History buffs will want to check out the 1993 calendar entitled “Vickery Place Through The Years, A Historical Perspective”.
A product of the Vickery Place Neighborhood Association, the calendar features photos of this historic community dating back to the beginning of this century. Each month’s pictorial, which also includes copies of advertisements and documents, is enhanced with editorial information on people and places.
Some of the photos in the calendar include:
• The 1855, three-story farmhouse owned by the late Captain Walter Caruth. Named “Bosque Bonita”, the estate was situated on 900 acres at the end of Ross Avenue, and described by Caruth as “the most fertile black soil in Dallas County. It was torn down in 1962.
• The home at 5601 Miller, owned by Robert and Bonnie Wilcox. The late Lakewood favorite. Mildred “Granny” Pierce, lived more than 70 years in this house bought by her parents in 1916.
• The home of the late George W. Works, who developed Vickery Place, which is named for his wife’s Fort Worth family. The American four-square style home, located at 5435 Vickery Boulevard, was built in 1914 and is owned by John and Chris Haddock.
• A striking pose of the late Ela Hockaday, as well as her school for girls. She began her nationally recognized school at the “Bosque Bonita” estate which, by the time she lived there, had become known as the Trent House.
• Several homes depicting the various architectural designs of Vickery Place, including Colonial Revival, Crafstman and Tudor.
• The Vickery Place streetcars.
Advertisements for Vickery Place lots, published in The Dallas Morning News in 1914, are reprinted in the calendar. Promising “artesian water, natural gas, cement walks and macadam streets, on breezy, well-elevated land,” the ads promote a $10 cash down-payment and monthly installments of $10 for the lots priced from $750 to $1,000.
The calendar’s creation was spearheaded by Beth Bentley, whose home is also featured, “Our house has been owned by my husband and family since 1924,” says Beth, wife of East Dallas YMCA chairman Rick Bentley, “and we are the third generation to live here.”
Other calendar contributors include John and Becky Wyatt, Nancy Cunningham, Linda Mitchell and Tim Bradley.
Photos were donated by the Hockaday School Archives, Peggy Swenson, E.R. Bentley, Pat Zaby, the Haddocks, as well as several other organizations outside the Lakewood area.
Proceeds from the calendar benefit the Vickery Place community bordered by Greenville Avenue, Belmont, Henderson, Goodwin and North Central Expressway. To place an order, contact the Vickery Place Neighborhood Association at 220-2215.
