DUANE
Duane's take
Now, I'm going to tell you this one the way the marker on Swiss Avenue tells it — so hold on and let the road unspool a little. We're talking about a man who came to Dallas with dirt under his fingernails and left a Tudor manor behind him, and the story moves fast, so pay attention. Robert Campbell Stubbs was born in Mississippi in 1869, and by 1887 — eighteen years old, just a young man with ambition rattling around in his chest — he had already made his way to Dallas and gone into the paving business alongside his father, George W.
Stubbs. Now paving, you might think, is a modest line of work. And maybe it was, in 1887.
But Robert Stubbs had the rare gift of arriving somewhere just before that somewhere needed exactly what he had to offer. In 1897 he married Marie M. Henke, who had come all the way from Berlin, Germany, and together they settled in to watch the twentieth century come roaring in like a freight train with its headlamp on.
And what came roaring in with it? The automobile. The automobile changed everything — the roads, the cities, the very shape of ambition — and Dallas was growing faster than a summer thunderhead.
All those new streets needed paving, and all that paving needed expertise, and by 1922, R. C. Stubbs had done something that most men in any trade never manage: he had patented his own method.
Vibrolithic paving. Patent and all. He was noted — noted, the marker says — as one of the chief authorities on paving in the entire United States.
A Mississippi boy who showed up in Dallas at eighteen with his father and a shovel had become, by his fifties, a national authority. You can't write a better arc than that. And so, as a man of means in a city on the rise will do, he set about building a house worthy of the life he'd made.
He chose Swiss Avenue, the fashionable address of the day, and the design that may have come from Dallas architect Otto H. Lang drew its inspiration from the Tudor manor houses of England — a style that was tremendously popular in American residential architecture in those years between the two World Wars. The Stubbs House had the steeply pitched roof, the half-timbered gables, the distinctive chimneys, and a low pointed-arch entry that announced, quietly but firmly, that someone of consequence lived here.
There was even a separate two-story garage and staff quarters, and that building carried the Tudor character right along with it. The house was completed in 1926, and Robert and Marie Stubbs moved in with their two children. Here is where the story leans into shadow.
R. C. Stubbs — the man who had paved half of Dallas, who had arrived as a teenager and built a national reputation brick by careful brick — died in 1927.
One year. One year after the house was finished. He never had much time to sit in those Tudor rooms and let it all settle around him.
But Marie Henke Stubbs, who had crossed an ocean and built a life in Texas, she stayed. She lived in that house, she entertained there, she kept it going until 1940. After that, the house changed hands and was converted into apartments for a time, before being returned to single-family use in the 1970s.
And there it stands today — prominently sited at the head of Swiss Avenue, those chimneys still reaching, that pointed arch still welcoming whoever's paying attention. Robert Campbell Stubbs came to Dallas in 1887 with nothing but a father, a trade, and the right instinct about the future. The automobile age came, and he was ready for it.
He patented the ground beneath the city's feet. And he left behind a house that was recorded as a Texas Historic Landmark in 2001 — still standing at the head of that fashionable avenue, nearly a hundred years on, in a neighborhood he helped pave the way for. Literally.
What the marker says
Mississippi native Robert Campbell Stubbs (1869-1927) moved to Dallas in 1887 and established a paving business with his father, George W. Stubbs. In 1897, R. C. Stubbs married Marie M. Henke (d. 1957) of Berlin, Germany. Dallas' economic growth and the coming of the automobile age after the turn of the 20th century led to a great demand for Stubbs' expertise in modern paving techniques. By 1922, he had patented vibrolithic paving and was noted as one of the chief authorities on paving in the United States. His business success led to the construction of this house in the fashionable Swiss Avenue neighborhood. Completed in 1926, the Stubbs House may have been the work of Dallas architect Otto H. Lang. The design drew upon features of England's Tudor manor houses, a style popular in American residential architecture between World Wars I and II. Hallmark features of the style, including the steeply pitched roof, half-timbered gables, distinctive chimneys and low pointed-arch entry, are present in the house, which was home to Robert and Marie Stubbs and their two children. A separate two-story garage and staff quarters also reflects Tudor characteristics. Following R. C. Stubbs' death just one year after the house was completed, Marie continued to live and entertain here until 1940. The house subsequently was converted into apartments, but was returned to single-family use in the 1970s. Prominently sited at the head of Swiss Avenue, the Stubbs House is a significant part of Dallas' architectural history. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2001