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The Historic Districts
Today many of the city's business and financial leaders once again again
live in its environs. The Swiss Avenue Historic District Association is one of the
most active neighborhood groups in the city and each year sponsors a Tour of Homes on
Mother's Day weekend, complete with parade, street fair and pet show.
Unique and charming homes, peaceful streets and squirrels scampering
across the lawns complement an interesting blend of older residents, young career people
and growing families. Swiss Avenue remains a street of national preservation
significance and the symbol of Dallas' restoration activity.
The Munger Place Historic District reflects an evolution of trends and
attitudes toward older neighborhoods. You will find no single house here worthy of
the National Register of Historic Places. Munger Place is known for its symmetry of
style: uniform spacing, setbacks and wide front porches create cohesiveness among the
predominantly two-story frame houses. Architectural styles include the Dallas
interpretation of Prairie with front door transoms and sidelights, Neoclassical with tall
ornate columns, two-story Craftsman bungalows with broad, overhanging, hipped roofs, and
turn-of-the-century houses that show a Mediterranean influence. The attractiveness
of this neighborhood was not always so easily recognizable.
As in so many transition neighborhoods, emerging artists were the first to
recognize the value of this area: these houses were selling at less than their original
1905 building costs. The artists were attracted to the ten and twelve foot ceilings,
sunlight from the many large windows, and possibly even the air of decadence and
criminality that floated through the neighborhood.
Urban pioneers followed the artists. They were attracted by the
large rooms and double passageways which produce an almost contemporary spaciousness.
Beam ceilings, brass fixtures and pocket doors reminded them of a more gracious
era. These pioneers were sometimes without the money to fix up their houses, but
they were never without the political moxie and ingenuity to initiate legislation to solve
the urban problems that plagued them.
Originally a part of the City of East Dallas, Junius Heights was
established as Bethrum's Addition or Munger Place Second Addition. It became part of
Dallas when the City of East Dallas was annexed in 1890.
Hann & Kendall, the original developers of the 700-home subdivision,
must have known that the area had something special. Their intuition proved
accurate: on the first day that lots were offered for sale, eager buyers snapped up all
but three of the 343 offered! Many of the buyers had camped on their lots for
several days prior to the sale.
Close by, Lestere Miller, Texas' first aviator, opened a flying school
complete with hangar and workshop. Located near what is now the Juliette Fowler
Home, the school drew students from all over the state between 1914 and 1917.
Junius Heights went through several years of slow decline as absentee
ownership in the area grew. This trend was reversed by the hard work of the old and
new homeowners, who participated in the 100-block single-family rezoning, which was the
largest of its kind up to that time.
The neighborhood association saved the historic Junius Heights Columns,
which had marked the entrance into the original development, when they were threatened
with destruction to accommodate a wider Columbia\Abrams Road. Today the columns can
be seen at the intersection of Abrams and Tremont streets, just a little east of their
original location.
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