Halloween is a big deal in East Dallas, and there is no neighborhood that celebrates it with more creativity than the Swiss Avenue Historic District. It became such an important holiday here that in 1986 former state lawmaker Harryette Ehrhardt led a group of neighbors in establishing trick-or-treating on Swiss Avenue as a legitimate neighborhood event.
According to longtime resident and former historic preservation officer for the City of Dallas, Jim Anderson, Halloween on Swiss Avenue is actually located in two historic districts. Below the Fitzhugh gates is the Peak’s Suburban Addition Historic District, and above the gates is the Swiss Avenue Historic District. Both neighborhoods are not to be missed on the big night.
Now, if you’ve never been to either of these neighborhoods, you are in for more than a candy treat. You’ll get to step back into the history of Dallas.
Peak’s Suburban Addition Historic District, Dallas’ oldest existing residential neighborhood, was established in 1855. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was designated a City of Dallas Historic District in 1995, and it is only one of two Dallas residential historic districts that contain numerous Victorian homes.
“This neighborhood developed gradually over about 75 years with four distinct development periods,” Anderson said. “Large estate houses from 1855 to 1888. Victorian houses from 1889 to 1905. Prairie and Craftsman homes were built from 1906 to 1919. The last historic development was trolley stop shops, streetcar apartments, and Tudor houses in the 1920s. All four of these development periods can be found in Lower Swiss.”
The Swiss Avenue Historic District was a section of the original 1905 Munger Place subdivision, the first deed restricted subdivision in Dallas.
“Houses had to be at least $10,000, designed by leading architects of the day, and of one of 15 architectural styles popular at the time,” Anderson said. “These styles included Prairie, Arts and Crafts, Tudor, Mission, Spanish, Italianate, and Colonial Revival.”
Fast forward to the 1970s. Former mayor Wallace Savage, his wife Dorothy, and their daughter Virginia Savage McAlester, along with a group of dedicated preservationists, established Swiss Avenue as the first Dallas historic district in 1973. Swiss Avenue is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Of course, if you’ve ever seen scary movies, historic homes make the best haunted houses and are the best homes for trick-or-treating. Swiss Avenue sees about 4,000 kids each year. They come for the candy, of course, but also for the dramatic displays. Harry Potter’s Diagon Alley was built one year, and a neighbor used to recreate Phantom of the Opera and play spooky songs on his pipe organ. You never know from year to year what you will see.
This year, broomsticks, witches, and ravens seem to loom large and are creatively displayed. One house features a yard full of creepy zombie babies. Anderson is a big aficionado of the holiday and has one of the best spiderweb displays in Dallas. Along with zombies, witches, and ghouls, his home is a must-see. So is the aforementioned Virginia Savage McAlester home at 5703 Swiss Ave., which is the big treat this year, covered in skulls and gravestones, with creepy tentacles crawling down the sidewalk and a demon head glowing in the upstairs window.
Happy Halloween from all of us at CandysDirt.com!
