Dragon Garden in Oak Lawn Is Gone. Here's What We Know.

For years, Dragon Garden was Dallas’ very own secret. This whimsical private park in Oak Lawn was best known for its serene and otherworldly atmosphere, its charming greenery and, most of all, its statuary. Dragons, lions, fairies, angels and an ornate iron gazebo all inhabited the small space. The zen-like and intimate space played host to weddings, proposals, photoshoots and countless other everyday adventures, and was a welcome and fantastical reprieve from nearby office buildings and parking lots.

Word got around about the beauty of the park. It made our Best of Dallas list in 2017 as well as our list of "7 Strangest Places in Dallas," among others. USA Today named it one of the best things to do in Dallas. It was the kind of place you could come across by accident and feel like you're a part of something special.

And then one day, it didn’t exist anymore. The park has been slowly but surely coming down for the past few years, and all that remains is a humble handful of lions. Everything else, the gazebo, dragons, fairies and even the signage designating the area as private property were quietly and unceremoniously removed.

In the years since the dismantling began, admirers of Dragon Garden have taken to social media to wonder what became of it and reminisce about their memories, such as their own proposals and weddings. One commenter simply enjoyed the view of the park he got to glimpse from his office widow.

“I work close to it,” wrote one Reddit user. “During the pandemic, I would take walks during lunch to clear my head and would always end up there."

“I remember stumbling into this place one night with friends,” wrote another Reddit user in Dallas. “Shame it has gone to waste like that.”

“I completely adored this park,” wrote one user on Dragon Garden’s still-active TripAdvisor page. “I felt like a fairy.”

“Man, I wish I would’ve known about this before it was taken down,” another post on Reddit read.

The park was the passion project of Ralph Stuart Cutshall, a gallerist, hairdresser and patron of the arts in Dallas whose mantra was “magic is hard work.” Dragon Garden was a testament to this philosophy, as the small patch of magic required time, money and maintenance to keep alive.

When Cutshall died in 2019, the fate of the park and everything in it rested in the hands of his family, who, unfortunately, had neither the time nor the resources to maintain it.

“Everyone was so sad to see it go but, honestly, it was his thing,” says Cutshall’s widow, Hannah Cutshall. “It wasn’t easy to keep it up.”

Cutshall, who is also a patron of the arts and frequent donor to the Dallas Museum of Art, confirmed that most of the statues were sold and are now privately owned. The ones most sentimental to the family are being kept at a nearby property.

The property was sold to Exceptional Healthcare Inc. (EHC Office GP LLC), which has a corporate office just down the street. No plans to develop the property have been made public at this time.