Mahon Office (Allen Street)
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ALLEN HOUSE DETAILS AND HISTORY

The Richard W. and Grace S. Allen House (ca. 1889) is a two-and-one-half-story wood frame dwelling of the Late Victorian period displaying high quality characteristics of the Queen Anne style. Altered after 1917 to its present appearance, the house features an asymmetrical plan, a complex composition shingle roof composed of multiple gables springing from a tall central hipped roof structure, and evidence that a three-story turret or tower may have originally anchored the primary (northeast) corner of the house facing the intersection of Fairmount and Mahon Streets.

The house faces north on Fairmount (originally Peak) Street, set back behind a modest front and side lawn terraced some three feet above the street grade. Originally part of an upper class residential neighborhood developed just north of the McKinney Road, a mile and a half northwest of the Dallas County Courthouse, the Allen House remains as the most intact and finely detailed late 19th century dwelling in the area. It is surrounded by a mixture of commercial and modern multi-family uses. The property also contains one contributing building, a two-story brick structure built as a dwelling sometime before 1921, and a non-contributing building, a three-story townhouse constructed in 1996.

General Characteristics

The immediate neighborhood surrounding the Allen House grew up during the late 1880s and 1890s and consisted of one and two-story frame, brick or stone residences. The remaining dwellings of the period, mostly one-story cottages and two-story residences dating from the mid- to late- 1890s, are scattered among a variety of commercial, multi-family and other building types that date from the 1920s through the 1990s. The area is zoned as a Planned Development that allows for multiple residential and non-residential uses. Existing building footprints and massing are protected, but the structures may be removed and replaced.

When built, the R.W. and Grace Allen House was located on a 150 by 150 foot parcel representing three lots in the North Dallas Improvement Company Addition. The Allens subdivided portions of the lot during their residency to allow for an additional dwelling to be erected next door to the west. The current property is some 110 by 154 feet.

The Allen House rests on a pier and beam foundation constructed of brick and wood, with a partial basement under the kitchen end of the house. A wood frame dwelling constructed possibly by the brother of owner Grace Allen, the house is embellished with a variety of decorative treatments including fishscale and rounded shingles, graceful turned porch pillars, carved and pierced friezes and brackets, and Eastlake-inspired carved entry doors with leaded glass. Fenestration patterns are varied on the asymmetrical elevations, with some windows reaching seven feet in height, each topped by a classic cornice. Upper sashes of the three east-facing windows in the slightly curved first floor diningroom bay are filled with stained glass panels depicting baskets of flowers flanking the letter "A." A flat-roofed porch with a shingled visor projecting from its parapet wraps around three sides of the house, and an arcaded, integral second story porch is nestled beneath the projecting gable that tops the diningroom bay facing east toward Mahon Street. The two-story, five-sided bay of an engaged octagon anchors the northeast corner of the house facing the intersection of Mahon and Fairmount.

Some evidence, including oral history discussions (interview documentation now lost) with the house's longtime owner Laverne Willie, indicates that a conical-roofed turret or tower originally surmounted the engaged octagon. The structure for the base of such a turret remains intact in the attic of the residence, with signs of roof alterations that would have been required had a tower been removed.

Neither building permits nor photographs from the historic period were located. The earliest Sanborn Insurance Map showing the area that includes the Allen House is dated 1899. The maps demonstrate that the house remains in its original plan configuration with no additions since its construction. The 1899 Sanborn clearly indicates a 2-1/2 story structure, with a three-story volume in the location of the possible turret. 1905 and 1921 Sanborns also display evidence of a conical roof at the location; later maps indicate no such element atop the engaged octagon, suggesting a tower may have been removed after 1921 and prior to the Willie's purchase in 1945.

No information on original landscaping has been located. Mature deciduous trees shade the interior side yard and rear of the property. Other landscaping includes clipped foundation hedges ringing the house on the north and east, and a brick sidewalk placed perpendicularly to the sidewalk reaching the front door, then circling the north and east elevations of the house.

A two story brick structure, with a composition shingle hipped roof, simple 1 x 1 wood sash windows and (replaced) paneled wood entry door is located at the rear of the property facing Mahon Street. The building first appears on the property in the 1921 Sanborn map and was indicated as a dwelling, with a full length wood porch across the east elevation. Prior maps indicate a grouping of wood frame outbuildings on the property near the rear property line, with a glass-roofed greenhouse located directly behind the main house for a time. (continues on next page, click more).