I can count on one hand the homes I’d move into in a hot minute if I won the lottery. This historic Turtle Creek Spanish Revival mansion is at the top of that list. I was fortunate enough to see it in person when it was on the market in 2017, and I fell head over heels because it is absolute perfection.
We often write about how a house can make you feel as if you’d been transported to another country. Sometimes it’s a stretch, but that’s not the case here. Enter those gates, head up the brick road, and you won’t believe you are just five minutes from downtown Dallas. Only four families have ever lived here, and you know by now that is a testament to how well the home functions.
This Turtle Creek Spanish Revival mansion features components of Italian Revival, but don’t be fooled; it’s been documented by the Dallas Landmark Commission as a Spanish Revival. It was built in 1925 by the architectural firm Flint & Broad, which was widely regarded as one of the best of the era.
Businessman Ballard M. Burgher commissioned Lester Flint and Thomas Broad to build him a family home. A fun fact is that the Burghers were living on a farm at Cedar Springs and Oak Lawn. Remember, this was the 1920s, and much of Dallas was still farmland.
Some of the most beautiful and expensive homes in Dallas were built along Turtle Creek in the 1920s. Most of our newcomers probably don’t know that the Mansion on Turtle Creek was once the King Mansion, a single-family residence (also built in 1925) that belonged to oil magnate Shepard W. King and his wife. You can see the same pale pink stucco walls, red tile roof, and wrought iron details on both homes.
Most of the larger Turtle Creek homes remained until the early 1950s when the success of the first high-rise residential building at 3525 Turtle Creek in 1957 led to a decline in their numbers. It was pretty much all downhill for single-family homes from that point. Rapid growth and the siren call of density are nothing new to Dallas, unfortunately.
Although poor Mr. Burgher died two months shy of the house being finished, his family, which included six children, moved in. There was a family member in residence until 1971. One of the Burgher’s daughters, Laura, was even married on the grounds. When you see it in person, you will understand there is no more magical place for a wedding…