Top Ten List - #10

As we prepare to move we’ve decided to do a top 10 list of why we love this house and the neighborhood, and why we’ll miss it so much. Over the next few weeks we’ll continue the list.

#10 The House

How we got the house: We moved into this neighborhood midway through Teri’s culinary school in 2002. We had been in Hyde Park, New York for the past year, and Teri and I returned so Teri could complete her externship at Café Pacific and I’d started back at TWU. We rented the house at 5612 Eastside for 3 years and were not initially impressed with the neighborhood, however the Hudson Valley is a very homogenous area with very few minorities and we were looking to get back to “the city”. At that time Luis and Veronica lived in our current house and they had 3 children, when she got pregnant with their 4th we knew it was just a matter of time before it went on the market. We waited and waited, their newborn son turned one and still they wouldn’t give it up. It was their first house as a family, she loved it and considered adding on bedrooms but finally came to grips with the fact that a 2 bedroom 1 bath house was not big enough for a family of 6 (sound familiar?) We had just gotten back from Cassie’s wedding in the Caymen Islands and they approached us in the driveway, “We’ve decided to sell, if you want it it’s yours.” Adding to the drama Teri had been interviewing for her culinary position at Brinker for 6 weeks and we still didn’t have an answer. We took a leap of faith and signed the closing papers just hours before she got the job offer.
Now you might think that moving across the street would be easy, I mean you just walk your stuff over. In reality it was the worst move e-v-e-r. It’s a long walk with lots of stairs and it just never seemed to end.

The House Itself: 5613 East Side is also known as the Hawpse Homestead. Junius Street used to be Hawpse Street and the Hawpse family was one of Dallas’ founding families. Although the exact build date is unknown we estimate the house is around 100 years old. Our official papers say 1909 but it is not listed on the city register until 1915. However, we do know that Mr. Hawpse died here in 1914 so they must have just moved in when he died. His funeral was also held in the house. They had 5 children and the house remained in their possession until the 1950’s. Mrs. Hawspe died here in 1941. I’ve always wanted to know the original layout of this house. How did they fit 7 people in here? The original wall paper in the master bedroom looks like kitchen décor so that’s also confusing.