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neighborhood stable.

Royce and his group drew some vicious threats from absentee landlords who didn’t want any activist groups stirring up trouble. Police stepped in and provided protection for the group, which eventually merged with the East Dallas Design Committee. E.D. N.A. is now dormant, but EDDC went on to become the Lakewood design and planning group, which is working on improvements in East Dallas in cooperation with City Hall.



Wallace Savage, former mayor of Dallas (’49-’51) and chairman of the board of Lakewood Bank & Trust Co.



Savage, who has lived all his life on Swiss Avenue, is a perceptive and even-minded man. Realization of the value of Swiss Avenue came to Savage back in the 1940s, when he helped the residents there fight a number of zoning battles to keep out apartment developers. Finally Savage “sort of threw in the towel” and urged that a master plan be drawn up to insure that when apartments finally did come to Swiss, they would be “good” multi-story units, not “rabbit warrens.” Marvin Springer, the famous planner, developed the Swiss apartment plan under Savage’s aegis, but the concept had, as Savage puts it, “a negative-positive effect,” influencing homeowners to hold on to their property until the land value peaked.

Houses were renovated, and Swiss Avenue remained single-family. When the Preservation League started, the ingredients for the Swiss Avenue Historical District were still intact, thanks to Savage’s foresight.

Savage views the young people coming into East Dallas as the most cohesive force developing in the neighborhood. And he welcomes the influx of blacks and Mexican-Americans to the area. Now retired, Savage spends his time at Lakewood Bank and in backing the efforts of people like his daughter, Virginia Talkington, one of the founders of the Preservation League.



Bob Burns, executive vice-president of Lakewood Bank & Trust Co.



Burns, apart from helping to run “the piggy bank” of East Dallas, is active in the Lakewood planning and design group, and has been a leader in the Lakewood Merchants’ Association and the East Dallas Chamber of Commerce.

He came to East Dallas ten years ago and found the area deteriorating. Burns provided liaison between Lake-wood Bank and the merchants, and helped them negotiate city agencies and departments in efforts to upgrade East Dallas.

Burns is sold on East Dallas, a good drum beater and town crier for the neighborhood. He calls the area an ideal, small-townish neighborhood that has the potential to be more “in” than any other place in Dallas. He keeps a finger on the pulse of East Dallas and was actively involved recently when the Dallas Independent School District talked with residents about closing J.L. Long Junior High and Woodrow Wilson High School. He believes they won’t.



Don Wright, president of the $100 million Lakewood Bank & Trust Co.



Five years ago Don Wright looked around at the blight and deterioration of East Dallas and decided something had to be done – not only for the area, but also to protect the investment of his bank. Along came the Dallas Historical Preservation League with plans to save Swiss Avenue from a high-rise apartment house development and to restore the fading old mansions to their former grandeur. It was the only excuse Wright needed.

The vigorous Wright authorized loans of $1 million at preferential rates to the Swiss Avenue homeowners who were willing to invest “sweat equity,” as well as Wright’s dollars, in the old houses. That investment provided the impetus for the East Dallas boom.

Wright now authorizes loans for remodeling and restoring East Dallas homes to anyone who is willing to move in and prove fiscal responsibility. The community credits Wright and Lakewood Bank with rescuing East Dallas from the bulldozers.



Lyn Dunsavage, mother, housewife, an organizer and leader of the Dallas Historical Preservation League.



As an activist, Ms. Dunsavage has battled to save Swiss Avenue and the El Centro College buildings, and helped to organize preservation efforts in Oak Cliff, Oak Lawn and South Dallas. She symbolizes the active leadership role women have taken in the preservation of the old homes, and wears the mantle of the League’s philosopher.

She is concerned that East Dallas regeneration not be viewed simply a campaign to save old homes. To her, East Dallas is an example of how people’s perceptions of how and where they live can be changed.

“What we have here is a beautiful example of pulling all of it together to change people’s perceptions so they can see the golden nuggets,” she says. It’s hard not to be infected by her boundless enthusiasm for East Dallas. To her it is the people who make the difference in East Dallas.