Back in the 1950s, being a divorcee was considered scandalous. You had to be a confident, independent, and capable woman to part ways with your husband. Elsie Kerr had those qualities in spades. Her independence is showcased in this East Kessler Midcentury Modern she had built for herself and her son, Lynn. Think Jennifer Coolidge meets Iris Apfel. I can just imagine the parties here.
Elsie knew exactly what she was doing when she had this house built. Rumor has it the house was part of the divorce settlement with her ex-husband, Lawrence Kerr, who I’m pretty sure owned Kerr’s Kliff Bowling Lanes on E Jefferson Boulevard in Oak Cliff, but if you know better, please update me. It was also just down the street and around the corner from Lawrence, allowing Lynn to see both parents easily. Elsie hired architectural designer and decorator Ashley Koenig, but she drove the process.
When current owner Daniel Jauchen purchased this East Kessler Midcentury Modern in 2007, Elsie’s son Lynn was the seller. So until then, it had been in one family since 1958. That says a lot about how the home lives.
“He walked me through the house and told me everything had originally been pink,” Jauchen said. “There was one room called the New Orleans room, decorated with fleur-de-lis, and there are notes on the architectural drawings, per client’s request.” That was probably to absolve poor old Koenig from people like me writing about the home’s quirks decades later. Smart man!…