Photo of the Lillie McBride house in January 2020, by Rachel Stone
A Dallas Landmark Commission member wants answers about the recent demolition of a historic building in West Dallas.
Rosemary Hinojosa, who was appointed to represent City Council District 6, says she’s heard from neighbors who are “very upset about the Barrow filling station,” including City Councilmember Omar Narvaez.
She asked the director of the city’s Office of Historic Preservation Murray Miller to explain what happened during a meeting Monday.
The commission voted in March 2020 to initiate landmark status for the building that once housed Clyde Barrow’s family’s business. That two-year process expired without any work being done to move forward with landmark designation.
Miller said the owner, Brent Jackson of Oaxaca Interests, was unresponsive and didn’t consent to the initiation. That means landmark designation would’ve required a “supermajority,” 2/3 of Landmark Commission members and 2/3 of City Council members, to vote in favor.
Miller said the chaos of the pandemic also caused the designation committee to lose steam.
Commission members pointed to several other buildings in Dallas that won landmark designation despite the property owners’ original opposition, such as the Lakewood Theater, Knights of Pythias Temple and St. Ann’s School.
Hinojosa wants to consider creating a demolition-delay overlay for parts of West Dallas and that neighbors have identified three historic sites for which they would like to initiate landmark status.
Those include the Lillie McBride house, a few blocks from the Barrow filling station, which is the site of a Bonnie and Clyde shootout.
Commission members plan to discuss the house at an upcoming meeting.
