Daniel Jones Cooper meticulously restores a historic Neoclassical revivalist estate on Gaston Avenue. 

By REBECCA SHERMAN Photography by IRA MONTGOMERY STYLING BY KAREN EUBANK

Layer by layer, Daniel Jones Cooper and a team of preservation experts meticulously stripped 84 years worth of bad taste from the moldings and mantels of this Neoclassical revival. “You could almost see the decades go by as we worked,” says Cooper, who lives in the house with a passel of Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, which he shows. “The base color was a dull, opaque tan, which was popular in the 1920s, when the house was built. Then there was a layer of gold, and there were two shades of purple. You could just see the bong parties happening in here in the ’60s!” Add an ’80s-era emerald green to the mad mix of color, and it’s easy to see why restoring a historic house to its original state can be painstaking. When the longleaf pine molding finally emerged from underneath it all, so did the memory and spirit of house’s original owner, George W. Owens, Jr.

Owens was a local lumber magnate, and his mills provided the wood for this and many other historically significant houses in Dallas during the 1920s and ’30s. Architect J.M. Martin built the residence for Owens, and because it is an outstanding specimen of Neoclassical revival architecture, the house is eligible for historic designation, including the National Register of Historic Places. It had been abandoned for years and then occupied by a hodgepodge of tenants before Cooper bought it in 2003.

As Cooper restored the near-ruined interiors, Owens seemed to be there right along with him. One day, while working on the electrical wiring in the living room, he found an old bottle in the wall; the bottle’s label read, “One pint 100 proof whiskey, medicinal purposes. One tablespoonful. George Owens, Jr., Oct. 20, 1924.” Owens had likely stashed his “prescription” for whiskey in the walls for safekeeping during Prohibition. Cooper called his team into the room when he made the discovery, and they stood in awed silence for a time. “It was a defining moment, a sign,” says Cooper. “It was like Owens was saying ‘Hello, I’m here! I like what you’re doing to my house.’” Later, another two dozen bottles were discovered in the walls. If the number of pints equates approval, Owens surely was pleased.

The happy spirit of Owens was consulted on the project as earnestly as the house’s original footprint, discovered on microfiche while researching records. Says Cooper, “I constantly asked myself, ‘What would Mr. Owens have done?’ I tried to listen to what the house was telling me.” While Owens provided inspiration, architects and Preservation Park Cities board members Craig Melde and Wilson Fuqua provided accurate historical information and advice. Cooper also diligently researched Neoclassical architecture at the Dallas Library, and he was able to find the house’s various permits for construction and redesign, which helped him return the house to its original state. Cooper’s intellectual muse during the project was Rose Tarlow, whose book, The Private House, he credits with teaching him to think organically. “I love formal things,” he says, “and I’ve always been classic and conservative, but Tarlow has taught me to let the interiors evolve naturally. This house has become a true reflection of me, not what I think somebody else would want to see.”