Haunted Dallas by Rita Cook

Author:Rita Cook
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2012-09-08T16:00:00+00:00

DALLAS ARBORETUM

8525 Garland Road

Dallas, Texas

www.dallasarboretum.org

The Dallas Arboretum is a sixty-six-acre garden that houses both the DeGolyer Estate and the Camp Estate. More than 540,000 visitors from fifty countries came through the gates in just one year alone. The twenty-one-thousand-square-foot home that is located within the Dallas Arboretum near White Rock Lake is said to be haunted. When I was in the area in the late fall, I did feel a little bit of an otherworldly presence. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places inside the arboretum is what is called the DeGolyer Garden Cafe/Loggia, located at the back of the DeGolyer Home, where you can catch a good glimpse of White Rock Lake, as well as the tiered fountains and formal landscapes of what is called “A Woman’s Garden.”

The DeGolyer Home was built for petroleum geologist Everette L. DeGolyer and his wife, Nell, in the 1940s. Everette DeGolyer, who pioneered new methods of locating petroleum, acquired thousands of books in his lifetime. When Mrs. DeGolyer died in 1972, the DeGolyer Home and Estate, which is now also home to the DeGolyer Garden Café, was given to Southern Methodist University, which later gave it to the City of Dallas.

As for the arboretum, it was founded, according to the website, “upon the dreams of a few visionary Dallasites. Though the gardens themselves are comparatively young, the work that went into creating the current gardens began long ago and it was in the early 1930’s that Everette DeGolyer chaired a committee to find a landsite for an arboretum for Dallas. Sixty years later, the concept for a botanical preserve is a reality—on the very land he once owned.”

When the DeGolyer Home was built, it was designed to look one hundred years old. It is in the Latin Colonial Revival style, with thirteen rooms, seven baths, five fireplaces and seven chimneys. The library is 1,750 square feet. The grounds were often called “Rancho Encinal” because of the many live oak trees. The property had been a forty-four-acre dairy farm when purchased by the DeGolyers, and even way back when it was built, both central air conditioning and heating were installed. The architects were Denman Scott and Burton Schutt. In addition to being listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it is also listed on the Texas Register of Historic Places.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.