Mark and Maybelle Lemmon House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, most folks design a house to impress somebody — a client, a neighbor, maybe a banker. But Mark Lemmon, in 1924, designed one for the hardest critic he'd ever face: himself and his own family.

And the story of why that house looks the way it does, well, that goes back a good ways — all the way to France. Lemmon had served there during World War I, and somewhere between the duty and the distance, he developed a deep and lasting interest in Norman architecture. The kind of interest that doesn't leave you when you come home.

The kind that follows you back across the Atlantic and sits down at your drafting table. So when it came time to build his own family's home in Dallas, he reached for what he'd seen over there — a French farmhouse, with a gabled roof, plaster walls, and half timbering. Evocative, the record calls it.

And that's exactly the right word, because this house doesn't just reference a style, it conjures one. Now, Lemmon wasn't only busy with his own four walls. He and his wife Maybelle — she was a Reynolds before she was a Lemmon — they were both active in civic organizations throughout Dallas.

The man was building community with one hand and buildings with the other. And those buildings were no small thing. Recognized as one of Texas' premier historicist architects, Lemmon designed academic, religious, and institutional buildings all across the state.

His whole career was about taking the great historic styles and making them work for the twentieth century — not as museum pieces, but as living, breathing, functioning places. So when you stand in front of the Mark and Maybelle Lemmon House and you see that gabled roofline against a Dallas sky, you're not just looking at a home. You're looking at a man's entire philosophy, worked out in plaster and timber, on the lot where he chose to live it.

What the marker says

Designed by Mark Lemmon in 1924 for his own family, this house reflects an interest in Norman architecture he developed while serving in France during World War I. Lemmon and his wife Maybelle (Reynolds) supported many civic organizations in Dallas. Recognized as one of Texas' premier historicist architects, Lemmon designed academic, religious and institutional buildings throughout the state. Evocative of a French farmhouse, with gabled roof, plaster walls and half timbering, this house reflects his career of adapting historic styles to 20th-century uses. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2006