Neighborhoods

Peak’s Suburban Addition Historic District

Peak’s Suburban Addition Historic District is an eclectic collection of late 19th- and early 20th- century houses that reflects the suburban expansion of Dallas from its postbellum railroad boom to its subsequent emergence as the commercial and transportation center of North Texas. The district lies within the boundaries of the old city of East Dallas—a separate municipality incorporated between 1882 and 1889— that developed around the railroad depot approximately two miles east of the Dallas County Courthouse. Comprising roughly 22 city blocks, it is one of the few relatively unaltered pockets of historic buildings remaining in Old East Dallas.

The district was once part of a plantation settled by Mexican War veteran Jefferson Peak who became a pioneer in Dallas real estate development. In anticipation of suburban expansion in the far eastern sector of East Dallas, Jefferson Peak and his son, Junius, subdivided the family plantation into 16 blocks, portions of which were sold as Peak’s Suburban Addition beginning in 1879. Streets were named after the Peak children: Worth, Carroll, Junius, Victor and Flora. Junius Peak’s own house, built just before the turn of the century, still stands at 4409 Worth Street.

Peak’s Suburban Addition is a microcosm of Dallas’ residential architecture from the 1890s through the 1930s, with styles ranging from late Queen Anne, Tudor Revival and Classical Revival to Mission Revival and Craftsman-influenced bungalows. The district also contains excellent examples of streetcar apartments from the 1920s and 30s.