The Beginning of the End for Ross Avenue’s Downtown Mansions — 1925
by Paula Bosse
Mansions across from First United Methodist Church, Jan. 1925
by Paula Bosse
The First Methodist Episcopal Church, South (now First United Methodist Church of Dallas) was built in 1924 and 1925 at Ross and North Harwood. It was a large undertaking, and its construction meant that three of the four very large houses in the 1900 block of Ross Avenue, between North St. Paul and North Harwood, had to be demolished, including the house built by Mrs. Miranda Morrill in 1886 at the southwest corner of Ross and Harwood.
For many years, large houses like this — owned by the city’s wealthiest bankers, industrialists, and real estate men — lined Ross Avenue, just to the north of the central business district. But by the 1920s, more and more non-residential development began to encroach into this part of town.
The photograph at the top is pretty amazing, because it shows some of those grand houses in their last days. The north side of the 1900 block of Ross (the block now occupied by the Dallas Museum of Art) contained four lots. In the 1925 construction photo above, there are three houses and a business.
In the detail above, at the far left we see the home of land baron William Caruth (in the book Dallas Rediscovered, William L. McDonald called this little pied-à-terre his “townhouse”) — for decades it sat at the northeast corner of Ross and St. Paul (which had previously been named Masten). Next to it is something that looks like scaffolding or a tower (what is that? — is it a photographer’s perch to document the construction?). Next to it is another grand house, home of several wealthy occupants over the years. And then … a car dealership and garage. How this happened is a mystery, but this 1921 building — which replaced a beautiful house and which sticks out like a sore thumb — belonged to the Flippen Auto Co., complete with showroom on the ground floor and garage and repair facilities on the second floor — it may have had one of the first car elevators in town.
Next to the Flippen Auto Co. was the grandiose Conway House, with its columns and portico; it was built around 1900 at the northwest corner of Ross and Harwood and was the childhood home of pioneer female fashion illustrator Gordon Conway. In 1921 — after a few years as a music conservatory — it became the home of the Knights of Columbus.
And here’s a photo showing both the Flippen Auto Co. and part of the former Conway House.
On the northeast corner of Ross and Harwood, we can see a large house facing Harwood. Forget the house — on that corner was a tiny little gas station. And glory be, I stumbled across a great photo of the Acme Oil & Supply Co. complete with Texaco pump — probably from around 1919 or 1920.
But back to the construction of what is now the First United Methodist Church of Dallas — a lovely building which still stands and faces the Dallas Museum of Art. Here’s a photograph of the construction from May, 1925.
And here is the postcard filled with an artist’s conception of people to-ing and fro-ing.
And, finally, an aerial view taken above the church in the early 1980s, looking north, showing the same block once bookended by the Caruth and Conway mansions, now leveled to make way for the Dallas Museum of Art.
I think I prefer the view from 75 years earlier.
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Sources & Notes
The two photos taken in 1925 during the construction of the church are from the book Church at the Crossroads, A History of First United Methodist Church, Dallas (Dallas: UMR Communications, 1997); the entire book has been scanned and may be viewed at Archive.org, here (all the photos are at the end).
The photo of the Morrill house is from Mark Doty’s book Lost Dallas (Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 2012).
Photo of the Conway House is from Dallas Rediscovered by William L. McDonald (Dallas: Dallas Historical Society, 1978).
Photo showing the Flippen Auto Co. and the Conway house from Diane Galloway’s book The Park Cities, A Photohistory.
Photo of the Acme gas station is from Dallas: The Deciding Years by A. C. Greene (Austin: Encino Press, 1973).
The construction of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, South was announced in a Dallas Morning News article on Oct. 5, 1924.
All that’s left of those grand homes is the Belo Mansion. It’s something!
Click pictures to see larger images.
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Copyright © 2015 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Wonderful post! Beautiful old homes.. Would love to go back in time and walk through those. Such interesting Dallas stories they could tell!
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Thank you, Paula!
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Great photos and story to go with them! I think the thing that looks like scaffolding may be a tower hoist for concrete because it looks like there is a hopper at its base. I couldn’t find a good photo of one but this toy is a good representation: http://i.imgur.com/71mXaSb.jpg
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great piece
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Thank you, Peter!
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Great story! The photos are fascinating, especially those depicting the Flippen Auto Co. and how this type of business accelerated the demise of the mansions. I’m really curious to know what happened to the area between 1940 and 1980. Was it mostly car dealerships and warehouses? I know that sometime in the 70s there was even a gay disco, The Old Plantation, on Harwood where the museum stands (or adjacent?). Maybe it’s been torn down in the aerial photo.
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Thanks! It looks like the Old Plantation (which opened in 1976) was at 1807 N. Harwood, in an old automobile storage building located it the DMA block. Along with other property impeding development of the Arts District in the early ’80s, the land was condemned and purchased by the city. I’ve been looking for another photo I saw a year or two which showed the block that the DMA now occupies undergoing demolition, but now I can’t find it. It seems that it was filled with old buildings and a car lot that had all seen better days.
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[…] “THE BEGINNING OF THE END FOR ROSS AVENUE’S DOWNTOWN MANSIONS — 1925.“ A look at the beautiful and imposing homes that once stood in the block of Ross Avenue, now […]
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Paula, I love the very last photo in your article. Can you pinpoint me the exact location? Was it Ross at Harwood? I’m having a hard time visualizing.
Love your posts! ❤️
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Thanks, Melinda! The last photo (the colored postcard) shows the Conway house (the one with the rounded portico) in the foreground. It sat on the northwest corner of Ross and N. Harwood (originally 315 Ross, and then 1923 Ross when the addresses changed in 1911). The postcard view is looking west on Ross. (Today, the First United Methodist Church of Dallas would be to the left, and the Dallas Museum of Art would be where the houses are.)
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The Fergus S. Davis house was probably one of the last downtown Ross Ave. mansions to go. My great grand uncle, his wife, child and in-laws, lived in the house, built around 1903, that was at the SE corner of Masten (later St. Paul) and Ross. He tore it down around 1943. His wife was Mary Hill Davis, well known in Texas Baptist History. He was a homeopathic physician (Hahnemann’s) who attended the first class of Osteopathy in Kirksville, Mo. 1892-1893 along with his father. His father-in-law was Wade Hill, a cotton trader. Is the Future Home yard sign in his yard? Attached in back, was his doctor’s office with the entrance on the side. I was told that he donated, lent or sold some of the property for church parking. At one time, the lot next door, part of today’s church property, belonged to his wife. Some of his doctor’s office equipment is on display at Old City Park. My great-grandfather, his brother, practiced chiropractic in that office, as well.
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Wow!! Thank you. I love this so much.
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I enjoyed this so much. I live in Old East Dallas at Swiss and Peak and I love learning about the history. I grew up in Farmers Branch and live here now because of the history and the historical homes. My favorite thing to see is what an area used to look like and to picture myself there in that time.
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Thanks, James. I can’t imagine living anywhere but East Dallas.
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Beautiful grand homes. I love history and it pains me to see such craftsmanship, gone. Sad, Dallas has never really respected it’s past and history. Always wants to demolish everything. It’s nice to have a record. Visit Historicariels.com and see photos going back to the 50’s
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Hi Paula. I thought that the tower behind the Caruth mansion on Ross Avenue was a packing company that the Neuhoffs bought later. There were two on the land before American Airlines Center. However, on Dallashistory, July 07, 2013, I read from chevytexas that the towers were Dallas Power & Light operations and immediately recalled that as true. The tower does appear a little close, but photography can be strange. As a kid I remembered the ugly pipeyards on Ross originally had such nice homes and what a waste that was.
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[…] Mansions along Ross Avenue, circa 1910 Ross Avenue at Harwood Street, circa 1925. Photo from Park Cities: A Photohistory by Diane Galloway, page 51 […]
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[…] Mansions along Ross Avenue, circa 1910 Ross Avenue at Harwood Street, circa 1925. Photo from Park Cities: A Photohistory by Diane Galloway, page 51 […]
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[…] Mansions along Ross Avenue, circa 1910 Ross Avenue at Harwood Street, circa 1925. Photo from Park Cities: A Photohistory by Diane Galloway, page 51 […]
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