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| Sample document to include in your HOA newsletter |
| Volunteer information |
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| DESIGN TASK FORCE |
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The Friends provided input to the City of Dallas Parks & Recreation
Department to develop the Trail's architectural specifications,
landscaping, amenities, signage, and expansion. The following people
are acknowledged for their assistance:
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Rod Scales (Highlands
North), Chair - Friends Vice President/Design, civil
engineer, headed real estate development firm, and
former member of City of Dallas Public Art Task Force.
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Matt Bach (Holiday Park) -
Friends VP/Safety & Beautification, president of
his HOA, member of City of Dallas Board of Adjustment,
and past president of RANDCO.
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Mike Donahue (Prestonwood) -
Environmental Health & Safety Consultant and active
in HOA.
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Becky Elam (Spring Creek) -
Realtor with Ebby Halliday and community volunteer.
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Rich Morgan (Highlands of McKamy) -
An architect, past president of the AIA Dallas,
led Trinity River Corridor Design Study, and member
of Regional Transit Council of NCTCOG.
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Cori Pratt (Highlands North) -
President of the Friends, former president of her
HOA, former Bowie Elementary teacher, and active
community leader.
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Rodney Schlosser, ex-officio
(Highlands I & II) - Vice President/Community
Relations of the Friends, Member of the Library
Board, and VP of his HOA.
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Michael Voit (Preston
Highlands) - An architect who is LEED Accredited
(Environmental Design).
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| HISTORY PROJECT |
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Are you a local history buff or are you willing to do a
little research? The Friends of Preston Ridge Trail is
collecting brief and interesting historical facts related
to the neighborhoods the Trail passes.
This information will be incorporated into the design of the Trail as a
way to add interest to the Trail experience and to
strengthen our neighborhood identities. The Friends
organization is also considering placing small historical
markers at key spots along the Trail. Here are two examples
that relate to the southern end of the trail:
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A friendly tribe of native Americans known as the Yoiuane
of the Caddo group lived in this area and used nearby
Bowser Spring for their water supply. After T.F. McKamy,
a prominent early settler and Richardson's first mayor,
bought the land, the spring became known as McKamy Spring.
Coit Road was named to honor John Taylor Coit
who trained confederate recruits at Trinity
Mills, a town near Carrollton.
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The Friends needs similar facts about parks, schools,
neighborhoods, settlers, railroads, streets, or other
elements related to the trail route.
If you have knowledge about the area or are willing to do
some research, contact Rich Morgan at (972) 248-0755 or
remorgan@sbcglobal.net.
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Here is some interesting information we have gathered so far, from which
trail markers may be derived. We welcome your additions to these facts.
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A Personal History of Northwood Hills : 1959-1999 by Stewart
and Marion Mitchell (edited for aspects relating to the
Trail, sourced from NHHA website)
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In 1959, Coit and Hillcrest were two-lane country roads.
Spring Valley west of Coit was just a blueprint. And there
were nothing but cotton fields all the way north to Belt
Line Road. On both sides of Meandering Way, scores of new
houses were framing up. What brought it all about was a
bold idea by three men, George Mixon, George Mixon, Jr.
and Bill Troth. They envisioned a real estate development
of greater magnitude and risk than ever before attempted
in the Dallas area -- more than 800 acres of luxury homes
ranging in price from $40,000 to $200,000.
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The land that was to become phase one of Northwood Hills
had been in the George Drewery family for three generations
prior to its purchase by developers Mixon & Troth in 1955.
The initial tract of 450 acres was huge by real estate
standards back then. It took a lot of vision and guts to
gamble on a luxury home addition of such scale and risk.
A major factor driving the developers was the sheer beauty
of the site. Bordered on the west by a branch of White Rock
Creek, and containing a small tree-lined tributary, graced
with gently sloping hills and native trees, the land was
richly contoured and elevated above the surrounding plains.
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Capitalizing on their site's natural beauty, the developers
chose to enhance it by laying out the streets in gentle
curves and graceful bends. Mixon & Troth stuck to their
vision, described in a 1957 newspaper story as "the first
post-war attempt to duplicate a 'Park Cities' environment
for distinctive home sites." There was nothing else like
it in the burgeoning North Dallas real estate market.
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Financial conditions at the time kept making decisions
more difficult. Interest rates were rising, and financing
was complicated by a regulation prohibiting commercial banks
from lending money on unimproved land. One of the "Big Three"
banks that dominated Dallas at that time ultimately backed
the venture. To help pay for initial streets and paved
alleys, Mixon & Troth sold thirty acres of their land at
the northwest corner of Spring Valley and Coit Road to
Trammell Crow for a shopping center. The Crow interests
later decided to limit the center to five acres and build
luxury apartments on the rest.
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The neighborhood comes of age
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As the seventies flew past in a blur of growth
and development, the missing link in Spring
Valley Road was built connecting it from Coit
Road to west of Hillcrest (where for years it
dead-ended at White Rock Creek for lack of a
bridge). The Northwood Hills Addition spread
north all the way to Belt Line. Across Hillcrest,
Northwood Hills Estates was sprouting new 3,000
to 3,500 square-foot homes on half-acre lots.
In order to fund these new sections, developers
Mixon & Troth sold thirty acres to the City of
Dallas for Fretz Park, named for an early Dallas
architect responsible for several landmark city
government buildings. By the arrival of the
fateful eighties, Northwood Hills had achieved
distinction as a mature, highly desirable
neighborhood.
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FRANKFORD, TEXAS.
Frankford was nine miles northwest of Richardson
in extreme southwestern Collin County. Settlement
of the area began around a campsite on the Shawnee
Trailqv near a small spring on Halls
Branch, used in the 1850s and 1860s as a stopping
point and watering hole for traildrivers and
other travelers. A small town developed after
the Civil Warqv at the nearby crossing of the
Addison and Weber roads (later known respectively
as the Dallas North Tollroad and Hilton Head Road),
and a post office opened on May 11, 1880, under
the name Frankford. By 1890 the town had a population
of eighty-three, a steam gristmill, a corn mill,
a cotton gin, a blacksmith shop, two general
stores, and three churches. The St. Louis
Southwestern Railway bypassed the town in the
late 1880s, however, and many Frankford residents
moved to Addison, Plano, and other nearby communities.
In 1904 the Frankford post office was closed,
and in 1907 its lodge hall, which had served
as a nondenominational church, was moved to Addison.
A second church, built in the 1890s, continued
to serve a predominantly Methodist congregation
until 1924. By the mid-1930s the town was no
longer shown on county highway maps. Its church
building was restored in 1963 by the Frankford
Cemetery Association, which arranged for the
Episcopal Church of the Holy Communion to worship
there. The city of Dallas annexed the area in
1975, and in 1990 local children attended the
Plano schools. All that remained of the community
in 1990 was the Frankford Church and Cemetery,
adjoined by residences on three sides and by
the Bent Tree Country Club to the south.
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Frankford community, including a still existing
church and cemetery, developed in the mid-1800s
in the southwestern corner of Collin County on
Halls Branch, a tributary of White Rock Creek.
In the 1850s and 1860s travelers detoured from
Preston Road, oldest North-South route in North
Texas, to camp in their covered wagons by a
spring on Halls Branch on the Shawnee Trail.
Residences and the Bent Tree Country Club near
the present Dallas North Tollway and Weber Road
now cover the area. A post office that served
the community from 1890 to 1904 was built at the
crossing of Addison and Weber Roads. Records
state that "by 1890 the town had a population of
eighty-three, a steam gristmill, a corn mill, a
cotton gin, a blacksmith shop, two general
stores, and three churches." The Post Office
gave the community the official name of "Frankford"
when it opened on May 11, 1880. Stories collected
by Collin County historian Frances Wells speculate
that the name Frankford described a "ford" or
shallow crossing over the creek that was "frank"
or free with respect to conditions or restrictions
for crossing. Thus "Frankford" might mean a ford
available for public use. Another story attributes
the name Frank to the name of a settler's son,
Frank Cotton.
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The history of the community's cemetery and
church is closely associated with Masonic Lodge
234, chartered June 15, 1858. Members of the
lodge built a two story lodge hall in 1872 on
land owned by Capt. William C. McKamy, a Tennessee
immigrant who arrived in present Dallas County,
Texas, in 1852. McKamy bought a land, home and
mill on the White Rock Creek from Peters Colonists.
McKamy was a member of the Masonic Lodge 234 and
sold the lodge five acres for church and school
uses in 1873 for ten dollars an acre.
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The Hall, as the old-timers called the
building, served as a religious, fraternal,
and educational community center. The second
floor of the Hall was reserved for lodge meetings
while the first floor was used for school and
non-denominational church services. One former
student, William Furneaux of Carrollton,
remembered going to school at the Hall in 1875
when W. H. Alexander and his wife taught about
75 pupils there. Since some of the students
lived in Dallas County, Mrs. Alexander took
the primary grades across the creek into Dallas
County and taught them in a farm tenant house
in order to collect Dallas County school money.
Another teacher, J. S. Allen is listed in a
record of Collin County free public schools
as receiving $84.95 from the county in 1880
to operate the Frankford School.
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The St. Louis southwestern Railway bypassed
the town in the late 1880s, and many Frankford
residents moved to Addison, Plano, and other
nearby communities. In 1904 the Frankford post
office was closed, and in 1907 its lodge hall,
which had served as a church and school, was
moved to Addison. A second church, built in
the late 1890s, continued to serve a predominantly
Methodist congregation until 1924. By the mid-1930s
the town was no longer shown on the county highway
maps. Frankford Church lay vacant and deteriorating
until 1962 when Episcopal services of the Church
of the Holy Communion began to be held in the
building. Today the restored church and carefully
tended cemetery are nestled in a picturesque
setting which includes a wooden bridge across
the creek at the entrance to the 13-acre grounds
and a windmill. A parish hall that was originally
the old Addison Railroad station sits next to
the white church. New buildings constructed by
the Episcopal Church are also on the original
grounds. Both the church and cemetery have Texas
State Historical Markers.
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RENNER, TEXAS. Renner,
a half mile west of State Highway 289 in
southwestern Collin County, was established in
1888 as a stop on the Cotton Belt line (officially
known as the St. Louis Southwestern Railway
of Texas). The community was named for John A.
Renner, a railroad engineer in charge of developing
townsites along the Cotton Belt line. A post
office was established in 1888 to serve the
fifty residents of Renner, and within twenty
years the town became a commercial and community
center for area farmers. In 1915 its population
reached 300, a figure that was not surpassed
until 1965. The Great Depressionqv and the
development of mechanized farming contributed
to a sharp decline in population, and by 1947
Renner had 100 residents and two businesses.
After World War IIqv the Texas
Research Foundation,qv a nonprofit
agricultural research organization, selected
Renner as the site of its agricultural laboratories.
From 1950 to the late 1960s the population of
Renner grew steadily, reaching 394 in 1969.
After 1977 the Texas Almanacqv
no longer listed it as an independent community,
and by 1983 Renner had been incorporated into the city of
Dallas.
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One source recalled
that Bill Blakely owned about 1000 acres, was
quite wealthy but later came on hard times
after developing Exchange Park near Parkland
hospital. McCallum's aunt owned about 1000
acres where Preston Trails Golf Club is now
located. Blakely used to ride his horses on
the ranch where Meandering Way resides (there
is some uncertainty as to whether Blakely's
land went east of Hillcrest or all the way to
Coit) on Sundays, dressed in his church suit,
tie, boots and hat. The McCallum's shared the
profits of running horses on the land. The
land was sold to Pollard-Simon, a national
developer who then sold tracts to a partnership
of Metropolitan Savings and Talmadge Tinsley
to build houses. His recollection of Renner
was that it was bounded by McCallum, Frankford,
a little west of Coit, and Meandering Way on
the west. There was an old grocery store in
the downtown area where the old-timers would
play dominoes.
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Another source said
Bill Blakely owned the land where the trail
resides; he was an Arapaho Indian, thus the
name for Arapaho Road. Bill was an oil and
gas man, had no heirs and was believed to have
left the land to SMU. The McCallum's ran cattle
on the land. Their farmhouse was east of Preston
in the vicinity of where Brentfield is now.
"It was just open country; you could piss
off the front steps and shoot out the back."
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The developer of Northwood Hills
mentioned that the land on Meandering Way north
of Belt Line was owned by Bill Blakely (an
investor in Braniff Airlines? and involved in
Exchange (park) Bank and Trust?, and when LB
Johnson resigned the Senate seat to become VP,
William Blakely was appointed Senator for Texas,
until beaten by John Tower in 1961). It was
thought that the Meandering Way land was donated
to SMU by Blakely as he had no heirs. Whoever
eventually developed the land was believed to
have done it in the late 1960's with Dallas
Federal Savings and Loan. DFSL would take a
piece of the equity for lending to the developer
and then get the title insurance and mortgages
on the new houses. Bill Troth developed the
duplexes along Belt Line east of Meandering
Way. There was no school district until it
was annexed into RISD. Meandering Way was built
to Belt Line in late 1960's. In the late 1950's
there was a drive-in movie on Arapaho between
Meandering Way and Hillcrest. It was gone by
the early 1970's. There was a grocery store
at Alpha and Hillcrest. Metropolitan Savings
and Loan and Warren Clarke were involved in
development of the residential area near Bowie
School.
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From the Internet:
Baylor Law Library Rare Book Room (Sheridan
and John Eddie Williams Legal research and
Technology Center) - The majority of this
collection was made possible through the
generosity of two distinguished members of
the legal community: Judge Frank M. Wilson and
U.S. Senator William A. Blakely. Judge Wilson
donated his private collection of over 2100
volumes of first editions, rare printings of
pre-eminent legal writing, novels and research
titles. Senator Blakely presented the library
with an early printing of the Magna Carta and
several other first editions. These gifts,
along with the law school's original collection
of rare books, which includes Las Siete Partidas
and a nearly complete collection of the session
laws of Texas, are housed in this room, located
on the second floor of the Law Library in Room 207.
Much early funding for the University of
Dallas, Irving, Texas came from Tom Braniff
(of Braniff airlines) who underwrote the
graduate school, and from William (Bill)
Blakely who underwrote the William A. Blakely
Library, in the Braniff and Blakely buildings.
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