7 minute read
Historic Strait
Time Honored
Landmark designation wanted for original home on Strait Lane
Story by RACHEL STONE | Photography by CAROLYN BROWN
The owner of an 83-yearold home on Strait Lane recently nominated the estate for historic landmark designation from the City of Dallas.
The Jackson residence at 10260 Strait Lane was built in 1939 and is one of the last remaining historic houses on the street, according to the nomination, submitted by Nancy McCoy of McCoy Collaborative Preservation Architecture, LLC.
Preservation Dallas presented the nomination to the City’s Landmark Commission last week.
Architect Hal O. Yoakam designed the house, and it’s an example of the American Country House movement.
The home was built for Thomas Elbert Jackson, a powerful Dallas citizen, and his wife, Virginia.
He was born in Illinois in 1881 and married Virginia Fell in Nebraska. They moved to Dallas from Kansas City, Missouri, in 1907.
By 1910, Jackson was a manager of the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co., and the Jacksons rented a house on Pennsylvania Avenue in South Dallas, according to the nomination.
They later lived in Highland Park before building their Strait Lane estate.
Jackson was manager of the glass company for 62 years and retired in 1956.
But he was also a civic leader with influence on Dallas’ early development. He was director of Fair Park from 1929-1931, when the Cotton Bowl was built. He was director of the Dallas Chamber of Commerce for 25 years, during the time of land acquisition for and development of Love Field.
He served as president of the Dallas Citizens Council, and in 1947, he was the first president of the Greater Dallas Planning Council.
The Jacksons sold their estate in 1958 and moved into a high-rise, 3525 Turtle Creek, where they lived until their deaths in the mid-1970s, the nomination states.
Historic maps show that Strait Lane didn’t exist in 1930, although the area contained “a scattering of large estates.”
Development of Preston Hollow began in 1924, and it was incorporated as a town in 1939, but Strait Lane was never part of that municipality. It was also outside the city limits of Dallas and the Park Cities at the time.
Here’s how the application explains it:
“In the 1940 U.S. Census, there are five houses noted on Strait Lane, none with a street number, and the Census indicates no city. On Mr. Jackson’s 1942 draft card, the address is listed as ‘Box 277, Route 7,’ suggesting the street had not yet been officially named, despite the fact that the census does identify Strait Lane but no city. The street does not appear to exist at all, not even as a fence line or path, in a 1930 aerial photograph.”
The Jackson home was the first constructed on Strait Lane as a primary residence, the nomination states.
“There was nothing out there when it was built in 1939,” Preservation Dallas executive director David Preziosi told the Landmark Commission recently.
The street had no curbs, sidewalks or streetlights, and that is still true, except for a few “util-
itarian street lights” connected to utility poles on the west side of the street.
“With no city affiliation initially and no development plan for the area, Strait Lane is a reflection of its 80-year-old history and its origin as a country road,” the nomination states.
Beverly K. Parkhurst and her husband, real estate broker Arlis Parkhurst, bought the home in 2007, according to his 2020 obituary.
“The Parkhursts and their pets managed to survive the destructive 2019 tornado, which passed right over their home,” the obituary states.
Beverly Parkhurst approached Preservation Dallas to seek historic designation because she is getting older, and she wants the home to be a living reminder of our city’s history, Preziosi told the Landmark commission.
Experience the Difference of Truly Personal Dental Care
Lake Highlands Dental where you and your comfort come first!
SAME DAY CROWNS
yucky No more impressions
www.lakehighlandsdental.com · 214-613-1279 8610 Greenville Avenue, Suite 150
2021
Chris Meuse
• Board Certified in Family Law by the Texas Board of Legal
Specialization • Experienced in high-conflict custody and divorce suits, involving estates of all sizes • Practicing litigator and collaborative law attorney • Over a decade of experience practicing only in the area of
Texas Family Law
The Best Lawyers in America©
in family law as recognized by Best Lawyers, LLC
Texas Rising Star Honoree (2016-2020 & 2022)
by Thomson Reuters Elite Lawyer by Elite Lawyer
1717 McKinney Avenue, Suite 1500 Dallas, TX 75201 214-871-2727 • koonsfuller.com/attorneys/chris-meuse
BEAUTY IN
A TIME OF WAR
UKRAINIAN SHOP OWNER SENDS 100% OF PROCEEDS TO HER HOMELAND
Story by CHRISTINA HUGHES BABB | Photography by JESSICA TURNER
DELICATE EMBROIDERED DRESSES AND COLORFUL CHILDREN’S JUMPERS HANG OVER BOXES OF BLOOD-CLOTTING BANDAGES AND BULLET-PROOF VESTS READY FOR SHIPMENT TO WAR-TORN UKRAINE.
An assembly line of volunteers pack, seal, wheel and load boxes to an airport-bound moving truck. “I don’t even know how many people there are in here,” Ukie Style owner and Preston Hollow-area resident Olena Jacobs says in a video streamed to her business’ social media pages. “My beautiful store has become a hub for volunteers all helping — boys, girls, Ukrainians, Americans, even some Russians.”
The helpers in Jacobs’ store on this day in early March are not only packing and shipping supplies to Ukraine, but they are helping with everyday shop orders. That is also important, because Jacobs says 100% of the boutique’s proceeds are going to support the people of Ukraine.
The tiny boutique on Preston Road, just south of Interstate 635, since the threat and outbreak of war with Russia, has become a charity and gathering place for collecting supplies for soldiers and refugees in Jacobs’ homeland. The Ukrainian Cultural Club of Dallas receives donations for the places that require them most.
Board member Nataliya Shtanyuk says Jacobs and Ukie Style have been an “absolute blessing” for the club and its mission to support humanitarian needs of Ukrainians.
In early April, the store is quieter. Jacobs had to ask people to stop bringing in-kind donations because too many were ignoring her list of needed items, dropping off unnecessary goods. Boxes still line the walls, ready for shipment — medical supplies for the war, she says.
A girl’s set — a vivid floral vine handstitched onto a white blouse over a red ruffle skirt — hangs from a hook. It was made in Ukraine, Jacobs says, and it’s the last one. Because most of the shop’s inventory is made in Ukraine, her once-vibrant stock of clothing and accessories has dwindled. She is printing “Pray for Ukraine” T-shirts and selling blue and yellow bracelets made by members of area churches.
Over a speaker, a voice broadcasts in Ukrainian. Every news outlet is discussing the brutality of Russia’s invasion, specifically the latest shocking images, which show dozens of dead Ukrainian civilians strewn about the streets of Bucha, a town northwest of the capital, Kyiv.
Shopper and area resident Lee Erickson saw Ukie Style’s videos and stopped by to show support, she says.
Jacobs, a native of Donetsk, Ukraine, living in the U.S. since 2009 says a brand based in Kharkiv, which Russia bombed in March, served as motivation for her own entrepreneurial aspirations.
“I lived in Kharkiv for 10 years before moving to the U.S. I studied and worked, loved and made wonderful friends there. It was known as City of Students and was peaceful, fun and dynamic,” she says. “It was the Kharkiv-based brand Nenka and their contemporary outfits with traditional Ukrainian designs that inspired me to start the Ukie Style business. Now Putin’s command has brought unthinkable destruction and devastation to this city’s residential, cultural and business areas.”
Jacobs launched Ukie Style online in 2015 and opened a physical location in Preston Valley shopping center in 2020.
Just before The Advocate went to press, an unexpected delivery of Ukrainian blankets, shawls, head wreaths, dolls and other merchandise, flown in from Warsaw, Poland, arrived at the shop.
“It’s a happy miracle during a dark time,” Jacobs says of the shipment.
The Ukie Style store at 12817 Preston Road, suite 124, will be selling its new merchandise and donating 100% of its proceeds to the UCCD.
