Dahl house demolition proves Park Cities preservation groups are ineffective

Answers have to come from regulation

by Shannon Wynne

HIGHLAND PARK — It’s time for people to stop moaning every time another historical home is torn down in Highland Park. About every year another home gets a headline. Every year people cry ‘cause another historic home just got scraped into oblivion. Quit being so surprised. It makes you look insincere.

However, I got pissed off about six years ago and helped form Preservation Park Cities in a naïve effort to curb this civic vandalism. We worked and worked to get the Historic Home Plaque Program started which identified important houses in the community.  We had town meetings which were attended by hundreds of people who really wanted this carelessness to stop. We were on a roll until it came to actually getting laws enacted to stop the destruction of our town’s history. I slowly realized there was an overwhelming sentiment in the city leadership that read like this, “If I own the damn house, my rights as a landowner cannot be dictated by an unofficial body (that’s the PPC) attempting to limit my right to tear this bastard down, if I want to”. I tried to get PPC fired up to fight for real preservation. They just did not have it in them to confront the laws within the city regulations.  There was lots of hand wringing, but the board did not want to take a stand.

Look, the influx of new residents to the Park Cities, or in other historic areas, did not grow up here, have no stake in the past, and really are focusing on 1) keeping up appearances 2) wanting a bigger place, as that’s the fashion 3)  the cost of renovation(which is actually less compared to new construction). A builder would rather eat a bug than have to jack with an old house.

We even tried to develop a way for folks wanting to protect their homes after they sold them with a legal tool which would deed-restrict the home’s façade so future owners could build on the back of the home but not destroy the historic front. I was told this would be seen as too restrictive to owners’ rights.

The almighty dollar is going to win every time unless the people force city government to do something to limit owners rights. How well do you think that idea sits with the conservative Park Cities? The “It’s my house, dammit” folks just don’t cotton to being told what to do. The home owner associations aim way too low to be effective in small important historic areas.

ANSWER: THERE MUST BE REGULATION IMPLEMENTED WITHIN THE CITY GOVERNMENT IF THERE IS TO BE ANY SLOWDOWN OF HISTORIC DEMOLITION.

It’s civic rights vs. historic preservation. You pick.

There are other creative ways to stop the teardowns, and historic overlays have been the most difficult. They are hard to attain, but possible. Most historic areas have been so ravaged with new construction that they are not even eligible for national protection. Taking this route those in the Park Cities would only be able to save certain blocks on certain streets after a great deal of work. 80% of the important homes in the Park Cities have already been torn down. The demolition of the Dahl house in HP last week did not have to happen. Though they have all been carefully inventoried, the Town Of Highland Park fathers are way past due in identifying the homes that should be protected, but there is no leadership to do so. It would simply piss off too many individuals.

However, if an election to limit the destruction were held, I believe it would win hands down. Who would oppose such a vote? The list is long….Ebby Halliday, Briggs-Freeman, Ellen Terry and all the other residential brokers who control the commerce of home resales. This complicates their lives and stifles new Yankees coming in and building great big houses on smaller lots intended for hobbit houses. Regulation like this would also be opposed to by the builders, who love to tear down 20’s, 30s and 40s homes so they can build bigger houses. It’s business, and they sure don’t want anybody screwing with their business. One builder told me he hates to tear down some of the houses, but baby needs new shoes.

Restoration in more civic-minded parts of the country is huge business. When I walked away from the group I decided I would restore a 1932 duplex as it was much cheaper than rebuilding the whole house. I took it to the studs, replaced all the electrical, plumbing and even supported the old foundation. As a result, I got a Preservation Park Cities plaque awarded to the front of my house. Yet because the plaque does not reveal why my house is important, the whole popular fashion to have a plaque on one’s home has been lost, as it lacks any historical nor architectural information revealed about the house. One should be able to take great pride in having a plaque because of the significance of the architecture.

These organizations are too weak within the city, but they don’t have to be. Many parts of Oak Cliff, Swiss Avenue,  and the Routh Street corridor have successfully stepped up to the plate…but not HP. We had a town meeting of Preservation Park Cities six years ago. Two hundred people packed the high school to hear what was going to be done. Nothing was done. The builders and brokers infiltrated the meeting and somehow the will to fight was lost.

Preservation Park Cities has recently merged with an even like minded but equally ineffective organization called Park Cities Historical Society, which was mainly run by blue hairs in hopes that the good will of their organization would halt the destruction of homes through education. Fat chance. The new group is called Park Cities Historic & Preservation Society.

I walked away from the organization after beating my head against the wall because I knew if we did not have the will to develop teeth in its mission statement, the influx of out-of-towners would take over and win. PPC thought they could educate the people out of their ignorance.  

The few homes which have any historic relevance and have escaped the demolition ball in the Park Cities are doomed to eventually fade away unless they are specifically protected. It cannot be left to hoping the owners do the right thing, instead, the great hope about this cause is that it crosses all political lines. It’s not a democratic outburst from some little holed-up pocket of pinkos. Hell, it’s the people who love history and have lived here all their lives. They are the ones who will get this done IF they get leadership that has the will to fight the fight with City Hall.

So curb your jaw-dropping amazement when another historic house bites the dust. Get involved, get mad, march on your City Hall. Just get ready for the contractors and brokers to step in to try to foil your every move.

Shannon Wynne is the head honcho at 8.0, The Flying Fish and The Flying Saucer.

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