Thistle Hill to be Given Away
#1
Posted 02 February 2005 - 06:09 PM
#2
Posted 02 February 2005 - 06:13 PM
#3
Posted 02 February 2005 - 06:15 PM
#4
Posted 05 February 2005 - 12:24 PM
Fixer-upper FOR FREE*
*If you'll make costly repairs to historic mansion
By Chris Vaughn
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
FORT WORTH - Just outside the gates of Thistle Hill are a dollar store and a gas station. Within earshot of the mansion's second-floor landing are an eight-lane freeway and a trauma-hospital helipad.
Once upon a time, Summit Avenue was far more majestic, a "silk stocking row" of magnificent houses with vast master bedrooms, indoor plumbing and sweeping staircases.
At the south end of the row sat Thistle Hill, a Colonial Revival showpiece built by cattle baron W.T. Waggoner in 1903 so his newlywed daughter, Electra, wouldn't run off east with her husband.
But eras come and go, and Thistle Hill's latest is about to become history.
The board of directors of the mansion, which for almost 30 years has been a museum and matrimonial favorite, voted reluctantly this week to try to unload the property -- for free.
"It's been painful for us," said Don Scott, the past board chairman of Texas Heritage, which owns Thistle Hill. "We tried so hard to make it work. We're still struggling with our decision."
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places and valued at $2.3 million by the Tarrant Appraisal District, Thistle Hill is one of two cattle-baron mansions in Fort Worth painstakingly restored and available for tours.
The Ball-Eddleman-McFarland House, farther north and off Summit, is the other.
But the Texas Heritage board decided that the 11,231-square-foot house and 1.5-acre property need better preserving and that a new owner may be the only way.
"The goal is to preserve the house," said Ray Boothe, a historical preservationist and former board chairman. "Public access is an asset to the city, but it brings in a very minimal amount of economic support."
The needs of Thistle Hill are many -- repairs to the red-brick wall that encloses the property, exterior lighting, repainting, and an elevator and wheelchair-accessible restroom to comply with federal law.
More significantly, the third floor has never been restored and lacks heating and air conditioning. And the carriage house, where the horse stables look as they did a century ago, desperately needs attention.
Add it up: The property needs $1.7 million worth of work.
Compare that with what Winfield and Elizabeth Scott paid for the house in 1911 -- $90,000, plus an equal amount for remodeling. It stayed in the Scott family until Elizabeth's death in 1938.
The Girls Service League bought Thistle Hill in 1940 and used it for 28 years as a home for young women.
The house then sat empty and came within days of being torn down. But a group mounted a Save the Scott Home campaign and purchased the house for $240,000 in 1976.
By then, almost none of the original Summit Avenue mansions were left.
"They were just beautiful," said Betty Ambrose, a longtime resident who got involved in the campaign and later served on the board. "When they took them down, it didn't seem to affect me. It wasn't until later that I realized what had happened."
The first couple married at Thistle Hill were Ray Boothe and Genell Franek.
On July 4, 1976, Bicentennial Day, Boothe wore a white tuxedo with bell-bottoms, and Franek wore her grandmother's wedding dress. The mansion was practically falling down around them.
Years later, Boothe joined the board, eventually serving as chairman. During his tenure, $400,000 was raised for an endowment.
"But it's not nearly enough," he said. "Most people think it was saved 25 years ago, all the work is done and they don't have to worry about it anymore.
"It still looks good, but if you look at the details -- the paint, the mortar, the windows -- it's kind of crumbling in front of us."
As a museum, Thistle Hill has recently operated at a deficit. The endowment is routinely tapped to cover deficits and emergency repairs, including $30,000 last month for a new chiller for the air conditioner.
"It has always been a struggle to cover our operational expenses every year, let alone have enough money to address maintenance," said Bonnie Schuler, executive director of the museum.
The museum brought in $159,500 in 2004, most of it through about 120 wedding rentals, 2,000 admission charges for tours, and a few dozen memberships and gifts.
The largest donation last year, $2,500, came from the E. Paul and Helen Buck Waggoner Foundation.
But expenses exceeded $194,000, including $22,000 for insurance, $24,000 for utilities and $90,000 for the payroll.
In 2003, the board looked for wealthy people who might help build the endowment. The board also talked to officials from the city, Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, Fort Worth Convention & Visitors Bureau, Tarrant County Bar Association and the hospitals about taking the property.
None of it worked, said Don Scott, so the Texas Heritage board's quiet discussions have now gone public.
"House museums around the country cannot make enough money to sustain themselves," Scott said. "Thistle Hill is no different. Here, there just hasn't been a large community support group."
The board will give the house to a nonprofit, business or individual willing to spend the $1.7 million on maintenance and improvement within two years and agreeing not to significantly alter the exterior or front lawn.
"The board is also predisposed to have someone leave at least some portion of the house open to the public for weddings or tours," Scott said.
If no one will take the house under those conditions, "we'd put it on the market and sell it," he said.
Schuler, who joined the museum in 1998, can hardly entertain the idea, however necessary it might be.
"This house grows on you," she said.
Thistle Hill: Group seeks better financial foundation for historic house Thistle Hill through the years
1903: Cattleman W.T. Waggoner commissions Sanguinet and Staats to build Thistle Hill for daughter Electra Waggoner Wharton and her husband, Albert B. Wharton Jr. The 18-room house supposedly costs $38,000.
1910: The Whartons move to their new ranch near Vernon.
1911: Elizabeth and Winfield Scott buy the house for $90,000 and hire Sanguinet and Staats to remodel it. Limestone columns and a small wrought-iron balcony replace the original wooden columns and balustrade on the facade. Winfield Scott dies before the work is complete.
1912: Elizabeth Scott and son Winfield Scott Jr. move in.
1938: Elizabeth Scott dies.
1940: Winfield Scott Jr. sells the house for $17,500 to Marvin Leonard, who gives it to the Girls Service League, which repays him later.
1968: The league moves out and puts the house up for sale. It has major structural problems and needs modernization.
1969: The Junior League of Fort Worth starts a historical-education program to raise community awareness of remaining landmark buildings, including the Winfield Scott Home, as it is known.
1974: The Save the Scott Home committee organizes fund-raisers to try to buy the house.
1975: In April, the house is selected for the National Register of Historic Places. On April 23, the committee signs a contract to buy the house for $325,000. In July, it opens for tours; tickets cost $1.50. It's also available for events such as weddings and club meetings. The group does not meet the contract deadline, but negotiations continue.
July 1976: A price of $240,000 is agreed on, and Save the Scott Home buys the house from the Girls Service League with $180,000 that it's raised and a $60,000 loan from an anonymous donor. The committee incorporates as Texas Heritage and announces that the house will go by its original name, Thistle Hill. It becomes the first City of Fort Worth Landmark.
1983: In a Nov. 11 article about the difficulty of raising money for restoration, Carla Hoskins, a former director of Texas Heritage, suggests that some people remember that when Winfield Scott Jr. lived there, his dissolute habits ruined the house and landed him in prison. "A lot of important people did not approve of Winfield Scott's lifestyle and didn't want to immortalize it by saving his home," she writes.
1995: On May 5, hail destroys the tile roof. It is later replaced.
1997: Thistle Hill is one of four cattle-baron mansions featured on A&E's America's Castles.
2005: The board of Texas Heritage, still strapped for cash, votes to give the property to an appropriate owner.
SOURCES: Fort Worth's Legendary Landmarks, text by Carol Roark; www.thistlehill.org; and Star-Telegram archives
-- Compiled by news researcher Jodie Sanders
#5
Posted 05 February 2005 - 12:48 PM
#6
Posted 05 February 2005 - 04:15 PM
It would be a shame to sell it.
#7
Posted 09 February 2005 - 10:47 AM
#8
Posted 09 February 2005 - 11:48 AM
#9
Posted 11 February 2005 - 01:38 PM
Where's Grady Spears when you need him?
#12
Posted 13 February 2005 - 05:54 PM
#13
Posted 13 February 2005 - 07:36 PM
#14
Posted 14 February 2005 - 08:42 PM
I doubt it could make it as a Bed & Breakfast or restaurant without outside sponsors. With correct cross marketing, it could be a 'not to miss' addition to the Ol' West Tourism scheme.
#15
Posted 15 February 2005 - 12:52 PM
You would think that, as an original cattle baron's mansion, that Sundance square, the Stockyards, and the Cattle Raiser's Association would want to help, and maybe even run tourist trolleys to Thistle Hill.
I doubt it could make it as a Bed & Breakfast or restaurant without outside sponsors. With correct cross marketing, it could be a 'not to miss' addition to the Ol' West Tourism scheme.
Hipolyte,
I think you have something there! Cant you see a GREAT tie-in with the Stockyards and a "path of history" thru the revitilised Lancaster Ave corridor, with possibly a mass-transit angle involved.
Bryan
#16
Posted 15 February 2005 - 03:47 PM
Every tourist that visits the Stockyards and Sundance Square, the Cattleraiser's Association, or even the Stockshow, should feel that they havn't seen it all until they have seen Thistle Hill.
Then again, the house itself could emphasize the Cattle Baron angle with more historical displays showing where the original builder's wealth came from.
But it's probably too late now.
#17
Posted 16 February 2005 - 08:44 AM
#18
Posted 16 February 2005 - 12:43 PM
#19
Posted 16 February 2005 - 08:15 PM
The real problem is the economy is not conducive to donations, which leads to Kera's layoffs, local theater troupe's losing their buildings, no Shakespeare in the Park, etc., etc.
As long as the house is seen as an unnecessary luxury, rather than an important cog in the local tourism scene, it will be subject to the vagaries of donor's pocketbooks.
The economic downturn can't last forever, though, and I'm disappointed that the board is so unmotivated that they can't 'ride it out'.
For instance, as I understand it, the $90,000. payroll is the real budget buster. Moving temporarily to a largely volunteer staff would have put the house in the black for this year.
Volunteers could probably be found that would take care of at least some of the maintenance. Piggybacking on some of the advertising that the major local venues already produce might be arranged (already mentioned), and so forth.
It would take imagination and creativity (apparently lacking) to make a success of Thistle Hill in a downturn like this. And I don't blame just the management.....city leaders and civic organizations, anyone interested in the history of Fort Worth should step up.
If anybody wanted to get together for a brainstorming session, I would be happy to participate.
But I have to agree about the law firm.
#20
Posted 16 February 2005 - 09:44 PM
#21
Posted 17 February 2005 - 08:57 AM
#22
Posted 17 February 2005 - 10:25 AM
#23
Posted 18 February 2005 - 01:00 PM
Long time reader, first time poster. I would hate to see access to this beautiful house limited, or worst the house be demolished. A law firm would surely save the house as evident at the Reeves-Walker House, but I don't see it having the public access that it has now. I remember back in the late 80's or early 90's taking a trip with the rest of my Lily B. classmates and teachers to Thistle Hill to see Santa. I'd never seen a house like that and knowing how vivid my memory of that visit is reminds me how, if something were to happen to it, many people would miss the opportunity to be impresses by it like I was. I would be willing to help in any effort to save it.
Allan
Paschal Class of 2000
#24
Posted 18 February 2005 - 07:50 PM
#25
Posted 18 February 2005 - 10:23 PM
#26
Posted 19 February 2005 - 09:08 AM
I think we could do it.....I'm just not sure there will be time.
But that does not mean we should not try. I'll be talking to some people soon, and I'm still up for a meeting on the subject.
#27
Posted 19 February 2005 - 10:00 AM
Hipolyte, I'm with you on the despair list. I have been involved in other means, and it doesn't look good for any person, group, or organization to take this house unless they have the $2 million in liquid cash.
#28
Posted 19 February 2005 - 10:24 AM
#29 gdvanc
Posted 19 February 2005 - 03:48 PM
#30
Posted 19 February 2005 - 10:46 PM
#31
Posted 23 February 2005 - 08:30 AM
#32
Posted 23 February 2005 - 08:36 PM
#33
Posted 23 February 2005 - 09:17 PM
#34
Posted 24 February 2005 - 08:16 AM
#35
Posted 24 February 2005 - 08:55 AM
http://www.thistlehi...rg/spevents.HTM
As for other groups and organizations being interested, I think you will learn that several "preservation minded" parties will be submitting proposals.
#36
Posted 24 February 2005 - 08:07 PM
#38
Posted 06 April 2005 - 12:26 AM
Thank you.
#39
Posted 06 April 2005 - 12:35 PM
#40
Posted 07 April 2005 - 06:33 AM
It's not the house, or even the $2 mil.
The $2 million figure is just representative of the skewed thinking on the board.
#41
Posted 07 April 2005 - 08:57 AM
I was thinking that Thistle Hill would make a great place for a 5-star restaurant along the lines of the Mansion on Turtle Creek.
Where's Grady Spears when you need him?
The last I heard, Grady was running a restaraunt in Granbury... I can't remember the name of the place, but it's "the famous" restaraunt in Granbury... BTW, Grady went to AHHS... He was in the class of '85 or '86, just ahead of me...
#42
Posted 07 April 2005 - 04:50 PM
#43
Posted 07 April 2005 - 05:18 PM
Carla
#44
Posted 07 April 2005 - 06:55 PM
Too bad. We could sure use its help.
#45
Posted 07 April 2005 - 09:23 PM
Edited by John T Roberts, 08 April 2005 - 06:52 AM.
#46
Posted 08 April 2005 - 07:19 AM
To turn Thistle Hill into a functioning beanery would require extensive modifications, I would think. Like most old houses, the kitchen is pretty spare.
I still think cross marketing the tie in on the cattlebaron angle would be a great help to raise awareness. Thistle Hill could become one more facet of our major tourist draw.
But that takes money and time.
#47
Posted 08 April 2005 - 09:44 AM
I'm sure that if they can help, they will.
In the beginning, (doesn't that sound grand?) the house was
always marketed as The Cattle Baron Legacy, and the Wagoner
and Wharton family connections were foremost. We worked
closely with the Stockyards, and the fact that it stood at the
head of Silk Stocking Row, where the cattlemen who made it
big went to live, after a day on the North Side.
There were belt buckles, medallions, book bags, all styled
as The Cattle Baron Legacy. We had a gift shop in the
Carriage House, where a Senior Citizen program gave
artisans a chance to sell their goods - and in 1981 they
grossed almost $30,000. Pretty good, made everyone
happy. Volunteer labor did a lot of the work, closely supervised
by a member of the THC. There was a youth program (that
was lauded as one of the best in the United States) which schooled
and trained apprentice union carpenters. They built a redwood
Pergola on the side of the house. I don't know what happened
to it. A lot of people weren't happy with it, but it paid a lot
of bills, including half my salary, kept the place policed and mowed,
and gave some young ex-offenders a new lease on life.
We did a little bit of everything, all working together, and having
a great time. The Fort Worth Chrysanthemum Society kept the
flower beds filled and glowing, there was great Docent Program, and
many clubs and organizations would hold fund raisers for the house.
We shoveled pigeon droppings off of the balconies, and the Junior
League members who were helping hauled it off for their gardens!
I have faith in Fort Worth. I've been gone a long time, but
my heart is still there, at the top of Silk Stocking Row!
Carla
#48
Posted 13 April 2005 - 02:59 PM
#49
Posted 13 April 2005 - 09:27 PM
After talking to some of the people at TADA (Texas Antique Dealers Association), it seemed that Thistle Hill wanted their money to set up, but wouldn't advertise to attract buyers to the fair. No customers, no antique dealers. It could have been a good deal, but the approach was wrong, and there was no room for compromise.
I will say right out loud, that, rather than give the house away under the board's constraints, the board should just just resign and the Mayor should appoint a new one.
And any new fundraising attempts, if even marginally successful, will just cement the old board in place.
Let me conclude with the fact that I have no idea who's on the board, I'm just leaping to conclusions based on pure hearsay. If they don't like my conclusions, prove me wrong by bringing the community involvement back, cutting their own salaries, recruiting dedicated volunteers, and have an open planning meeting to discuss the problem, rather than making draconian announcements and giving away what so many have fought to keep.
#50
Posted 19 April 2005 - 09:08 AM
Things are'nt looking well for this house......IF they can raise 2 million $ within 5 months, they would qualify for FEMA matching funds, which MIGHT pull in enough to keep the house from totally collapsing.
We discussed however, an issue which also applies to Thistle Hill, and that is all the Federal regulations involved in maintaining a structure once it is listed as 'protected'.
Say a board on your privately owned house is rotting.......you run down to the lumber company, buy a board, and fix it, poof. So all the Frank Loyd Wright buildings in private hands are in pretty good repair.
That same board is rotten on a 'public trust' structure, in order to comply with Federal regs becomes a $10,000 dollar job.
So the regulations designed to 'protect' public trust structures are actually having the oposite effect, being, in effect, unfunded mandates. They drive the costs up, without providing funds to make up the difference.
So there is a political angle to this as well which should be addressed soon, because in the current climate, fundraising efforts are at an alltime low, and historic structures are suffering, just like the arts.
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