Talk:Wilson Block (Dallas, Texas)

Nussbaumer / Wilson ownership

The current text regarding the transfer of ownership from the Nussbaumer family to the Wilsons is very confusing:

In 1898, according to Atlas record #5113006922, it states "This historic neighborhood is located on land patented in 1838 to Illinois native John Grigsby. Dallas businessman Frederick P. Wilson and his wife Henrietta Frichot Wilson acquired the site in 1898 and built their residence (2922 Swiss Avenue) and six other houses. Owned by the Wilsons for almost eighty years, the houses became the nucleus of the Wilson Block."[9][10] However, the actual inscription on Marker Number 6922 reads: "Swiss native Jacob Nussbaumer, a colonist in the pioneer La Reunion settlement of the Dallas area, purchased this land prior to the Civil War. In 1898 his wife Dorothea and children sold it to her niece Henrietta Frichot Wilson (1864-1953), the daughter of La Reunion settlers."[10] According to Preservation Dallas, "In addition to a lot for their own home, Henrietta Frichot Wilson and her husband Frederick Wilson also acquired an entire city block from Henrietta’s uncle, Jacob Nussbaumer. An early Dallas settler, Nussbaumer came to North Texas as part of the utopian La Reunion colony established just west of Dallas in the 1850s.

The primary documents - the deed (Vol 230, p327-8, https://kofilequicklinks.com/Dallas) and Murphy Bolanz map (https://dallaslibrary2.org/dallashistory/murphyandbolanz/Block2/bb2p492.php) - indicate that land was transferred to Henrietta Wilson for payment of $4000 on 11-2-1898.

In the deed, it is specified that the property is a part of her separate estate. FP Wilson is mentioned as her husband but not as the recipient of the property.

I think it's clear these documents override the rather casually written, non-academic sources used for the claim that FP Wilson owned the property.

In general, I agree with the critique below. It seems that the Nussbaumers, Bolls, and Frichots are actually the more important figures in the story of the Wilson house and Swiss Avenue, and the focus on FP Wilson seems excessive.

PS This ~1980 City report also describes ownership as transfering to Henrietta: https://dallascityhall.com/departments/sustainabledevelopment/historicpreservation/HP Documents/Districts Page/Wilson Block Designation Report.pdf

Chris Edgemon (talk) 17:12, 4 November 2024 (UTC)

The link to the deed you provided above did not produce the original deed instrument. According to Texas Community Property Law, the property was not Henrietta's separate property. Henrietta and Frederick P. married in 1894, 4 years prior to purchasing the property in 1898. Record keeping back then was questionable at best. Some people didn't even have birth certificates. Henrietta was a Frichot and her uncle a Nussbaumer, settlers of LaReunion, which makes for a better history line of Texas history than the Wilson's from Canada. Henrietta may have persuaded her maternal relatives to sell the property so she & Fred P. could make a home for their young son and daughter, but the $4k came from him as a wealthy businessman at the time. Fred P. worked with his elder brother John P. who was much wealthier.

Also of note, the son of Fred & Henrietta was Laurence F. Wilson, who became sole heir to their estate, including all of the Dallas property. Laurence F. lived in the home at 2922 Swiss Ave. where he was raised, and was still residing there when he married Venna Lee Burnett Wilson. The neighborhood was deteriorating, and his health was declining, so he appointed Texas Bank & Trust to oversee his finances, and they advised him to move out of the house. He agreed to let Fox & Jacobs handle the property (it actually may have been a donation or reduced sale price for tax purposes) with an agreement or stipulation that it be sold to a nonprofit and that it would be designated as an historical site. Following the stipulations laid forth by Laurence F. Wilson Trust, Fox sold the property to the Meadows Foundation, and for several years, they hosted an annual Wilson Block Christmas on Swiss Ave. The historical marker was situated in front of 2922 Swiss Ave but has since been moved. Perhaps you can locate the deed of record with the conditions of the sale or sale agreement, or maybe the Meadows Foundation has it filed away somewhere. Atsme 💬 📧 20:47, 4 November 2024 (UTC)

Thanks for the thoughtful response.

Here is the correct link for the deed:

https://kofilequicklinks.com/Dallas/Viewer.aspx?ImageId=666819

Here is the relevant text:

"That we, Mrs. Dorothy Nussbaumer, widow, ... [other grantor parties] ...in consideration of the sum of four thousand dollars, to us in hand paid by Mrs. Henrietta Wilson, wife of F.P. Wilson, out of her separate estate, have granted, sold, and conveyed unto the said Mrs. Henrietta Wilson of the county of Dallas in the state of Texas all that certain lot, tract or parcel of land described as follows: ...[part of block 492]..."

I'm certainly not an expert on Texas community property law, and I acknowledge that FP Wilson would have had a significant role in the property, but this text seems to go to an effort to make clear that the property belongs specifically to Henrietta. I think that should be reflected in the article and we should be careful about imposing our contemporary beliefs about what that means.

Unlike you, I don't think it's obvious that the money for the land came from FP Wilson - apart from being described as "her separate estate", her relatives also were quite successful and her parents deceased. She certainly could have inherited some family money.

---

Regarding the history with Laurence and Fox & Jacobs, I have no complaints. It certainly is an interesting moment in the block's history. Having looked into it a little, Fox & Jacobs acquired a significant part of of Old East Dallas for their Bryan Place project - initial plans had development stretching just a little beyond the Wilson Block. On page 2 of the 1980 City Report linked above is actually a letter from David Fox of Fox & Jacobs applying for designation as a historic district. Chris Edgemon (talk) 22:47, 4 November 2024 (UTC)

Thank you for finding that information. I do so want to see it, but poopers! The link switches to this. I must be holding my mouth wrong, or is there something I need to do or add in the left margin first? Would you be so kind as to take a screenshot of that deed, and email it to me? My email is active from my user page.^{The new link finally worked!} Wow! What a great find, Chris!! The wording, "...in consideration of the sum of four thousand dollars, to us in hand paid by Mrs. Henrietta Wilson, wife of F.P. Wilson, out of her separate estate,..." clearly tells us it was her separate property & not community property (based on my understanding of the law, which is iffy). They must not have liked hubby Fred *lol* and were looking out for their niece and the kids. I love that old history!! Above all, our goal is to get the article right, so please go ahead and correct it. Would you also please include clarity as to why the question was raised leading to you having to dig up the original deed (my bad but well-worth finding the truth). I would also be very appreciative if you would show me the steps you took to find that deed at that website. I made several attempts to locate it, but to no avail. Atsme 💬 📧 01:04, 5 November 2024 (UTC)

Great, I'm glad you were able to access it! (I've read that it was also common to leave some property in the wife's name to protect from potential business creditors - so maybe he wasn't in such bad graces.)

Here is how I found this particular property record:

1. On https://kofilequicklinks.com/Dallas/, under "Search Index Books" on the left sidebar, select Type: Deeds - Individual, Year: 1842-1913, Parties: Grantor, Last Name: N-O; hit Search

2. That should take you to the Index book; press forward until you get to page 5, where you find Nussbaumer, starts on page 180

3. From there, you have to search for the page, because they don't exactly match. In this case, Page 180 corresponds to page 137 but the deed is actually listed on Page 184 / 141 here. (Unfortunately, hyperlinks to these pages aren't working.)

4. Towards the bottom of that page you'll see Henrietta Wilson listed as a grantee to Adolph, Dorothea, Theodore, Jessie, and Henry Nussbaumer - the code to the left of those entries "230, 327" represents the Volume and Page for that specific deed.

5. Under "Search for Document" on the left sidebar, change Book to Deeds and select Book: 230, Page 237. Hit Search Chris Edgemon (talk) 03:07, 5 November 2024 (UTC)

Pictures

Ok, GRuban, I’ve added some images to demonstrate the social history of the site, and will be adding a bit more background for the people who settled in the area when I’m in a WiFi friendly area. I also found a bit more info about the family’s history as La_Réunion_(Dallas) colonists, so will be adding a few more images to the latter article as well. Thank you for being the overseeing collaborator. ^{Atsme📞📧} 13:39, 29 August 2018 (UTC)

A few comments:

• You have 1 picture of Henrietta and 2 of her parents, but no explanation of who Henrietta was in the text. I guess she was the wife of Frederick P. Wilson from the sentence "Fred and Henrietta had two children", but it's probably worth making that explicit, and adding at least a bit about her, if you're going to have all those photos. In fact, unless Henrietta's parents had a real impact on the Block, I think they're not really that relevant. I mean they're relevant to Henrietta, but to the Block? Did they even live in the Block?
• If you keep Henrietta's parents, the "circa 1800s" captions on their photos seem doubtful. Henrietta seems maybe 20 in her picture labeled "circa 1900s", so that would mean that she would have been born circa 1880, right? Having children born in 1895 and 1897 implies maybe a few years before then, maybe 1870? There is no way parents who looked like those photos in 1800 would have a child in 1880 or even 1870. CD is clearly over 50, and Cleofea is likely over 40; having a child at the age of over 100 is beyond even 2018 medicine, much less 1870 medicine.
• Also please choose whether you're going to call Frederick P. Wilson Fred or Frederick and be consistent. For this case it's more obvious, but I recently had to explain to someone that when a text referred to Alexandra in one place and Sasha in another, they meant the same person.
• "Wilson then married Venna Lee Burnett (1910—1992),[9] and they lived in the house until 1977.[4] Wilson retained all of the original homes" - this is presumably Laurence? I mean, yes, we do in general want to use last names, but in this paragraph they're all Wilsons.
• "owned and operated by The Meadows Foundation (Dallas)," - pipe the link to hide the (Dallas)? --GRuban (talk) 14:37, 29 August 2018 (UTC)

Nussbaumer, Frichot and a few others were the early colonists of La Réunion (Dallas) and all are related. Their dob is documented and I will get all the dates corrected, hopefully at the next stop. The Wilson Block included several homes and several of the early colonists settled in the block. I will include that in the history. I had a small window of opportunity to use WiFi, so I went ahead and uploaded the images for the gallery, and will add the Wilson Block history next break I get. We're back on the road again in a few, and I may not have a chance again until tomorrow night. Venna Lee & Laurence F. Wilson were the last of the Wilsons to occupy 2922 Swiss Ave. L.F. Wilson sold the block with the stipulations to keep it a historic site. I'll be uploading their photos later. I will also wikilink to all the other WP articles that are related in history. It's giving me something to do at our stop-overs, and I thank you for your patience and review.

No hurry, these are nits, not something terrible. I do like the pictures, especially of Frederick P. Wilson, a fine figure of a man! --GRuban (talk) 18:24, 29 August 2018 (UTC)

Ok, GRuban I've reached a place to pause for a while so you can nitpick review the article when you get a chance. 😊 ^{Atsme📞📧} 01:49, 6 September 2018 (UTC)

Some tweaks made. Apparently we're supposed to use endashes for ranges like (birth-death), per WP:DASH; learn something every day. Is there a reason you need the F in every mention of Laurence F, since he's the only Laurence in the article? Does the F stand for Frichot? And I still worry about the (circa 1800s) for Henrietta's parents, for the same reasons. I gather you are trying to indicate "somewhere between 1800 and 1899", but to me 1800s means a decade, rather than a century. Maybe "nineteenth century" if you don't know? Or no date at all? --GRuban (talk) 15:29, 6 September 2018 (UTC)