The 1903 Dallas Victorian That Now Holds a Second House

Dallas has a Victorian of red masonry, built in 1903, that came close to being lost. The house had deteriorated so far that saving it was in real doubt. Architect Russell Buchanan took the job and chose an unusual answer: rather than only patching the old structure, he designed a second house to sit inside the first. The original brick shell stays on the street, and the new residence lives within it. A Victorian of that age in a Texas city is rare enough, and this one now carries an unusual architectural idea inside its walls. For readers who follow the American house, it is a clear example of an architect putting his design work into keeping an old building standing rather than starting over.

With reporting from Architectural Digest.