Photography by Alicia Quintans
Bad news for old buildings just keeps coming in our neighborhood.
Nine-story apartments now rise out of the gound where the old El Fenix and Polar Bear ice cream used to be on Colorado and Zang boulevards.
A whole block of quaint apartment buildings on 8th Street will be demolished soon to make way for four-story apartment buildings in the Bishop Arts District.
A fire damaged the Dallas historic landmark Oak Cliff United Methodist Church, on South Marsalis at East Jefferson, in January, further endangering a property that’s already been found to be under “demolition by neglect” in violation of City of Dallas code.
The battle to preserve old buildings in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood sees few victories. But one of the winners is Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church, originally known as Oak Cliff Assembly of God, on Morrell Avenue.
A partnership that includes husband-and-wife real estate pros A.J. and Michaella Ramler purchased the 101-year-old church in March.
The Ramlers also saved the Struck House, a West Dallas farmhouse built in 1890, when David Weekley Homes had plans to redevelop the site, which is behind the Belmont Hotel. They bought the house and renovated it, and they now live there with their two kids.
The Struck House won a Preservation Dallas award, which will be presented to the Ramlers this month.
The award is dedicated to all their neighbors who have wished well for the house over the years, Michaella Ramler says.
“I hear it all the time. ‘I’ve been walking by here for 20 years, and I’ve been waiting for someone to fix it up,’” she says. “That’s why it’s so great that the house won the award. We didn’t win the award. It’s for the house.”
“I hear it all the time. ‘I’ve been walking by here for 20 years, and I’ve been waiting for someone to fix it up,’” she says. “That’s why it’s so great that the house won the award. We didn’t win the award. It’s for the house.”
She’d never seen or heard of the Struck House until after it made news when the Dallas Landmark Commission nominated it for landmark designation, waylaying the developer’s plans.
The church on Morrell Avenue has been her longtime daydream, however.
The partners closed on the purchase just as Michaella was stepping down from her six-year role at Proxy Properties, the management company she owns with her husband, in pursuit of her own enterprise.
But she was instrumental in the purchase.
They intend to fully renovate the building, including restoration of the badly damaged sanctuary and the original bell, says Emily Cortez, one of the partners.
It could be used as a space for performances, weddings and offices, she says.
“It’s important to us that it’s for the community,” she says.
The church contains more recorded history than any of the buyers imagined.
A City of Dallas Landmark nomination from 20 years ago told them the basics. But since announcing their purchase, the team found a well-researched 432-page history of the church and its congregations.
That came from Jerry Alcorn, whose father, Carl Alcorn, was pastor of the church when the the belltower, which looks like a lighthouse, was built and dedicated in 1942.
When the Ramlers found out the church was for sale, their friend and partner Ryan Behring invited them to service. The Zion Missionary Baptist Church congregation, lead by Rev. James Whitaker, meets in the church’s administrative side.
“He already had a relationship with them,” Michaella says.
They attended two services and wound up sealing the deal, offering the congregation a “free leaseback” to continue meeting in the building at their discretion.
The building needs a lot of work, but it has “good bones,” the partners say. And it has irreplaceable architectural details, such as giraffe stonework and stained-glass windows.
It is already a City of Dallas historic landmark, and it’s a neighborhood landmark as well.
“Part of my hope for the church is that it can be preserved for the community in whatever way it can be,” Michaella says.
