Old is the new new Celebrating 100 years of Vickery Place

Story

by

raChel Stone

in 1911, about 200 lots sold in the neighborhood described as “a new addition to dallas, just north of st. Mary’s College.” those lots, in Vickery Place, sold for a total of $150,000, and their owners began building immediately. the Vickery Place neighborhood Association celebrates its 100th anniversary with a home tour sunday, Oct. 16.

LEFT: Virginia Champion Belcher, pictured in the backseat of her mother's car, was 6 years old in 1919, when her family moved to 5330 Richard, then a dirt road with few trees. Belcher later became a proponent for Dallas parks, and the Ridgewood-Belcher Recreation Center was named in her honor. PhoTo Cou RTE sy oF ViRginia C hamPT ion BELC h ER BELow: a woman works in cotton fields adjacent to Vickery Place. The area consisted mostly of cotton fields in the early 1900s, and after development was considered north Dallas, with goodwin being the city's northern border. PhoTo Cou RTE sy oF PEggy sw E nson the Vickery Place centennial home tour

Sunday, Oct. 16 from 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

Tickets cost $12 in advance and $15 the day of the tour. Tickets to a VIP party and tour of a bonus house cost $25 and must be purchased in advance online at vickeryplace.com.

These retailers also are selling home tour tickets: North Haven Gardens, Downing Hill, The Wooden House and Talulah Belle. Proceeds benefit Animal Rescue of Texas, James Bonham Elementary School and Vickery Place neighborhood improvements.

Nowadays, Vickery Place is an urban neighborhood, adjacent to Central Expressway and the nightlife and shopping of North Henderson. But 100 years ago, this was North Dallas, about 4 miles, at horse-and-buggy pace, to Downtown .

In 1912 Vickery Place sewers were hooked up to the city system. And by1913, a streetcar,whichwould turn out to be unprofitable, ran to Vickery Place. Around that time, the VickeryPlaceSchool,now b onham e lementarySchool,wasbuilt.