Legacies: A History Journal for Dallas and North Central Texas, Volume 26, Number 2, Fall 2014 Page: 3
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FROM THE EDITOR
K expected events often force individuals,
neighborhoods, or businesses to change course.
Flexibility, creativity, and an ability to take advan-
tage of new opportunities are all keys to success-
ful change. The articles in this issue of Legacies all
explore such situations, suggesting our theme of
"New Directions."
Henry Exall came to Texas as a young man to
enter the cattle business. Soon he went into banking.
Later he dreamed of a fine residential addition
north of Dallas, to be called Philadelphia Place.
He created a lake, which still bears his name, but a
national "panic" stopped development. Exall then
opened a farm on part of the property where he
bred trotting horses. Exall's great-grandson, David
Stewart, recounts these and more new directions
taken by Exall during his varied career.
As a young woman growing up in Dallas,
Lenore Cohren trained as a concert pianist. But an
audition with the conductor of the Metropolitan
Opera orchestra led to voice lessons in New York
and Italy and a successful career (under a new name,
Leonora Corona) as a soprano with the Met and
other opera companies. When she finally retired at
nearly 60, Corona and her husband took another
turn, changing their name and moving to Florida.
Elizabeth Enstam tells the fascinating story of a
woman who continued to create new identities for
herself throughout her life.
Historic commercial buildings nearly always
must adapt to new uses if they are to survive. Mark
Rice describes two built in East Dallas in the 1920s,
one of which began as a cleaning business and
later housed a dance hall, a furniture and appliancestore, and restaurants, among other enterprises. The
other began life as a bakery and eventually housed
a book cover business and a fabric store. Both are
substantial buildings, yet they also tend to blend
into their neighborhood, not calling attention to
themselves.At nearly 90 years old, both continue to
serve the community.
Deep Ellum has always been one of the most
distinct and alluring neighborhoods in Dallas.
As Erica Johnson explains, it has gone through
many phases over the past 150 years, experiencing
periods of prosperity, notoriety, physical changes,
and economic slowdown. And its image has also
continued to change, as it reinvented itself. From
a Texas version of New York City's Harlem, it has
gradually transformed into something more akin to
another NYC neighborhood, SoHo.
Residential neighborhoods also underwent
a subtle but substantial change in the 1950s and
'60s as home builders introduced new concepts
designed to appeal to changing tastes and take
advantage of new technology. Ranch style homes
with open floor plans, multi-purpose rooms, and
amenities like automatic dishwashers and central
air conditioning began to proliferate across former
farm land and pastures. Kerry Adams focuses on
several leading developers and offers a personal
perspective on living in one of these houses a half
century after its construction.
Changing course, heading off in a new direc-
tion, can be daunting. The outcome is unpredict-
able. But new directions, when pursued imagina-
tively, can lead to unexpected rewards, both for
individuals and their community.-Michael V Hazel
LEGACIES Fall 2014 3
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Dallas Historical Society. Legacies: A History Journal for Dallas and North Central Texas, Volume 26, Number 2, Fall 2014, periodical, Autumn 2014; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth586973/m1/5/?q=exall&rotate=270: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Dallas Historical Society.