Col. William E. Hughes, Founder of City Bank of Dallas, Once Had a Mighty Fine House

Back in March, I came across a quite hard-to-find, hand-colored page from the American Architect and Building News from November 21, 1896: the "Dallas Flats," about which we still don't know much. A Friend of Unfair Park, recalling that historical gem, sends word of another American Architect page for sale,...

By Robert Wilonsky

November 10, 2009

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Back in March, I came across a quite hard-to-find, hand-colored page from the American Architect and Building News from November 21, 1896: the "Dallas Flats," about which we still don't know much. A Friend of Unfair Park, recalling that historical gem, sends word of another American Architect page for sale, this one even older: from March 1, 1884. And though I can't say for sure exactly where it stood (somewhere on Maple Avenue, apparently), I can tell you to whom it belonged: Colonel William E. Hughes, who, after fighting in the Civil War, moved to Weatherford and finally settled in Dallas where, in 1873, he co-founded the City Bank of Dallas with Col. C.C. Slaughter with $50,000 in capital, according to The WPA Dallas Guide and History.

This ancient copy of History of Colorado has more about Hughes, who ended up moving to Denver in 1898; there's more still in this thesis on Dallas politics and business from 1872 to 1914. And the architects -- Ehrick Kensett Rossiter and Frank A. Wright, based up north -- were no slouches either. Me, I'd just like to know where the house was ... or, for that matter, if it was actually built. So would Preservation Dallas.

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