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I know this is an old post but I thought I would comment on the question anyway. Let me start by saying that my Grandfather moved to Mount Auburn in the early twenties into a duplex on Cristler Ave near Santa Fe. He was a Dallas Fireman working at old Station 5 on Parry Ave (across from Fair Park). The trolley ran down Lindsay Ave, so he would take that, or walk to work. In 1925 he bought the house I live in now in the 800 block of Cristler Ave. and he lived here until his death in 1968. My Grandmother lived here until her death in 1997. Both are buried at Grove Hill. Interestingly enough, upon my Grandmothers death no one in my immediate family wanted the house (all Plano people now ) I bought the house for approx 40 K. Now they all think I stole it from them!!
What several posters have said is true.... The majority of the houses in the neighbourhood are now tear-down material. Although, constructed of high quality wood (compared to today) and sitting on Bois d'arc tree posts (pier and beam), most of the houses became rent houses starting in the 1960's as the original residents died and the surviving families inherited the homes, and rather than sell, they rented them out. Some are STILL owed by the original families as rent houses, but most were sold to hispanic families during the 70's and 80's. My house is in excellent condition with all its original doors, locks, clawfoot bathtub etc. because my Grandfather the fireman, kept it in tip top shape, and, because the house was never a rent house. I love the house, love the neighbourhood and would not want to live anywhere else if living in the DFW area.
The neighbourhood was not originally developed for the Ford Plant workers.... The Plant opened in 1922 and many houses were build several years before the plant was contemplated and built. That said, once the plant opened, all of the workers wanted to live near work so it did become a Ford Employee filled neighbourhood. The old Adams Hat building in Downtown was the first Ford plant and opened in 1911, but demand quickly overwhelmed the downtown plant, thus the new plant was needed by early 20's on East Grand.
My Grandfather ended up working at the old Station 19 at the corner of Beacon and East Grand and knew everyone in the neighbourhood, who they were, how many kids, how many pets etc. All the firemen at the station lived in the neighbourhood and it was very helpful when there was a house fire because they knew who was in the house and thus, who they needed to pull out etc.
Prior to the development of Mount Auburn the land was owned by the Martins, starting in the 1860's. The old Martin house in still standing on Martinique. Old Mr Martin owned a dairy farm and his cows would graze on the rolling hills all the way down to White Rock Creek. (The lake was not constructed until 1910-1911). When Mr Martin died, his wife was forced to sell off most of the land because women were not allowed to inherit property, or some such nonsense. She managed to keep her house and a small plot of land, but that was it. Her granddaughter lived in the house until her death in the late 90's or early aughts... can't remember. Anyway, the house across the street from me on Cristler was built in the 1890's by the Ganaway's who continued with the dairy business on their land they bought from Mrs Martin. My Mom told me during the 40's when she was a little girl Mrs Ganaway would tell her she used to sit on the porch and watch the dairy cows graze on the beautiful rolling hills (where I got the quote). Mr Lindsay bought most of the land from the Ganaways and others, to build a "suburban" housing development in the teens. Lindsay Ave was originally named "Watts Ave" not sure why. Funny thing, the streets were not paved until the early 30's and the neigbourhood was nicknamed by many as "Mud Auburn". The houses "USED" to back up to each other and there were no alleys. The city came along at during the early 30's and TOOK 5 feet of property from each resident to make the 10 ft alley. My Grandfather was not happy about this but you can't fight city hall as they say. Also, interesting... Mom said that the horse-draw trash wagons went down her/my alley up until 1952! Was too narrow for a motor driven truck.... still is. Also, the city took 6 feet off the front to make the sidewalk and the parkway. In 1933 (I believe) the streets were paved and my Grandfather had to pay his share of having the streets paved (I have the receipt). Anyway, my ramble of the history of the neighbourhood.
If, I had some spare funds I would buy every house I could in Mount Auburn because I believe at some point a developer will buy everyone out and level them. Or, in the Jerry Jones (Creep) style will "eminent domain" everyone out.
This area is just too pretty, too close to downtown, too close to the lake etc. The neighbourhood around MA has become very expensive, and now that the Santa Fe trail has opened, I would not be surprised to see 3 storey condos lining the trail at some point like the Mckinney Ave/Katy Trail area. Mount Auburn is the Last Frontier so to speak.
I TRIED with several other residents to start an historic district or conservation area in the early aughts. We were even encouraged by the Junius Heights folks as it would add stability to the whole area. Since there are only a sprinkling of Anglos it went over like a lead balloon. The hispanic residents were all terrified that IF they signed the dotted line that the city would make them remove or teardown all the illegal (no building permit) construction that they had done over the years. Many of the porches were walled in to add make an additional room etc. and of course they did not take out a permit to do such. Rooms have been added on the backs of houses, out buildings built etc all without ANY supervision. So..... we could not get it done. Too late now, as most of the houses are so altered that the once Craftsman neighbourhood is unrecognizable for the most part. Also, good luck in buying a house in this neighbourhood, as they very rarely come up for sale. The hispanics won't let them go as they realize that you can't leave this cheap anywhere else (Like Me). The developers will have to drive them, and me out. Which I'm sure they will do at some point.
What I really hate to see happening is that many of my hispanic neighbours are now tearing the houses down themselves and building "Mexican McMansions". Im not opposed to new houses provided they have the Craftsman look and don't tower over the other houses like what has happened to the lower Greenville area. I would really encourage the neighbourhood associations of Hollywood and Junius to push through SOME sort of conservation program for the sake of the whole area. The Hollywood people are for the most part snobs who look down on us and were not at all helpful when we were trying to set up a district several years ago. The Junius people were wonderful and obviously had more insight into the big picture.
As far as living here. The crime is no worse than anywhere else in this Old East Dallas/Lakewood area. I, like my Grandfather, and his brother am a Dallas fireman/Paramedic, and I can tell you first hand you can get your head blown off just as easy in North Dallas as you can here. I have seen more brain matter in North Dallas than around here. All that being said, my neighbours (who I like very much) have allowed me to be cleaned out in the past. They are all aware I am gone for 24 hours at a shot and I'm guessing they told one of their cousins that I was gone 24 hours at a time, and I would be an easy take. The 2 thieves (hispanic) that cleaned me out where here for nearly 4 hours in a large truck. How do I know this? My Anglo neighbours saw them and did nothing, just assuming I was having some work done on my house, and were not motivated to go ASK what they were doing. Very obvious that the thieves were well aware that they had plenty of time to take what they wanted. One of my multicultural neighbours MUST have given someone a heads up on my schedule etc. That said, I would still rather have my Hispanic neighbours than any Anglos like the ones in Hollywood.
So, ALL THAT SAID, if you can get a chance to buy a house in this neighbourhood I would take it. You can buy one from 70k to 100k and put another 30 or 40 k and you will have a nice quaint, well built house in a beautiful (for Texas anyway) area. You can ride your bike one block or so to the Santa Fe trail and have access to the White Rock Lake trail without having to worry about getting run over (for the most part). You will be 3 miles from downtown Dallas, and anything else that matters in the whole North Texas area. All the Plano and Frisco folks like Dallas residents want to go to Lower Greenville, Deep Ellum, Downtown, ride their bikes around OUR Lake, go to the Arboretum, and maybe even play a round of gold at Tenison. If you are lucky enough to get a job in Downtown, how cool would that be??? I just wish they would put a trolley down Lindsay again and connect it with Dart at Fair Park. It would be really great if they ran a trolley from Casa Linda to Fair Park with stops at the Arboretum, the spillway area, Tenison/Samuel Grand, Ford Plant area and then finally linking up to Fair Park Dart. It would give people something to see and do after going to the Arboretum. They could take the trolley from the Arboretum to Fair Park and make a day out of it etc. and it would connect this area with the Dart trainline.
I digress...... I love the neighbourhood and the people! The most annoying people are the White Folks in Hollywood! I love my Hispanic neighbours and wouln't trade them for anyone except for maybe a Swedish nanny Good Luck !!
Thanks for all the stories - I grew up in the northern part of Lakewood and of course went to school with a lot of people from Mount Auburn at Woodrow. I also have a lot of real estate experience - but I have never heard some of this, so it was fascinating to read.
Yes if you check the official sales figures for the area it only tells a small piece of the story (many never hit MLS) ...with everything else going from $300 - $500K PLUS, it may be inevitable that Mount Auburn goes teardown. Hollywood has a section of new homes (some call the Plano Invasion) in the $700,000s + (however the rest is a fairly restricted conservation district) and "lots" in Lakewood Hills (just north of Hollywood) seem to be hitting $300K.
I remember when there were still a lot of original owners but they were very elderly. I also know many newer residents (newer meaning 70s and 80s) and you are right - they are sticking around. Some families own multiple houses for different branches. Even some of their relatives in the 'burbs are using their addresses to get their kids into Long and Woodrow, which is part of the overcrowding problem.
It will be interesting to see what happens. If the teardowns by developers started next to Hollywood first I would suspect that would be a better plan for them...so you may be the first to see those.
Thanks for the kind reply Lakewooder. Your reply caused me to read my post again. I noticed several mistakes, so I will correct them for accuracy. The most glaring mistake was in regard to the "Martin House" I said it was on Martinique, its not. I meant to say Martinique was NAMED for the Martins. The old "Martin House" is indeed still alive though, but it's on Mt Auburn (appropriately enough). Its at 903 Mt Auburn. It really should have an historic marker of some sort. After all, it is the original house in the whole area. As according to some abstracts I have the Martins owned everything in the area that now includes Mt. Auburn and Hollywood/Santa Monica, and all the way to where the lake is now. I also said "build" where it should have been "built". Never was much of a proof-reader.
Lets see, forgot to mention my Great Aunt and Uncle (Evelyn and Frank) both graduated from Woodrow in the 30's. Would have to ask my Mom who is a 1956 Woodrow graduate for the exact dates of my Aunts and Uncles year of graduation.
Mom had another story for me... It seems the trolley only went to Cameron until after Hollywood was built, and then it ran down to the park. She said after the War in October of 1948 they pulled up the tracks and replaced the tracked trolley with a "trolley buses". Hard to believe, but they were buses with rubber tires (no tracks) but they still had the pole running up to the trolley lines for power. She said the drivers would often drift while driving, and the pole would come off the power line. She said it always took at least 45 minutes to correct this problem when it occurred.
Speaking of horses, she said that the milk man also used a horse drawn wagon until the early 50's. Mom said the horse knew which houses to stop at, and the milkman would just have to grab the milk off the wagon and didn't have to climb up and down at each stop. When my Grandfather and Great Uncle were Dallas Firemen they worked every day 24 hours and only had 1 day off a month. Thus, the "Firehouse" it really was a house to them being there 24/7 with only 1 day off a month. They did get 3 hours off during the day so they could see their families and eat a meal with them. So, back to milkmen. Its no surprise about all the "Milkman" jokes around the fire station about your kids resembling the milkman. Firemen had this 24/7 schedule in Dallas until 1922 when it went to an "A" and a "B" shift where you worked 12 on then 12 off with one day off a month. Back to horses.......
I have told this story before and many find it hard to believe, but horses really are smart enough to know a milk route etc. As the Dallas Fire Department switched from horse drawn to motorized equipment the horses were either given to other city departments, or auctioned off. If a horse was lucky, they got a milk wagon gig, instead of pulling a trash wagon. When the horses pulled a steam fire engine they needed no guidance, the driver merely held on for dear life as the horses could smell the smoke and knew where to go. Many drivers said they had to pull hard on the reins to slow them down so they wouldn't use up all they had to quickly. Anyway, after many horses were sold off it was a common occurrence for many years to have a Milk wagon or a trash wagon pulled by an old Dallas Fire Horse show up at a fire without a driver, or with a driver visibly shaken. This happened all over the country as well as here for several years until the transition was completed and the horses disappeared from the streets. Dallas was completely motorized by 1922. Sorry to ramble... I thought maybe I should put some of these stories down before they are lost to time. Many Dallas history nuts I know often wonder WHY many of the fire stations (old ones) were so close together. Reason.... a team of fire horses could only pull a steam engine approx. 1/4 mile before being tapped out. So the stations HAD to be close together. In hilly areas like Oak Cliff or when there was a large steam engine a team of Three Horses were used instead of two. When the Dallas Fire Department went motorized they were able to close many stations as the motorized equipment could cover 2 square miles around the station. Pretty much current today. If you are in New York City or Boston you will ALSO notice the close proximity of Fire Stations. When they went motorized they also would have been able to close stations just as Dallas did, except the retirement of horses corresponded to the building of high rise buildings. The high rise buildings with their density of people etc. made it impossible to close any stations. In downtown Manhattan you can almost throw a baseball from one station to another! More useless information I know.....
So when you are motoring through Mt. Auburn or Old East Dallas think about those who came before you and all that has happened here throughout time.....
1918ALF - are you on Facebook? There are several Dallas history pages and one is just called, "Dallas History" - I know they would love your stories and any photos you might have. There are others with the same interest and sometimes are able to fill in details.
Thanks for more great stuff! I know some of those houses. Also I know several 1956 Woodrow grads as one of the alumni association co-founders is in that class.
Hi Walter, As you can tell I am still bitter ("Bitter party of one your table is ready") about not only the lack of help from the Hollywood folks when we were trying to set up a conservation district in Mount Auburn, but in their insulting nature. Instead of trying to help us with the project we/I was met with a cold blast of air. The overwhelming opinion seemed to be that the whole area just needs to be leveled instead of saved. These houses are just as well built (if not more so) than any house in Hollywood. Just because a house has a brick veneer does not make it a better house. They all burn the same, and none of the homes in Mount Auburn have the foundation problems of the Hollywood homes built near the Santa Fe end. The Junius people "got it" they were interested in helping MA make a comeback and see the houses saved and renovated. A renovated/restored 19-teens Craftsman home KEEPS the charm of Old East Dallas. One just has to look at the Lower Greenville area to see what happens when the original homes are leveled and PLANO houses are built. The whole Lower Greenville area is ruined forever, with giant Plano houses towering over the quaint Craftsman homes. The area has Zero charm now. IF we would have been able to push thru a conservation district in MA it would have added stability to the area, brought up home prices and just maybe, the less willing homeowners would have sold out to people willing to undertake the task. What an area this would have been if the MA area would have eventually been brought up to Junius/Hollywood type standards!! That said, even if the Hollywood people would have helped us it would not have gone through with the demographics prevalent in MA.
Anyway, all the Hollywood people who irritated me are most likely not there anymore anyway. Those houses (in Hollywood) change hands like used cars. I have a friend who lives on Valencia and he gets a new set of neighbours every few years.
SO..... no offense meant to the Hollywood folks with my rant, as I'm sure all the irritants have all moved on. It is just hard to not to be offended when someone basically tells you that your whole lousy neighbourhood needs to be leveled. I remember when the same was said of the Junius area. Imagine what Hollywood would be today if it were not a conservation district.... I/we just would have liked their support and help instead of the lack there of. Anyway, thats all I have to say about that, as Forest would say....
Yes, Lakewooder, I am indeed on the Dallas History Facebook site. Love to read all the stories people post... I now have too many posts on this Thread. It was not my intention to ramble on. I am always hopeful that people interested in restoring old homes may want to settle in MA and wanted to tell what I know about the area. My family has been in MA since the early twenties so I am sure of the facts. Unfortunately my Mom did not listen to all of my Grandfathers stories (she admits to such) so I most definitely don't know everything, or anywhere close. Just know a little useless information.....
Thanks for all the kind replies I will try not to post anymore
What if the area were divided up to create a smaller conservation or historic district? You can do it with just a few streets (or maybe less) as I understand the process.
I just bought a house on the 600 block of Cristler and am super excited to move into the area! We close on the 21st and are planning on knocking down a wall and constructing a wall to swap out the living room and a bedroom (better flow and the bedroom is quite a big larger than the current living room. . . which is odd) so we will officially be moved in sometime in August!
Is there any type of neighborhood association? I know from reading that the conservation district didn't happen, but is there some kind of group?
Hi Sabrina, Welcome to the hood.... There is no neighborhood association I know of at the moment. Used to be one. My neighbor across the street used to be the president of the Mount Auburn Neighborhood Association. I will ask him regarding your question
These are old posts but great info. As a Hollywood resident, I absolutely agree. Most of my neighbors I've met are snobs. Among many things, Hollywood has a warped idea of their homes and believe everything must be a Tudor, even if the house is one of the few craftsman's. A great example is their disgust for the new homes built on Shadyside. The homes are built to the conservation rules- all Tudor. So yes, they're Plano looking cookie cutter brick ovens. What about the prairie or Craftsman?
Anyone know any of the history about the few craftsman's/prairie style in Hollywood? There are a few on Santa Fe and one on Santa Monica.
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) I bought the house for approx 40 K. Now they all think I stole it from them!! 
Good Luck !!
Mount Auburn
