1329 S Henderson St – Yard of the Month (May 2018)
May’s Yard of the Month winners goes to homeowners Rich and Serena Keller of 1329 S. Henderson St. The Keelers have lived in this new construction for about 7 years. They are Fairmount veterans, as they spent the previous seven years living just down the street, in a 1930 Craftsman Bungalow at 1405 S. Henderson. The Keelers also have family in Fairmount, Serena’s mom Hester and sister Jacqueline. The Keelers moved from New York in the early 2000’s, with baby Andrew. Daughter Devon was born here a couple of years later. From 1405’s previous owners, Dallas Morning News editor Jon O’Guinn and his partner Clifford Garner, the Keelers inherited one giant pecan tree, shading bearded German white iris and Fairy roses. Serena also planted oak trees in the parkway and encouraged many other Henderson St. homeowners to apply for free trees through the Tarrant County Forestry outreach. In landscaping 1405, Serena focused on Southwest natives that could survive blazing afternoons in the West-facing handkerchief front yard. She shopped the Southside Preservation Hall plant sale, and local nurseries like Elizabeth Anna’s and Archie’s. Her front beds included Desert Willow, hibiscus, yucca, salvia and blackfoot daisy.
As Andrew and Devon grew, the Keelers felt their charming 3/1 Craftsman cottage was becoming too cramped; they needed a second bathroom, a home office, and the holy grail of Fairmount historic properties, a structurally sound 2-car garage. After realtor Lori Gallagher showed them many 4-bedroom historic Fairmount homes, the Keelers had an epiphany: the best way to get their perfect home was to design and build it new, using historic house influences. They purchased a lot just up the street from them that had been vacant more than 30 years. The original home, a 2-story wood-sided Four Square with a brick columned wrap-around porch, fell victim to arson in the 80’s, and was torn down in 1989. The home at 1329 was owned for much of the 20th century by Clint J. Taylor, a US Post Railway Mail Superintendent. According to the US Census of 1930 and 1940, Taylor and wife, Gatha, shared the home with a young couple in their twenties: the Taylor’s African-American cook, Sylvia McCrumb, and her husband Robert, a laborer for a lumber company.
As an 8000 sq ft vacant lot close to Magnolia, 1329 served some utilitarian purposes that will discourage plant life: it provided parking for an impressive collection of classic automobiles, then was a staging area for construction machinery when Henderson St. was re-plumbed and repaved in 2010. The compressed soil was poor, with oily automotive deposits, and construction trash. Beginning work on 2-story structure and a 2-car garage with apartment involved stripping away all the detritus. After the joys and pains of building to suit and choosing exterior décor details like paint color and light fixtures, Serena turned her attention to the gardens. She was not very keen on sod, and had planned another xeriscaped front yard like the one at 1405. But soil erosion became a problem while the garden was getting established, so the Keelers laid St. Augustine grass and constructed raised stone-edged flower beds flanking the generous wrap-around porch. On the Morphy street side, a large Texas Sage bush and a Santa Rosa (prunus salicina), a uniquely self-pollinating plum tree, flourish near the garage. In the front beds, Serena prefers mounding perennials well-adapted to our Zone 7 winters and hot, dry summers. She has planted half a dozen types of the versatile salvia family, including Raspberry Delight, Indigo Spires, and black and blue (salvia guaranitica). White and pink gaura (gaura linheimeri) are another favorite, here nestling among kitchen herbs, especially mint, lavender, thyme. A patch of red Turk’s cap is just beginning to spread in May. Yellow asters and Eastern purple cone flower (Echinacea purpurea), a member of the sunflower family, provide color near the porch. And Serena duplicated one of her favorites from 1405, a Texas native Red Yucca (hesperaloe parviflora) –not truly a yucca but anagave with tough, fibrous stems and pretty coral blooms – to give texture and height in the flower beds.
Our thanks, and a $25 Gift card to Calloway’s Nursery, go to Rich and Serena Keeler. The Yard of the Month committee is Leah Suasnovar and Bonnie Blackwell.
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