The Dallas Landmark Commission put two West Dallas properties on track for historic preservation Monday.
The board’s actions, if approved by the designation committee, create an automatic two-year delay on demolition or drastic changes to the properties while they’re under consideration for landmark status.
The Eagle Ford School and the Struck Farmstead could become the second and third historic landmarks in West Dallas (a remnant of the Mountain Creek Bridge currently is under consideration).
The Eagle Ford School, famous as the primary school that outlaw Bonnie Parker attended, is one of the last remaining structures related to the bygone Eagle Ford community. It served the children of Cement City workers, most of them Mexican American. It was built of concrete in the mid-1920s and is an example of gothic revival architecture.
If designated, it would become only the third Dallas historic landmark related to Mexican Americans — the first two are St. Ann’s School and Luna’s Tortilla Factory.
Several representatives from the Mexican American Historical League spoke in support of designating the school. The building owner, who now lives in East Texas, wants to sell the school, which is the site of a cellular tower. The company that owns the tower wants to buy the property, and they’ve indicated that they’d most likely tear the building down.
The Struck Farmhouse was built in 1887 and is an original farmstead in Western Heights, where German immigrants once grew wheat for local breweries. It’s a folk victorian that has never been renovated, and it’s one of the few original homes in that neighborhood, which was settled by Dallas pioneers.
David Weekly Homes had intended to demolish the home as part of a plan to build a new housing development. Preservationists stepped in with plans to move the house to another lot before landmark commissioner Michael Amonett placed it on the landmark agenda.
