9311 Moss Circle Drive. Photography by Carol Toler.
For almost a century, neighbors across Lake Highlands and throughout Dallas have been hoping for a chance to peek inside the distinctive white colonial which backs up to Moss Haven Elementary. Built in the 1930s by eccentric oilman Harry S. Moss on 400 rolling acres, the house now sits in the heart of the city surrounded by Harry S. Moss Park, the Moss Soccer Complex and luxury homes. With only two owners since Florence and Harry Moss, members of the public have had few chances to step inside. This year, the doors will open wide.
Katherine and Ryan Allen purchased the historic home in 2020 and completed extensive renovations before moving in in 2022. They’ve agreed to welcome visitors as part of Lake Highlands Women’s League’s Holiday in the Highlands home tour on Dec. 6.
According to Lake Highlands historian Ted Campbell, Harry S. Moss was just 18 years old when he left his native Ontario, Canada to make his fortune in Texas in 1906. By 1920, he had founded the Moss Petroleum Company, and by the 1930s he was living large in his custom estate on Armstrong Parkway in the heart of Highland Park.
During a trip to the State Fair of Texas, Moss purchased a prize bull, then realized he had no place to keep it. He bought a 400-acre stock farm north of town, which included the modest home of pioneer settler Andrew Sloan Jackson and his wife, Elizabeth. The bull (and his owner) were so enamored of the place, Moss started a Hereford cattle and Tennessee Walking Horse business there, according to Candy’s Dirt. Harry and Florence enlarged and extensively remodeled the house to make it their family’s weekend and holiday retreat, and they christened it Mosshaven. It was featured in Architectural Digest in 1958.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the City of Dallas acquired 54 and later another 225 acres of the Moss family farm, and that land became part of then Park Director L.B. Houston’s ambitious citywide green belt plan. Over the years, the house fell into disrepair before being purchased, enlarged and extensively refurbished by the Jamieson family in the 1970s. After remodeling by the Allens, the home is expected to draw a record number of visitors on tour day next month.
The home is nestled on a cul-de-sac within a cul-de-sac, but home tour chairmen Jenny Littlefield and Stephani Walne have developed a plan to keep traffic moving. Visitors will enter off Abrams, and Stable Glen will be one-way-for-the-day. Tour goers will exit through the alley onto Club Meadows, and voila, on to the next home.
7737 Eagle Trail. Photography by Carol Toler.
In addition to the Allen home at 9311 Moss Circle Drive, homes at 7737 Eagle Trail, 8728 Fenchurch and 9617 Shadydale will be available to view. The tour runs from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and the Women’s League will offer vendors and light bites at their Sip and Shop Holiday Market Thursday, Dec. 5 from 4 to 8 p.m. and Friday, Dec. 6 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Kaycee Club, 10110 Shoreview.
Tour tickets are $25 and available for purchase online here or at the door of any tour home (no children under 10, please). Entrance to the market is free. Raffle tickets may be purchased for $25 online here (or 5 for $100), and the winners will receive a year of complimentary valet parking at NorthPark or a party bus for 12 to view the home tour.
Proceeds from the tour will be used for community projects, local schools and college scholarships. Since its inception in 1970, the annual holiday event has returned more than $3 million to the community.
9617 Shadydale. Photography by Carol Toler.
8728 Fenchurch. Photography by Bess McKinney.
