Home Tour Peeks Into Park Cities History
pchps home tour
WHEN: April 11, 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
PRICE: $20 in advance online or at area Tom Thumb stores; $25 at the door or at Tom Thumb stores the day of the tour.
Tickets are already on sale for the annual sneak peek into some of the Park Cities’ oldest and most notable homes.
The Park Cities Historic and Preservation Society has been preparing this year’s tour and luncheon, and they’re ready to share it with the public.
The fun began with the annual luncheon on April 1, featuring keynote speaker Gerald Turner, president of SMU. His selection was a careful one by the board, with SMU, Highland Park, HPISD, and Highland Park United Methodist Church all celebrating centennials within a few years of each other.
The tour itself, which takes place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on April 11, features four homes: one on Amherst Avenue, one on Lexington Avenue, and two on University Boulevard.
“We have the oldest home in Highland Park and oldest home in University Park, which is kind of exciting,” home tour chair Kendall Jennings said. “All the homes on this tour are just really stunning.”
In particular, the home on Lexington is the oldest home in Highland Park, sitting on the first developed street. Its prairie-style architecture features a large front porch.
The home on Amherst, however, was built as late as 1951.
“The homes along Amherst around the headwaters of Turtle Creek where several professors from SMU and journalists all lived — they called it the ‘culture gulch,’” past president and this year’s chairman Al McClendon said. “There’s a lot of history about that.”
And that’s the main reason visitors come to the tour: for the history. At each home, docents will guide guests from room to room, pointing out notable architectural highlights such as woodworking, windows, and flooring, or even other features including art collections.
Copies of the group’s magazine, which naturally features a significant amount of history and some stories behind the homes, are distributed at each location.
“It’s a chance for our community to gather together with others interested in the history of the Park Cities,” Buford said.
If high-rises are more your style, the Turtle Creek Association will host its 14th annual Tour of Homes on April 12. Tickets are available at the door or at turtlecreekassociation.org. The tour features six different luxury apartments along Turtle Creek Boulevard.
This story appears in the April edition of Park Cities People, on stands now.
