In the summer of 2023, neighbors on Fairfax Avenue gathered on a Sunday morning to say goodbye to a house. Handmade signs went up along the block. People passed out flyers explaining what the home had once been and what would happen to it that week. The house, once owned by the C.F. Hawn family, was landmarked, meaning it carried recognized historic status in a town built almost entirely on that kind of pedigree. It sold for roughly $2.5 million, never appeared on MLS, and, according to Candy's Dirt, closed on an all-cash offer with no contingencies. The buyers would not discuss their plans. Within days, the permit for demolition was filed.
The demolition proceeded under Highland Park's current rules, which do not provide a historic-preservation mechanism for preventing it.
That is the fact most buyers get wrong before they ever write an offer on an older estate here. Highland Park sells itself on a century of continuous architecture, tree-lined boulevards, and homes designed by names like Fooshee and Cheek that still line Beverly Drive. Highland Park's zoning code does not provide a mechanism for stopping an owner from demolishing one of those homes. As Newsweek put it while covering the town's most visible teardown fight, there's no laws around the protection of historic homes in Highland Park. The town's code does not condition demolition or renovation on a home's age or historic significance.
The Scope of Highland Park's Zoning Code
Highland Park's zoning ordinance dates back to July 3, 1929, and the version governing height limits in most single-family districts wasn't touched for the better part of six decades after that. The code focuses on what gets built next rather than on protecting what is already standing. Setbacks, lot coverage, and height caps keep new construction from overwhelming a block. None of it asks whether the house being replaced has any architectural or historic value. A 1920s Mediterranean Revival estate on Armstrong Parkway and a stripped 1970s ranch carry exactly the same protection under the code: none, unless the owner decides otherwise. You can review the town's zoning ordinance yourself, and you will not find a preservation review board, a certificate-of-appropriateness requirement, or a demolition delay ordinance anywhere in it, because Highland Park never adopted one.
The Cox Mansion and a Recent Zoning Request
The property at 4101 Beverly Drive offers a recent example of how the town's rules apply to an older estate. Built in 1912 in the Italian Renaissance style, it was widely referred to as "the single, most important house in all of the Park Cities," the residence that best captured the town's Gilded Age origins. Dallas oilman Edwin L. Cox owned it from the 1970s until 2020, preserving its exterior while adding a pool and an enclosed tennis court. Banker Andrew Beal bought the property in 2021 and initially pursued permits to restore it. By late 2023, according to Dallas Morning News reporting on the town's own permit records, that plan had changed. Beal pivoted to demolition, and the mansion came down in 2024.
No ordinance required the owner to preserve the property, notify a preservation board, or wait out a review period.
The Cupola Request and Its Withdrawal
The story didn't end with the demolition. In January 2025, People Newspapers reported that Beal's team went to the town's Zoning Commission asking to amend the height limit in the "A" zoning district, the first proposed change to that district's height rules in 60 years, so his replacement home could include a glass-and-steel cupola reaching just under 65 feet, ten feet above the standing 55-foot cap. The commission approved it 3-2 after more than an hour of public comment in a packed chamber.
Preservation Park Cities, the nonprofit built around protecting the character of Highland Park and University Park, opposed the proposal. KERA News quoted board member Larry Good as saying:
"That doesn't seem right that you demolish the most important historic home in Highland Park and in return you're granted greater permissions to build back a replacement house."
The Town Council hearing was set for February 4, 2025. Five days before it happened, Beal withdrew the request. The town's own announcement framed it as a decision meant to avoid setting a difficult precedent for future applicants. You can read the full arc of the story through KERA News's coverage.
Options for Protecting an Older Home
Owners seeking protection beyond what the town's rules provide can consider private legal instruments. Preservation Park Cities runs a landmarking program that recognizes architecturally and historically significant properties, and the organization has separately encouraged homeowners to write architectural deed restrictions and easements directly into their estate planning. You can review the landmarking application process directly. Recognition through the program carries reputational weight.
Buyers and sellers should not assume that a home's age or architectural pedigree guarantees that it will survive a future sale.
What This Means If You're Buying
If you're looking at an older estate, three things are worth confirming before you get emotionally attached to the architecture:
- Understand your own rebuild rights under current code. If you're buying with plans to renovate or rebuild, know that Highland Park's 2024 International Codes package, effective January 6, 2025, requires builders to engage a certified third-party energy inspector on residential permits, with one compliance form due at permit submission and a second due before final inspection. You can find the specifics on the town's Forms and Applications page. This applies regardless of whether the home you're replacing has any historic significance at all.
- Don't assume the house next door is untouchable. If your decision to buy hinges partly on the character of a neighboring landmark estate, know that its protection is exactly as strong as its current owner's intentions and nothing more. A change of ownership can change everything about that block within a matter of months, as it did on both Fairfax Avenue and Beverly Drive.
What This Means If You're Selling an Older Estate
The Fairfax Avenue sale is one example: the home sold for around $2.5 million to an all-cash buyer with no contingencies and was never marketed on MLS. Those details do not establish what the buyer valued or why the sale was handled that way.
Historic character in Highland Park does not automatically create a price premium of the kind it might in a district with binding preservation rules. Sometimes the land underneath is worth more to a builder than the house is worth to a preservationist, and pricing an older estate without separating land value from structure value can leave real money on the table, in either direction. Before listing, get a clear-eyed opinion on both numbers, decide whether you're marketing a home or a buildable lot.
FAQ
Does Highland Park have a historic district like Dallas's Swiss Avenue? No. Highland Park has architectural review tied to its zoning ordinance and a form-based overlay district focused on new development standards, but no historic district ordinance that restricts demolition of existing homes based on age or significance.
Can Preservation Park Cities help me pursue landmark status? Preservation Park Cities can help identify and pursue landmark status.
Is Highland Park likely to pass a preservation ordinance? There's no indication of one on the horizon as of this writing. Preservation Park Cities continues to track demolitions and advocate publicly; the Cox Mansion zoning request was withdrawn before the Town Council hearing, but advocacy is not law.
Buying or selling a piece of Highland Park's history takes more than an appreciation for the architecture. It takes a clear read on what's actually enforceable, what's just goodwill, and what a specific lot is worth with the house on it versus without. If you're weighing a purchase near a landmark estate, considering what to do with one you already own, or trying to price a rebuild-ready lot correctly, Alex Maloney works through exactly these questions with clients across the Park Cities and greater North Texas. Let's Connect.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
