The Stevens Park pavilion was constructed in the late 1930s by the Works Progress Administration, one of five such historic structures in the city. (Visit the city’s Park and Recreation website and click on the “Park Pavilions of Dallas” to read about all of them, including the one at Lake Cliff and Kiest parks.)

The city determined that the stone pavilion, located close to the creek, was “suffering from extreme foundation stress” and had sunk roughly four feet, says Trent Williams, a Park and Recreation Department senior architect and the project’s manager. That kind of sinkage for this kind of structure “borders on catastrophic,” Williams says.

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The city did tests and learned that rebuilding the pavilion at least 25 feet away from its current location would give it better footing. So it is being rebuilt, stone by stone, over the next several weeks, and this time will have a drilled pier foundation.

“As much as possible,” Williams says, “the contractor is re-using the old stone exactly as it was originally placed and the pavilion will look exactly like it was originally built.”