No decision has been made on rebuilding the fire-charred Lakewood Shopping Center at Gaston and Abrams Parkway – although community leaders and real estate developers agree the historically valuable center should rise again.
“I can’t see that anyone would want to walk away from this center,” say Scott Coghlin, who handles commercial real estate for Clements, Realtors. “There’s never been a problem leasing it. I can’t see why the owners can’t go back and redevelop it.”
In the two weeks following the fire, there was some doubt whether the destroyed buildings would be rebuilt. Fire officials conducted an arson investigation, which sometimes holds up insurance payments. Also, any new construction would have to confirm to stringent zoning requirements.
Tim Kirk, whose Texas Commercial Property manages the center for a group of investors, says it is too soon to tell if the owners will rebuild the complex. Whatever happens, it appears the only thing the fire didn’t destroy was memories.
A host of neighborhood residents remembered the fire-ravaged buildings as one of the centers of Lakewood life for more than 40 years.
“I used to ride the streetcar to the end of the line in Lakewood,” says Barbara Adamson, the president of the Woodrow Alumni Association, speaking for thousands of East Dallas residents, “catch a movie at the theater, and then go to Harrell’s for a soda.”
The early-morning fire destroyed four businesses – the Lakewood Lighthouse and Café Brazil restaurants, the Paperbacks Plus used book store and Printing Please. The Lakewood Lighthouse was the site of Harrell’s Pharmacy, the first store to open in the new center in 1924.
The pharmacy’s owner, E.C. “Doc” Harrell, became as much of an institution as his pharmacy, serving four decades of East Dallas residents. Harrell helped start both the Lakewood Business Association and Lakewood Bank and Trust, which was located next to the drug store. It has since become First Interstate Bank-Lakewood.
A.E. “Bud” Doxey, now president of First Interstate Bank-Lakewood and 40 years ago a regular at Harrell’s when he was a student at Woodrow Wilson High School, left his office to watch firemen fight the blaze.
Doxey’s son, Buddy, was one of the first to discover the fire, which apparently started in back of Café Brazil, in the early-morning hours of June 17.
Each of the fire-damaged businesses hopes to reopen in the area. Paperbacks Plus and Printing Please have tentative plans to move into empty buildings in the center. Both have received a number of offers of equipment and assistance to rebuild, for which their owners say they are grateful.
John Tilton of Paperbacks Plus says his Lakewood customers are not only welcome at his store’s Mesquite location, but that they will be able to use their accumulated credit. One of the few things Tilton was able to save from the fire was the thousands of index cards that detailed his customers’ accounts.
