Big D's Historic Places Endangered?

Two Dallas landmarks—Lakewood Theater and the Old Dallas High School/Crozier Tech—are on their way to redevelopment while maintaining their historic legacy. However, Preservation Dallas leadership fears for many other landmark buildings across Dallas. The result: the return of the Endangered Historic Places List after a five-year hiatus.

Preservation Dallas executive director David Preziosi tells us Preservation Dallas brought back the list because of the increased pressure that historic buildings are facing from new development and other threats. Now that the real estate recession has ended, more developers are looking at projects that could impact historic buildings, he tells us. There’s been some controversy stirred over demolition of Downtown’s oldest sites. It’s something David would like to see avoided in the future.

Matthews Southwest purchased the old Dallas High School/Crozier Tech (pictured) in Downtown with plans to rehabilitate the site. (It was on several previous endangered lists.) David hopes it stands as an example of what real estate owners and developers can do with the historic and architectural importance of these buildings. He says the real estate community can help promote the reuse of historic buildings as an option as opposed to demolition. There are many iconic historic buildings that have interesting pasts and unique architectural features that make them unique offerings for work and living that are not prevalent in new construction, David adds.

Preservation Dallas will work with owners, buyers and developers on ways to reuse and save historic buildings, David tells us. There are a number of incentives on the city, state and federal levels to help with redevelopment costs, and Preservation Dallas can help explain those options and how to access them. For qualified rehabilitations of historic properties developers can get back 45% of their investment in state and federal historic tax credits alone. The org can also put them in touch with other developers and owners who have taken on historic rehabilitation projects so they can learn firsthand about doing a redevelopment project.

Learn about the Aldredge House (pictured) and the rest of the 10 most endangered Dallas historic sites in a slideshow here.