Hillside

Neighbors were working to get electric streetlights in 1915, and also that year, L.E.Cole of Vickery Place was issued an automobile license.

The neighbors of Vickery Place back thenwereprogressingtowardtechnologyandindustrialism.Andover thepastdecades,VickeryPlacehas changed. Lots of old houses have been torndown,replacedwithrealestate that is more modern or profitable. More recently,theneighborhoodbecame a conservation district in an effort toward preservation. The home tour includes one house that was built a few years ago but fits the architectural style of the neighborhood, for example.

Centennial Home Tour, and it’s one of the oldest in the neighborhood. Since moving into the house five years ago, hehasworkedtobringit back to a “farmhouse in the city,” he says. The house first appeared in the city directory in 1912 (Johnson is planning a 100 th birthday party for it next year). Its original owner was Henry C. Clark, who owned Clark’s Furniture Store on Elm Street downtown. At Clark’s funeral in 1924,VickeryPlacedeveloper George Works served as a pallbearer.

The Blessing family operated the Blessing Planning Mill and Lumber Company, which was at Miller and Henderson, and they lived in this house at 5214 Goodwin. When the house was new (opposite page) it was surrounded by former cotton fields. PHOTO COURTESY OF LORAINE BLESSING SUNDERLIN. Elizabeth Blessing, wife of the youngest Blessing son, Bill, served on the Dallas City Council in the 1960s and was the first woman to run for mayor of Dallas. She was defeated by J. Erik Jonsson.

A previous owner started restorationworkonJohnson’shousein 1996,includingbringingbackthe Queen Anne Victorian’s wrap-around porch, which had been enclosed. That owner also finished out the attic to create a master suite.

Johnson has used old photographs of his house and others from the area to reinstate some historical details. He added wide baseboards and crown molding,andhechosepaintfrom the palette of popular early century colors.

Somethingscannotberestored fully.The front door and some walls were in different places in the original floorplan,forexample.Andwhen it came time for a kitchen update, Johnson decided to go modern. But hedidsalvagethekitchen’sbead board ceilings and the original wood flooring throughout the ground floor.

The most costly updates are not the ones Johnson can show off for party guests, however. The major one was a completefoundationredo.Even afterward, though, the pier and beam foundation still shifts with changes in the weather.

“These old houses, you get cracks in them, and there’s nothing you can do,” he says. “You can’t be too worried about the cracks.”

Johnson also had all of the firstfloor windows restored and weighted, so they work now and can be lifted with one finger. For about the same price, he could have replaced all the windows with energy efficient ones, and he’s still not sure he made the right decision. But he does like the original glass, old and wavy.

Over the past five years, he has replaced most of the home’s wiring and plumbing.

Nothing is perfect in a 100-year-old house. A beam that runs through the center of the home’s floor doesn’t meet perfectly with the rest of the flooring. The house is on a slight incline, and Johnson battles the side-yard fence, which is wont to lean.

There is always something to fix.

Before the Vickery Place house, Johnson had a 1920s duplex in Highland Park, much of which he renovated himself.

“I kind of knew what I was getting into, but not completely,” he says.

Vickery Place resident ChrisBuck designed a rustic-looking fence for the front yard, where Johnson planted fruit trees soon after he bought the house. He got his first bounty this year: 40 peaches, plus a few pears and apples.

“My friends joke that I’m self sustaining now,” he says. “I’m off the grid.”

Maybe not, but Johnson has a hectic, travel-heavy job. And he says it’s nice to come home to his dogs, a bulldog and a poodle, in this unique old home amid friendly neighbors.

“I want to live here for the rest of my life,” he says.