservationists, who likely feel like it’s been one thing after another in Dallas. Housing demand and determined developers looking to update the cityscape are tough pressures to resist these days, and Uptown has been ground zero for modern redevelopment. Roughly 19,000 people live in the neighborhood, which is also home to hundreds of businesses that employ tens of thousands of workers in the 1-square-mile public improvement district.

“We’ve really focused on making sure that we are the premier live-work-play neighborhood in Dallas,” Uptown Dallas, Inc. executive director Kelem Butts previously told CandysDirt.com.