Sharing with the Community

The Alliance welcomes other nonprofits of a similar nature to use the Aldredge House for meetings or special programs on a limited basis. Please contact aldredgehouse@gmail.com, attention Vernell Shuey. Music groups seeking the atmosphere of an early twentieth century venue for adding to or contrasting to the historical elements of the music present house concerts in this distinctive Historic House Museum. 

Contact aldredgehouse@gmail.com for the possibility of getting on the calendar. Other organizations and institutions that see value in bringing groups, classes and members to Aldredge House for the architectural significance and history are such as professional design groups, school groups, universities and residential real estate groups. These organizations or institutions should contact aldredgehouse@gmail.com, attention Margaret Owen, PhD. 

Recently Woodrow Wilson National Honor Society members met at Aldredge House to assemble meals for the homeless. The Alliance was impressed with this student group and their mission, and it was a pleasure to support them in their project.

When a deserving charity like The Family Place calls to schedule a meeting at Aldredge House, we are certain to be able to work it out. We also invite charities to present programs for our membership, such as this meeting at Aldredge House featuring Micki Rawlings as the speaker on behalf of the The Family Place.

A meeting and group tour was held during the holiday season with women’s leadership group, Ignite.

Historic Location of the House

Swiss Avenue Historic District is the crown jewel in the city’s collections of elegant neighborhoods and was the first historic district in the city. Some of Dallas’ most prominent citizens have resided on Swiss Avenue. The vision for the neighborhood came from a wealthy cotton gin manufacturer and real estate magnate Robert S. Munger, and his planned upscale residential community became Texas’s first deed-restricted neighborhood. Munger Place, as it was called, had a centerpiece of stately mansions on Swiss Avenue, once a corn field. 

There is a parallel in the distinction Swiss Avenue was awarded as a nationally significant historic area. In 1974, the year Aldredge House at 5500 Swiss Avenue was donated to the Medical Alliance, Swiss Avenue was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was designated an official Dallas Landmark District the year before.

History of the House

William J. and Willie Newberry Lewis were the home’s original owners. Lewis came to Texas at the age of fifteen and by age thirty was a highly regarded cattleman and owner of the large R. O. Ranch. In 1912 he married Willie Newberry, a beautiful young Dallas debutante, and began making plans to build a grand home for her. Henry B. “Hal” Thomson was chosen as the architect for the Lewis’s home. Thomson was renowned for his European- based style of architecture. The young bride realized, after a brief time of living there, that the grandeur of the home did not give her a feeling of comfort. They moved into a lesser mansion on Gaston Avenue.

Mrs. Aldredge added two rooms to Aldredge house to accommodate her interests—an art gallery/theater and a glass conservatory. The gallery gave her a place to display her large art collection and to show the films that she made herself. Mrs. Aldredge poured herself into her home and for the conservatory alone she made by hand over 2,600 tiles. She lived in her home until 1975 after she had donated it to the Dallas County Medical Society Alliance.

In the early 1970s, when Rena Munger Aldredge was seeking a non-profit organization to permanently preserve her home and to maintain it as a welcoming part of the Dallas community, she chose the Dallas County Medical Society Alliance & Foundation. At that time the Alliance was searching for a home, and past president Lindalyn Adams, one of the most respected preservationists in Dallas, steered the organization toward this exciting new chapter.

Rena Munger Aldredge believed strongly in sharing her homes with the community. In addition to the continuous social and charity events she welcomed at her Dallas home, the gardens of her summer home at the Chatauqua Institution in western New York were always open to visitors.