johnfinley

What a great building!

Dallas had a similar looking Ford plant...

http://dallaslibrary.org/ctx/photogallery/...ing/adamhat.htm

Has Sears replaced the missing siding yet?

Good Gravy! This is fantastic! Thank you so much! How many more pictures are there that aren't on the website?

Does anyone know how the Moody Mansion handled the storm?

Knowing Sears, they have extra siding in storage! Sears is having some really, really bad financial problems right now. I hate to say this, but I bet it'll be a long time before Sears/Rice restores this building. It'd make an awesome off capus location for Rice, wouldn't it?

Perhaps if we can borrow a truck with a trailer hitch and some rope, we can finishe it? =)

Doesn't the house already have missing tiles? It's a miricle that the house didn't sustain any more damage. Do you all think it'd hurt if I downloaded my copies of the blue prints on here?

Also, I hope this isn't a silly question. Would it be okay if I could get some people here in Fort Worth to sign the peteition?

I forgot to say that the first picture looks like Mrs. West's bedroom. The child's room doesn't match any other family bedroom in the plans, with the exception of the identical maid's rooms (one above one another) and the "secretary's" room between the music room and library.

I'm sorry I didn't answer any questions any sooner. I forgot the name of the gentleman who I contacted, but he was really nice and he was with the Fondren Library. I have copes of the original plans, and copies of the remodel plans too. Hey Sloane, how were you able to get those old black and white pictures?

I don't think it's even been flooded. I've seen pictures of it (recent) on the inside and it looks like there is no interior flood damage on the first floor. We had some great pics of the house here a while back, but we had to take them down. I still have them on my pc at home, and I bought the plans from Rice. It's a special house.

I sure hope that nothing happens to the house.

Were they moving dirt around when the fences were up? More than likely, the orange fence was a silt fence. They are used to keep debris and muck getting off the property.

Lang and Witchell designed dozens of colonial revivial mansions in Dallas, early in their partnership. Of course, none of them are around any more. A few Lang and Witchell designs are left in Dallas, but are of varying architectural styles. There was a house in Lancaster, Tx that was a cross between 1766 Pasadena and 217 Westmoreland that L&W designed. If I could get my hands on a color scanner, I'd scan my pics of it for you all.

From HCAD, it appears that a frat sold the house on Pasadena to it's current owner. I did google the house Westmoreland house, and it's under another topic here on this board. It appears that it's owners are a little eccentric.

That house is on Pasadena. The other house I'm referring to is on Westmorland.

Is this house and the other colonial mansion still around?

What building is that on the corner of NASA Rd 1 and Space Center BLVD? Wasn't that a part of the Lunar Complex that leased the West Mansion from Rice? FYI, I just bought the floor plans of the mansion from Rice, and it's such a neat house.

I just got the plans in from Rice. It's such a great house. The second floor is laid out beautifully, but the original first floor layout is a maze of small rooms. I guess that's why people build huge kitchen/family rooms. Included in the plans are the plans from the 1968 remodel. Rice removed a majority of the bathrooms on the second floor and turned them into offices. In addition, Rice moved around the walls and reconfigured Mr. West's and Mrs. West's bedrooms. Funny thing is that there was a miad's room across from their bed rooms orginally, right above the one on the first floor. Mrs. West had the largest master bedroom, but the smalles bath. Mr. West had the exact opposite. The music room/library and den had an interconnecting room in the middle for a secretary. In the den, there was a closet (with gun rack) with a "magic" door that hid the safe. Also, there was an adjacent dressing room, bathroom, closet, and entrance porch for the den that was only accessable through the den and service porch; not through the adjacent Palm Room. I could go on and on.....Sadly, I only got the elevations and floor plans. The others are not available; garage, room finished, landscaping, etc. The plans I bought are full size reproductions, but black and white copies; not color. Not bad for $40.00.

If the sale is complete, and the civil engingeering plans partially complete, I bet that they are going to start grading the land soon. What does the fence look like? I know either a short one (less than 3 feet tall) with wooden posts, and black plastic banding or orange webbing is a silt fence. Silt fences are designed to keep waste dirt and debris from leaving the property, going into the streets, neighboring properties, and storm sewers.

The 95 pic makes me want to cry. Home Depot is nothing but a thug. They had enough of a parcel of land to place the store facing Chimney Rock with the rear facing the square with enough room for trucks to be able to get to their loading docks. As it is over 50% of the Home Depot lot is never used. The only time I recall it was even over 50% capacity occupied was in the 2-3 day period right before hurricane Rita was coming this way. If they had bulit a lake (as city park property) where the land was in the glory days of the square we might have been spared the ugly Home Depot coming in.

Although it will likely not occur I would like to see that whole area gutted and single family homes built where Home Depot, 99 cent store, and the Chase are. With rising energy prices this location is more valuable than it used to be when gas was 99 cents and Sugarland was a viable option.

It is very odd that this parcel of land sat idle so long from the 60s to 95. Currently there is a small lot of land right in front on Home Depot next to the Dominos Pizza for sale. It is big enough to accomodate a fast food joint. I pray that does not occur. God help us if a McDonalds opens up and all sorts of crime comes along with it.

The amount of parking required is determined by the maximum amount of people the building is designed to hold, through percentages, per the city's engineering/planning department. In addition, the fire marshall gets to review that stuff and add his two cents and regulation as well. Those factors are what make parking lots so darn big. Too big!

Isn't that lovely. Lying to a child.

I believe that moni meant that I-40 is North of her/him in New Mexico, not north of Houston.

Maybe I mispoke. My reference to comparable/houston was that out of every city I've ever lived in, Houston is the only place where the first question I was asked was "which do you like better, houston or dallas?" To this day, two years later, when I tell someone I moved here from Dallas, its the immediate response.

The PDiddy thing... yeah, rap/hiphop has ruined Deep Ellum.

You know that Deep Ellum was originally the segregated version of downtown Dallas. That was where a majority of the area's black leaders had thier businesses from the late 1890's up until desegregation. Deep Ellum even a Knights of Pythias orginization.

they do have nice parts ,just like any other citiy. Maybe it's just me, but the drive from desoto to the "market" area(via I-35) was hideous.also from grand prairie to garland seemed pretty old.the only newness i felt was las colinas, the galleria area and everything north of that.You should take my tour. Why is it when most people visit dallas and consider it pretty,they haven't ventured any farther than plano and frisco?

I'm offended. I grew up in Lancaster, which is the east side (Northbound) of I-35E. The actual corridor that runs through Lancaster/DeSoto is not great, but once you drive through both towns, they are nice. Lancaster is an average pre-civil war town. Great town square, lot of old trees, and lots of nice old restored homes to look at. Now, Highland Park is gorgeous. H.P. was layed out by the same man who layed out Beverly Hills. I would never live there, because it's over priced. Teardowns are starting in the high 500's, and the average home price there is in the low 900's for a house under 1500 square feet. If you don't know where Highland Park is, it is basically at the intersection of Preston/Oak Lawn and Mockingbird. Highland Park is also renowned for having one of the first shopping centers in the country. Highland Park Village has high end stores like, Chanel, Hermes, and Williams-Sonoma. http://www.hpvillage.com/

I lived in Plano for a shor time, and I will never move there again. It's one of those towns that's too perfect. The whole town is one big, overpriced subdivision; a blob of huge tract homes. Same thing goes for Frisco, even though their mall and Plano's Willow Bend are nice.