The 50th Annual Lakewood Home Tour opens its doors this Saturday and Sunday, November 7 and 8, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days. Saturday's Candlelight Tour and every VIP tier are already sold out. That leaves the $50 daytime weekend pass, which includes the guidebook. Six of the eight homes are open both days. One is open Saturday only and one Sunday only, so the day you choose decides which version of Lakewood you see.
This year's lineup has a clear theme. Its oldest house is a 1929 estate built by the man who built Woodrow Wilson High School, the school whose feeder pattern the tour's proceeds now support. Its newest is a ground-up Tudor designed to look like it has been on its street for a century. Between them, the 50th tour shows Lakewood homes that kept their original character through decades of updates. A few blocks away, the same thing is happening to the country club and the old theater.
The house whose builder also built Woodrow Wilson
The anchor stop is 7030 Tokalon Drive, a French Eclectic home built in 1929. Advocate Magazine reported in August that its original owner and builder, Lester Lacy, built Central Expressway, Woodrow Wilson High School and parts of Love Field Airport.
The tour's press release, quoted in that Advocate piece, describes formal rooms, intricate millwork and restored bathrooms. Salvaged materials sit alongside new work, including a chef's kitchen with a bar enclave. The grounds include a resort-style pool, formal gardens, a tennis court, a greenhouse and a newly built guest house. The Dallas Morning News puts the estate on an acre of towering trees. D Magazine points out that the house was once one of its "10 Most Beautiful" homes in Dallas.
The Lacy connection is what makes this stop fit the anniversary. Every ticket sold this weekend goes to Dallas ISD schools in the Woodrow Wilson feeder pattern. So the tour's 50th year raises money for the school system around a building whose builder's own house is the tour's centerpiece.
Fifty years, from $200 to six figures
The tour began small. In a 40th-anniversary retrospective published in 2016, Advocate tied the tour's start to a book fair. Former PTA president Cathey Hundley described how the idea took shape, and Gail Roden helped lead the effort. That first year had five homes and raised $200.
By 2021 the totals looked very different. Advocate reported in July 2022 that the previous year's tour raised more than $240,000 for local schools. That was during the two years the tour ran in a street-view format before returning to in-person visits in 2022. The Lakewood Early Childhood PTA still runs it. Each year it chooses six to eight homes, and this year's lineup is at the top of that range.
Event chair Whitney Huffman described the milestone to the Dallas Morning News:
"This tour is so much more than beautiful homes — it's a tradition that has brought our community together for five decades, all while supporting the schools and families that make Lakewood such a special place to live."
Saturday or Sunday
The two exclusive homes are the reason the day matters. The Saturday-only stop is 7059 Pasadena Avenue. The Sunday-only stop is 6819 Avalon Avenue.
The PTA describes its Sunday-only home as new construction with "timeless Tudor character" and "a fresh, colorful point of view." SHM Architects designed it, Newport Group built it and Collins Interiors did the interiors. Its features include reclaimed roof tiles, steel-framed windows and bold interiors. In a neighborhood known for Tudors from the 1920s and '30s, this one starts new and borrows the old style on purpose. It sits at the opposite end of the timeline from Tokalon, where a 1929 house gets new updates.
| Saturday, Nov. 7 | Sunday, Nov. 8 | |
|---|---|---|
| Daytime hours | 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. | 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. |
| Exclusive home | 7059 Pasadena Avenue | 6819 Avalon Avenue, new-construction Tudor |
| Added stop | Lakewood Elementary community homecoming, 2 to 4 p.m. | None |
| Evening | Candlelight Tour, 7 to 9:30 p.m., sold out | None |
Saturday has more going on. Lakewood Elementary will host "Lakewood Opens Its Doors: A Community Homecoming" as a special tour stop, open to the public, with a new flag dedication at 2 p.m. and student-led tours of the school from 2:30 to 4 p.m. A Saturday afternoon visit can take in the 1929 Lacy estate and the school building on the same route.
Sunday is the day for the new Tudor. It is the only chance to see how a builder and an architect read Lakewood's style when they start from scratch.
The six homes open both days
These addresses are on the route both days, so a weekend pass covers them whichever day you go:
- 7030 Tokalon Drive
- 7210 Brennans Drive
- 6823 Bob O Link Drive
- 7140 Wildbriar Drive
- 6645 Country Club Circle
- 600 N. Brookside Drive
The Dallas Morning News ran a photo of the Country Club Circle home and of the Wildbriar Drive house. Every ticket comes with a Home Tour guidebook.
The same thing is happening down the road
Lakewood's older landmarks are getting the same treatment as the homes on the tour.
Lakewood Country Club was founded in 1912 at Gaston Avenue and Abrams Road. It was Dallas's second 18-hole golf course, and Byron Nelson won the Dallas Victory Open there in 1944. Advocate reported in September that a full rebuild of the course had been underway since the previous fall. Andrew Green led it, alongside a new practice facility and teaching studio. The club scheduled a celebration of the "reimagined" course for October 22. The same article said the renovation canceled this year's Fourth of July fireworks and that the show is expected to return.
Across Abrams, the 1938 Lakewood Theater now houses Bowlski's at 1825 Abrams Parkway. Its posted weekend hours start at 11 a.m., which lines up with the tour's opening time.
Lunch between stops
Lakewood Shopping Center at Gaston and Abrams is the easiest place to stop between houses. Due' Cucina is at 1900 Abrams Parkway, in the space Unleavened left when it closed in December 2022, according to Advocate. The center's own roster also lists these:
- Mi Cocina, for a sit-down Tex-Mex lunch
- Liberty Burger, Fajita Pete's, CAVA or Sweetgreen, for something quick
- Scalini's Pizza & Pasta or DoubleDave's Pizzaworks, for pizza
- Sa Sa Sushi or WAYA Japanese Izakaya, for Japanese
- Blackfriar Pub, Cock & Bull Neighborhood Pub or The Heights, for a drink after the last house
- Yogurtland, if there are kids in the group
Advocate reported in October that maman, the French-inspired café, planned to open its Casa Linda location at 1152 N. Buckner Blvd. on October 15. Check before you go, because maman's own location page still listed the café as "coming soon."
Daytime weekend passes are on sale through the Lakewood Early Childhood PTA. In August, Advocate listed the pass at $57.95 with fees.
If walking through Tokalon or the new Tudor this weekend gets you wondering how your own Lakewood home's original details and updates would show to a buyer, we'd love to hear about it. The TX Collective Group can walk through your house with you and prepare a home valuation that reflects what makes it yours.
