Legacies: A History Journal for Dallas and North Central Texas, Volume 14, Number 2, Fall, 2002 Page: 48
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The "ultra-modern" Wynnewood Theater, designed by architects
Pettigrew & Worley, seated nearly I,ooo, making it one of the
largest 'suburban" cinemas in the city at the time. Jeff Chandler
starred in "Smugglers Island," which played at the theaters
debut in iz9p. Multiplexed in the I98os, the theatre was closed
for many years and demolished in the mid-ig9os.dwelling, sheathed in board-and-batten siding
and Roman brick, was shown fully furnished
with the latest in contemporary furniture, appliances,
and labor-saving devices. The house was
advertised for sale for $55,000, with furnishings,
and the ultimate buyer was offered an all-expense
paid, eight-day vacation in Havana, Cuba, via
Braniff Airways.3' Insurance agent Elzie Jenkins,
whose offices were already in the nearby Village,
was the lucky purchaser of the Vacation House.
While ever-larger Ranch-style houses continued
to be built in Wynnewood North during
the early and mid-1950s, a few adventuresome
clients had more contemporary homes constructed
in the development. Dean Lem, an advertising
executive friend of Angus Wynne's who published
the WynnewoodNews in the Village in the
early 1950s, bought a modern house on North
Manus Drive in 1954 that had been designed byDallas architect Thomas Scott Dean. Two years
later, Frank and Ruthmary White commissioned
Dean to design their contemporary residence on
Monssen Drive, and architect Forrest Upshaw
was already living in the contemporary house he
designed for himself on Hoel Street. Eugene
O'Brien, whose father Paul owned the
Wynnewood Village Hardware store and had
built a house on Bizerte Street, admired an architect-designed
house in Kessler Park (possibly
planned by Hal Yoakum) and imported antique
Mexican brick with which to construct a similar
house on Mayrant Street.
Perhaps the most unusual residence in the
development, with its heavy, flat concrete roof
that was planned to collect rain water to insulate
the house, was designed and built for his own
family by civil engineer Barney Reif. On the staff
of Powell & Powell, the engineers that worked
on the Wynnewood land development, Reif
hired curb and gutter concrete contractors to
build his one-of-a-kind-and controversialhouse
in 1950. Insurance broker and American
Home Realty executive Ted Holland chose an
infamous corner of Wynnewood North land on
which to build his elegant, Georgian-influenced
home. The small stand of post oak trees in the
open pasture across muddy, unpaved Llewellyn
Street from the first houses built on Monssen
Drive in 1949 had been a popular "lovers' lane"
for Oak Cliff teenagers.32 In 1955, the year couples
parked under the trees were listening to Bill
Haley & the Comets sing "Rock Around the
Clock" and Nat King Cole's "A Blossom Fell,"
Holland bought the lot from Angus Wynne and
asked Dallas interior designerJed Mace to design
his elegant house for the spot. Holland insisted
nostalgically that the lovers' lane oaks be saved by
turning the house diagonally on the lot.33
Despite the loss of the lovers' lane,
Wynnewood residents of all ages still had many
recreational and entertainment outlets. Teenagers
hung out at the Wynnewood Record Shop in the
Village or caught the movies at the Wynnewood
Theatre, which had opened in July 1951. For a
time during the 1950s, Wynnewood offered48
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Dallas Historical Society. Legacies: A History Journal for Dallas and North Central Texas, Volume 14, Number 2, Fall, 2002, periodical, 2002; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth35097/m1/50/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Dallas Historical Society.