Lakewood Boulevard is known for its tree-lined streets and beautiful homes built on deep, wide lots. The Boulevard has long been the area’s centerpiece, familiar to cyclists and joggers as it winds its way down to White Rock Lake.
Lisa Payne says that she and her husband, Bucky, better known in professional circles as Dr. Gerald Payne, bought their home because it was “close to Baylor Hospital, and it had a basketball hoop in the backyard.”
This 1926 home is true to English Tudor design with its asymmetrical front facade dominated by steeply pitched front-facing gables. Payne, who has always loved to be around “things that have some history,” says she found a treasure trove of craftsmanship and beauty when she began the restoration process in ’95, about one year after they moved into the home.
The stay-at-home mom of two boys explains that when she had the false ceilings removed, a border of leaded windows with hand-poured, stained glass was uncovered in the living room. “And look at the wall moldings someone covered up,” Payne adds.
Payne may have missed her calling as a decorator because she has assembled years of “collecting” into a harmonious blend of mix and match that boggles the senses, yet is every bit just the way it should be. “I just couldn’t imagine someone telling me how it should look when I knew how I wanted it to be,” she says.
Her theme . . . an eclectic combination of antiques, fine art and yellow-green Vaseline glass, with the latter everywhere you look (see “Passions” this issue). It was a bedroom set, however, that may have been the first clue to her life-long passion for “old things.” Payne saw the four-piece oak bedroom set tucked away in a garage in Amarillo, Payne’s hometown, when she was about 10. She says she begged her “daddy” for it. “I just had to have it, and he eventually brought it home for me. It’s beautiful, don’t you think?” she asks.
That room has been transported to Payne’s current home thanks to her mother, “who saves everything” and , “every once in awhile gathers a bunch of my things and sends them to me,” Payne says. Walking into this room is like stepping into a place where time stood still.
It’s obvious that the Payne family enjoys the space they’ve created with the things they all love — from her husband’s sport’s den, with everything from a Remington bronze to sports trophies, to the kitchen she describes as a “grandma’s kitchen” where she bakes cookies and pours Kool Aid. It shows in her face that Payne loves her home and the many cherished things it holds — most importantly, her family.
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DEVELOPED THE RIGHT WAY
Lakewood Boulevard is celebrating its 75thanniversary — see “Heritage” this issue. We thought our readers might be interested in knowing about the history leading up to the street’s development.
Albert Dines followed the housing boom to east Dallas in 1917. As Dallas stretched its boundaries ever eastward, the prominent and wealthy escaped the “big city” by moving to Gaston, Live Oak and Swiss Avenue. And Dines thought he was just the man to help develop the area.
Along with Lee R. Kraft, the Dines Building Company first built modest “cottages” in the area surrounding Munger Place. But their work was quality, and soon they were contracting to build fine homes in what was the original Lakewood Country Club Estates, Westlake Park and Gastonwood.
Astute businessmen, Dines and Kraft joined with others, including the son of R. S. Munger, C. H. Munger, to form the Munger Heights Syndicate. The first chunk of land developed extended from Skillman Street east to Abrams Road. Also, about 200 acres of land were clustered around the Lakewood Country Club, land owned by Dr. W. F. Pearson. Pearson sold his property to the builders with the stipulation that it be “developed in the right way,” and in this “way” their reputation was made.
A 1932 Dines & Kraft brochure cites “phenomenal growth” in the Westlake Park subdivision — “More than 395 thousand dollars spent in 18 months.” Today, many of the individual homes in this area couldn’t be bought for that amount.
