DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, friends — and this one's got roots deep enough to shade a courthouse. We're talkin' about the Harris-Savage Home, and to understand it, you've got to go all the way back to 1843, when a man named William W. Cochran — born 1807, first Dallas County Clerk, if you please — was out there in Peters Colony with his wife Nancy Jane Hughes, carving something out of the frontier.
Now William Cochran never lived to see what his bloodline would build. He passed in 1853. But Nancy Jane lived on until 1877, and somewhere in that legacy, a grandson came along.
William Randolph Harris — they called him Will — born that very same year, 1877, right there in Farmers Branch, Dallas County. Fitting, almost, like the family was passing a torch without even knowing it. Will grew up, finished high school, and rather than wander far, he studied law right there under his own first cousin, R.E.L.
Knight, and J.L. Harris of the firm Harris and Knight. By 1900, Will had passed the Texas bar — and here's the thing about Will Harris — he joined that firm and never left.
The firm grew, the names changed, it became Thompson, Knight, Harris, Wright and Weisburg, but Will stayed put his entire legal career. A man who knew where he belonged. In 1921, Will and his wife Minnie Beulah Bookhout moved into this very home.
Minnie, born 1881, was what they used to call an active clubwoman — civic life ran through her like a current. And Will? Well, Will had himself a distinguished career.
The kind where one moment rises above all the others. He played a central role in the successful impeachment of Governor James 'Pa' Ferguson. Let that sit with you a moment.
The grandson of a frontier county clerk helped remove a sitting Texas governor from office. Not bad for a boy from Farmers Branch. Now that 1917 Mission style house they moved into — it is something to behold even in description.
Two curvilinear parapets, one framing the central entry to the front porch, the other sweeping up over a gabled attic dormer with a palladian window. And yet for all that Mission flair, the bones of the place lean prairie style — horizontal lines, triple windows, square brick piers, eaves overhanging wide like the house itself is trying to offer you shade. Will passed in 1948.
Minnie held on until 1955. And when she went, the home passed to their daughter, Dorothy Harris Savage, born 1918. Dorothy and her husband Wallace Savage — former Mayor of Dallas, born 1912 — they didn't just inherit a house.
They inherited a responsibility, and by all accounts, they took it seriously. The Savages helped found the Dallas Academy. They served on civic and philanthropic boards too numerous to name.
And when it came to historic preservation, they were the kind of people who showed up and did the work. They got involved with the Historic Preservation League — known today as Preservation Dallas — and with their help, this house and the surrounding area were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. The first listed historic district in all of Dallas.
First. Dorothy lived until 1999. Wallace until 2000.
They saw it through. So what you've got here, if you're keeping score, is a single thread running from 1843 Peters Colony pioneers all the way to a nationally recognized historic district — woven together by one family, across generations, across a city that was still figuring out what it wanted to be. The official marker was placed in 2013.
But the story, as you can tell, started a whole lot earlier than that.
What the marker says
The roots of the Harris-Savage House go back to 1843, when pioneers William W. Cochran (1807-1853), the first Dallas County Clerk, and his wife, Nancy Jane Hughes (1817-1877), lived in Peters Colony. Their grandson, William (Will) Randolph Harris (1877-1948), was born in Farmers Branch in Dallas County. After graduating high school, Will studied law under his first cousin R.E.L. Knight and J.L. Harris of the firm Harris & Knight. He was admitted to the Texas bar in 1900 and remained with what became Thompson, Knight, Harris, Wright and Weisburg his entire legal career. Will and his wife, Minnie Beulah Bookhout (1881-1955), moved into this home in 1921. Will had a distinguished career, including the successful impeachment of Gov. James “Pa” Ferguson, and Minnie was an active clubwoman. Dorothy Harris Savage (1918-1999) inherited the home from her mother, Minnie, and with her husband, former Dallas Mayor Wallace Savage (1912-2000), continued the family legacy there. The Savages were founders of the Dallas Academy, served on numerous civic and philanthropic boards and contributed greatly to the historic preservation movement in Dallas with involvement in the Historic Preservation League (now Preservation Dallas). With their help, this house and area were listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, the first listed district in Dallas. The 1917 Mission style residence boasts two curvilinear parapets; one defines the central entry to the front porch and the other enhances a large gabled attic dormer with palladian window. Otherwise, the house design owes much to the prairie style with horizontal lines, triple windows, square brick piers and widely overhanging eaves. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark – 2013