13 minute read
Community
Advertisement
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Lindley Arthur Interiors grew organically from a small space in the back of Antique Row. She still loves her antique business. Antique chests and custom lighting are her specialties; Lindley Arthur Interiors used the homeowner’s dining table and had the accompanying chairs painted an antique-white with a French finish and recovered in a lavender that pulls one
of the colors from the draperies; For the powder room, a new cabinet crafted with a custom marble top and backsplash turns the tiny, tiny, tiny space into a true jewel box. (PHOTOS: EMERY DAVIS)
LINDLEY ARTHUR MAKING OLD HOMES NEW AGAIN
Designer: Restoration adds value to Park Cities neighborhoods
By Evelyn Wolff
evelyn.wolff@peoplenewspapers.com
Preservation is close to Lindley Arthur’s heart.
Not only does she live and work in the Park Cities, but she also grew up here and joined what’s now Preservation Park Cities last year.
“As an interior designer, I work on new construction jobs a lot,” she said. “But if it were up to me, I would prefer to restore an original home because I think it adds so much value to the neighborhood.”
Many Lindley Arthur Interiors clients live in original homes in the Park Cities.
One has a restored Tudor on Beverly. Lindley and her team are updating the decor with antiques and traditional furnishings, making it fresh with artisan textiles, modern lighting, and walls textured with unusual grasscloths.
“Every room can’t be painted,” she insisted.
Another client lives on Shenandoah Street, where nine houses have received landmark designations from Preservation Park Cities. Twelve years ago, Meredith Farrell and her husband, Corbin, bought their 1946 home just one block from where the sales agent for Compass grew up and wanted to raise her daughters.
“Just because a house is old does not mean that it needs to be torn down,” she said. “There are so many designers, architects, craftsmen, and landscape architects that can breathe new life into a property.”
The Farrells have done three remodels and are working with Carolyn Isler of Isler Homes for the second time. Brian Swallen handled the hardscapes, and Lindley rounded out the team.
“She has a great eye for traditional interiors, but she decorates with clean-lined furnishings and with a great sense of color,” Meredith said.
Isler had preserved the original rosette moldings in the entrance hall and the dining room, the chair rails in the dining room, and the mantle with its floral swag and urn ornaments in the living room.
“These elements are expensive to recreate today,” Lindley explained. “But I am passionate about antiques and about these architectural details, which give a house character and keep it from looking like everybody else’s.”
Lindley and her team focused on the powder room, kitchen, and dining room.
The team added beautiful new marble mosaic tile in the powder bath and papered the walls in a printed grasscloth from Schumacher – it looks like cherry blossom branches.
The remodel opened the kitchen up to the den and borrowed space from the dining room to allow for a butler’s pantry.
In the dining room, the team used fabric from Colfax and Fowler.
“Meredith loved the look of Gracie’s hand-painted wallpapers for the dining room, but it was not in the budget,” Lindley said. “Our workroom crafted draperies out of this Chinoiserie floral, and these colors became our jumping-off point for the rest of the house.”
Lindley found a “funky piece of geometric art” during an antique buying trip.
“We popped that unexpected piece into the room,” she said. “I love the juxtaposition of contemporary items with older things.”
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
The Park Cities Historic and Preservation Society recently rebranded as Preservation Park Cities – a move meant to improve future name recognition by matching what similar organizations are called.
“It harkens back to 2006 when the Park Cities Historical Society, which was founded in 1982, joined with then Preservation Park Cities and formed the Park Cities Historic and Preservation Society,” president Tish Key said.
Cat at Large: A Skulduggery ‘Tail’
(PHOTO: PEOPLE NEWSPAPERS ARCHIVES)
On a bitterly cold Dec. 8, 2006, a University Park couple finished putting their children to bed and noticed a primped gray cat pounce onto the porch.
Knowing that temperatures would dip into the low 20s and the EMILEA memory of a
MCCUTCHAN pet freezing to death around Christmastime would be Scrooge-worthy, they sought to reunite the cat with its family.
However, good intentions would soon turn awry, awkwardly introducing the newcomers to their neighbors through Park Cities People’s Skulduggery of the Week.
As the husband carefully picked the cat up to bring it inside, the animal bit him and fled the scene.
The cat-at-large was found upstairs in their daughter’s bed, nuzzled next to her hair.
Once again, as the husband tried to bring the cat downstairs, it assaulted him again.
The second bite was the final straw: With animal control closed for the day, they called the police — requesting lights and sirens off — to get help reuniting the fugitive feline with its family.
Moments later, multiple police vehicles came barreling down Colgate Avenue with sirens blaring and lights blazing — certainly not the best way to make a first impression.
As officers took a report, the cat fled out the front door and into a headline: Twice Bitten, 4 Times Shy.
Those Skulduggery offenders are my parents, Kim and Frank McCutchan, and I was the one the cat cuddled beside.
It was embarrassing at first, but now my parents look back and laugh.
“It was funny because when our neighbor brought the paper over, my first thought was that I hope they didn’t include our home address,” Mom said.
Dad chuckles but still gets irked remembering how it went awry.
“The old adage is true: No good deed goes unpunished,” he said. “I’m happy we tried to help, even though the cat’s bites hurt. I hope readers found it funny, and it made them smile!”
I hope this retelling brings smiles, too.
“In reflection, it is one of our funniest memories being in that house,” Mom said. “But I don’t think I will be bringing any more cats into the house.”
Emilea McCutchan, a graduate of Ursuline Academy, attends the University of Texas in Austin.
S ELL IN G PR E MI ER UR BAN N EI G HBORHOOD S
Meet the experts in Park Cities & Preston Hollow.
SOLD
FOR SALE
2300 Wolf #16BC 4 Bed | 3.5 Bath | 5,427 SqFt O ered for $5,100,000 Sanders Avrea & Ani Nosnik
FOR SALE
5335 Meaders Lane 6 Bed | 6.2 Bath | 12,612 SqFt O ered for $9,750,000 Terri Cox & Kyle Crews
SOLD
4618 Crooked Lane 5 Bed | 5.1 Bath | 6,675 SqFt O ered for $3,298,000 Moriah Lovett & Robin Webster
O ered for $2,050,000 Sanders Avrea & Kyle Crews Sanders Avrea & Kyle Crews
SOLD
2555 N Pearl #902 2 Bed | 2.1 Bath | 2,365 SqFt
SOLD
3505 Crescent Ave Private Sale
Not intended as solicitation of properties currently listed with another broker. Information contained herein is believed to be correct but not
IF/THEN Ambassador provides STEM example for girls
SEEING ORANGE
What: Lyda Hill Philanthropies’ #IfThenSheCan – The Exhibit
When: The exhibit, which opened May 15, runs through Oct. 24.
Where: NorthPark Center – Look in the CenterPark Garden and the hallway between Breadwinners and La Duni.
Details: The full-size 3-D printed statues of the IF/THEN® Ambassadors include QR codes visitors can scan to access audio and video about each of these remarkable female STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) innovators.
Online: https://ifthenexhibit.org/
By Emilea McCutchan
People Newspapers
Perhaps more girls will become doctors after visiting NorthPark Center and viewing an orange statue of Dr. Nina Niu Sanford.
“I think having realistic role models is always the most important,” said Sanford, a radiation oncologist who lived near Highland Park before moving to Preston Hollow this summer. Dr. Nina Niu Sanford visits a 3-D printed statue of herself. (PHOTO: COURTESY NINA NIU SANFORD) The
life-sized figures of female innovators in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
are on display at NorthPark Center. (PHOTO: JAMES EDWARD PHOTOGRAPHY)
Inspired by her mother, Sanford pursued medicine, becoming among the 30% of women in her field and one of the 125 American Association for The Advancement of Science (AAAS) IF/THEN® Ambassadors. The ambassadors are female STEM innovators chosen to encourage more girls to pursue science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers.
Lyda Hill Philanthropies’ #IfThenSheCan – The Exhibit showcases the ambassadors by depicting them in life-sized, 3-D printed statues outfitted in gear typical of their jobs. Their careers range from the CEO of a gaming company to a fashion designer.
Sanford is excited to serve as a role model to young girls.
“I believe I am in a position that allows me to change the status quo,” she said. “It is important for my daughters to have strong and diverse female role models who instill in them the confidence and independence to succeed. If we want girls to pursue careers in medicine, then we need both women and men to support them.”
Also, it is essential to have a realistic perspective on what the career entails, something she said she was grateful to get from watching her mom, who was a doctor in China.
After immigrating to the United States, Sanford witnessed first-hand the dedication medicine requires and how rewarding the field is as her mom retrained to become a licensed physician here.
For North Texans interested in exploring a career in the medical field, she recommends the STARS (Science Teacher Access to Resources at Southwestern) Program.
“It is where they [high school students] get paired with a mentor, a physician, and they get to be involved with research,” Sanford said.
UT Southwestern Medical Center launched the program in 1991 and has served more than 20,000 teachers and an estimated 90,000 students in 4,000 North Texas schools, according to utsouthwestern.edu.
Sanford has earned many accolades in her career, such as being named a Dedman Family Scholar in Clinical Care, but also faced challenges.
Sometimes systems in place — such as no maternity leave and meeting schedules that conflict with school pick up and drop off times — can work against female practitioners, she said.
Her advice: Don’t compare yourself to others.
“There’s always someone you perceive is doing more, doing things better, and doing things at a faster rate,” Sanford said. “Let you define yourself, and let you define your personal goals. Stop with the comparison trap as early as possible because it is very damaging.”
Favorite Places: Got To Drop By Kuby’s Every Trip Back Home
Restaurant loyalties run deep. Look at the scads of eateries that have drawn devotion for decades in the Park Cities, Preston Hollow, and environs.
Some have burrowed into the cultural DNA and risen to the level of way of life. Go to a place of-
KATHY BIEHL ten enough – especially when you’re young – and it takes on an attraction that transcends the food. Reliability is part of the appeal. So is tradition.
For some, the destination is El Fenix on Northwest Highway at Hillcrest. Mexican food may be abundant all over town, but come Wednesdays, enchilada specials have long made this institution a place to be.
For others, it’s Burger House in Snider Plaza, renown for seasoned salt, old-school burgers, and shakes that hearken back to its early ‘60s roots. Longtime customers have made introducing the next generation a rite of passage, documented these days with photos on social media, as one fellow Highland Park High School grad recently did with his granddaughter.
For me, the draw is in Snider Plaza as well: Kuby’s, the German sausage and sandwich house. I’ve been going since the prices were accurate on the handpainted menu hanging over the dining room entrance. From my college years on, it’s been the backdrop for numerous personal rituals, starting with occasional Friday lunch escapes from SMU’s cafeteria, instigated by one friend or another in a noon-hour class passing a note that said only “Kuby’s?”
I moved away decades ago to Houston, then NYC, and now New Jersey. When I come back, Kuby’s tops my shortlist. Bratwurst has made it onto my schedule during every high school reunion (one of which, by the way, officially featured Burger House catering).
The waitstaff no longer menaces (the original crew of waitresses had a towel at the waist and an attitude that hinted they wouldn’t hesitate to whap you). Sandwiches no longer come with a tiny paper cup of dangerously delectable, mayonnaisey chopped luncheon meat called Wurstsalat.
The important parts remain, though, and now with the bonus of beer.
Time was, the Park Cities were dry, meaning restaurants could not serve alcohol. The workaround was a private club, a notion that eventually found its way into Snider Plaza. I keep my Kuby’s Lifetime Private Club Membership card in my wallet as a memento of the milestone. And I make a point to order dark beer on every visit - because I can.
There’s a quiet magic in these places. They connect us to something more than the meal of the moment. Each visit creates a link in a chain to the past, to previous companions, and, most importantly, to the people we once were.
Come for the food; stay for the memories. Come for the memories; stay for the food. Who cares? As they say in Jersey – shut up and eat!
Award-winning food writer Kathy Biehl, a graduate of Highland Park High School and SMU, breaks her primarily plant-based diet to enjoy Kuby’s and a Whataburger bacon cheeseburger whenever she returns to Dallas.
23 OFF-MARKET HOMES SOLD #3 TEAM IN TEXAS * 75 HAPPY FAMILIES
We are humbled by the recognition of our hard work in 2020 and can’t wait to see what the rest of 2021 brings. We are so grateful for the families who have trusted us to find them homes.
*Among all medium teams (Wall Street Journal Real Trends)
BECKY FREY 214.536.4727 BECKYFREY.COM
All material presented herein is intended for informational purposes only. Information is compiled from sources deemed reliable but is subject to errors, omissions, changes in price, condition, sale, or withdrawal without notice. All measurements and square footages are approximate, but not guaranteed and should be independently verified. This is not intended to solicit property already listed. Nothing herein shall be construed as legal, accounting or other professional advice outside the realm of real estate brokerage. Compass is a licensed real estate broker. Equal Housing Opportunity.
