THE GARDEN VILLA TIMELINE
Follow the records from the early neighborhood to the house today. These dates mark evidence, not a claim of continuous use or a known construction year.
20 moments in the record
Landscape
A Sanborn map traces Elmwood’s curving streets, the railroad, Cedar Creek and South Polk. It gives the early setting, but the surviving house has not been securely matched to a footprint on this sheet.
Inspect the record ↗Landscape
The 1930 directory lists 1404 South Polk as vacant. The 1933–34 edition gives 1416 (1404), documenting renumbering. Whether that earlier number belongs to the modern parcel remains unresolved; “vacant” does not necessarily mean undeveloped land.
Inspect the record ↗People & places
The September 19 Dallas Morning News advertises a Henderson Preschool Association benefit at Garden Villa Club, 1404 South Polk, from 9 p.m. to midnight Friday. Proceeds were intended for library books and a nurse for the children. The advertised Friday corresponds to September 20; the notice announces the event rather than confirms it occurred.
Inspect the record ↗People & places
The city directory names Shady Nook as a restaurant at 1404 South Polk and associates it with Karl Bellew. Karl and Ruby live at the address, and Ruby is separately listed as a waitress there. These entries establish work and residence, not real-estate ownership.
Inspect the record ↗People & places
Karl Bellew is again listed with Dixie Wax Paper Company, where directories also place him in 1933–34 and 1936. The 1938 directory lists the company at 1300 South Polk. This is a documented connection between the restaurant household and the neighboring factory, not proof of a relationship between the businesses.
Inspect the record ↗The house
A September 24 sale advertisement describes a two-story frame house in good condition at 1404 South Polk. It is a substantial building description before DCAD’s 1954 date, although continuity with the present structure is still unproved.
Inspect the record ↗People & places
Hubert S. and Myrtle Shanklin are listed at 1404 South Polk. The directory identifies Hubert as a salesman for Hoover Tire Company.
Inspect the record ↗Landscape
Dallas’s annexation mapping places the current parcel in Tract 30, Ordinance 3628, dated May 23, 1945. The archives catalog independently lists the ordinance’s maps. This dates municipal annexation, not construction; the original map attachment remains to be compared.
People & places
Eddie Miller appears at the address in the 1946 Institute of Radio Engineers Yearbook. An original 1949 sewer easement from James Carl and Allene M. Barnard describes the exact modern parcel and recites an August 1946 conveyance from Eddie Miller and wife. It names the Elmwood Branch of Cedar Creek along the northern boundary.
Inspect the record ↗The house
A July 28 advertisement offers a rustic duplex for $9,600, with four rooms and a bath downstairs, three rooms and a bath upstairs, a double garage, washroom, fish pond, pecan trees and peach trees. The price is an asking price. Its advertised 1½ acres differs from the present tax-record acreage.
Inspect the record ↗The house
October 1951 and February 1952 notices advertise a three-room furnished apartment at 1404 South Polk. The later notice asks $20 a week with bills paid, welcomes a child and describes the Elmwood bus at the door. Neither ad establishes a garage apartment.
People & places
The 1962 deed recites a December 1, 1954 conveyance from William Bailey and wife to R. A. and Kathryn W. Williams. The original 1954 instrument has not yet been reviewed. This ownership date happens to match DCAD’s year-built field; it does not explain or prove that construction date.
Inspect the record ↗People & places
William and Wanda Bailey are listed at 1404 South Polk with Texas Sign Service. Wanda is identified as the office secretary. The following year’s classified listing places the business at 1104 Corinth; the exact moving date remains unknown.
Inspect the record ↗People & places
The directories place Richard and Kathryn Williams here and identify Richard as a Western Union supervisor. The 1961 entry supplies their initials, supporting the identification of the couple named as grantors in the 1962 deed.
Inspect the record ↗The house
An April 24 advertisement describes two stories, three bedrooms, two baths, large pecan trees and a detached two-car garage at South Polk and Elmwood Boulevard. On June 1, the Williamses execute a deed to Bernis O. and Mildred E. Vaughn, filed July 2. The advertisement’s timing is consistent with the sale, but it does not name the seller.
Inspect the record ↗People & places
A December 10, 1980 deed conveys an undivided half interest from Lowry D., Johnny Mack and Eddie Don Vaughn to their mother, Mildred E. Vaughn. On January 29, 1982, Mildred conveys the property to Glenn D. Holden.
People & places
A July 1988 deed conveys the parcel from Holden to Gilbert Y. Barrera Jr. and Don T. Lewis. A September 1992 survey exhibit bears those owners’ names. On October 30, 1992, they convey the property to Dondi Ellen Kickirillo.
Inspect the record ↗Landscape
A city resolution includes a proposed $9,336.80 paving and sidewalk assessment for the parcel. It records a stage in the street-improvement process, not a verified final levy, payment or current balance.
Today
Doug and Kelsi Klembara purchase the property in December, beginning the work of making the older house their long-term family home. DCAD’s account history records the transfer; the family’s account supplies the story of rehabilitation.
Today
Following rehabilitation, the Klembara family moves in on June 10, 2026. They adopt the Garden Villa name, gather the surviving records and begin a new creekside journal for the house, its landscape and its birds.
Earlier deeds, building records, a menu or a photograph could add another chapter.
See the research still to do ↗