The tide of the formerly quiet and laid back “Preston Road District” area began to change thanks to a momentous election in favor of incorporation on Nov. 18, 1939. The new city needed a name, so DeLoache and crew suggested “Preston Hollow,” combining the names of the artery road serving the community and the wooded areas that ran through it. Incorporation was the first time the name “Preston Hollow” was used, and it has stuck with the immediate community and broader area ever since.
The city government was initially set up to run without any additional taxes to residents. This worked smoothly at first. The first major problem in the town was the sale of alcohol. Preston Hollow held an election on Feb. 25, 1940, where a small majority of about 66% voted to make Preston Hollow “dry.”
City officials drew a map of the town and submitted it as a “dry zone,” but failed to include a 30-foot strip. A clever entrepreneur purchased that land, near today’s Preston Center, and opened a liquor store. Legend has it that this store was the only place to legally buy liquor from Downtown Dallas to Missouri.
Joe Lawther was, in many cases, the reason the township of Preston Hollow was established. He campaigned to the citizens and assisted with the legal proceedings regarding the town’s setup. Once he took office as mayor, however, he realized the challenges of their lofty visions to run a town tax-free. Because of this, Lawther saw no solutions to keep the town in its current setup and resigned from his post as mayor in April of 1940. An emergency election was held on April 3, 1940, electing Mart W. Reeves as the second mayor of Preston Hollow. Albert Hammerstein also resigned from his post as alderman around the same time and was replaced by Alvin Charles Raines. Raines would later serve as marshal and secretary.
The next major issue to tackle was that of policing. Both the funding and the operation of the police department would be the biggest hurdle for the town. Herbert C. Otis sent a letter in October of 1940 persuading residents to voluntarily pay for a subscription-based contract police service provided by Leroy Trice of the Greenway Patrol. Subscriptions were $2.50 monthly, $12.50 for six months, or $20 yearly ($55.77, $278.87, and $446.19 in 2024). Trice was active during his initial period, stopping and warning many reckless drivers, with 15 arrests and convictions made for speeding. He also made an arrest for a double burglary, decreased loud music at night, and sorted out a “public nuisance” problem regarding a septic tank.
Unfortunately, only half the citizens voluntarily subscribed to the service, barely keeping Trice on night-only duty. However, due to the effectiveness of Trice’s contractual patrol, Otis wished to establish an official police force.
“A recent poll of the citizens of Preston Hollow was overwhelmingly in favor of the establishment of a municipal police department to operate in place of the private agency which had been policing our town,” Otis said in 1941.
The police headquarters were in the Freeman real estate office at the northwest corner of Inwood and Northwest Highway, which the town leased for $50 per month ($1,115.47 in 2024). Alvin Raines registered as the police chief, even though this duty was presumably symbolic. Trice now served the neighborhood in an official capacity. It is reported that he made his salary from traffic tickets. Alvin Raines sent an update to the neighborhood in August of 1941, almost a year after police presence in the town. The force had responded to 19 burglaries, 15 prowlers, 39 miscellaneous complaints, two car thefts, 19 thefts, four fire calls, six grass fires put out by police department, nine wrecks, three fights, two missing persons, five loose livestock, two vagrancy, six dog and cat complaints, 12 other calls, and 252 traffic cases handled in PH Corporation Court, where the mayor presided as the judge. He also pushed for additional subscriptions for police.
In January of 1942, the nation was still processing the attack on Pearl Harbor a month earlier. While Texas was and did remain outside of the war zone, the city officials adopted protective wartime measures for its citizens. They passed a “Blackout and Air Raid Protection” act instructing residents to comply with the Army and Navy’s recommendations. The act stated, “in modern warfare no city, however distant from the enemy, is free from attack.”
In 1942, the tide of the nation changed, as we mobilized and entered war. The tide of Preston Hollow also changed in 1942. The tax-free operation had functioned for three years, even though we lost a bright mind (Joe Lawther) in the process, a mind that seemed to see the challenges before everyone else. A major update regarding the status of the town went out to residents in October of 1942, called “A Message to the Citizens of the Town of Preston Hollow.” The message started off with the positives, informing that they collected $2,021 in permit fees ($28,725.34 in 2024) and collected a total of $6,307.77 ($120,866.16) in various fees and fines. The total expenditures, mostly consisting of operating costs for the police force and establishing ordinances, were $5,542.90 ($106,210.13,) resulting in a cash surplus of $764.87 ($14,656.04.) At least the town was not in debt, but the memo made it seem they were trending in that direction.
“During the period after the incorporation of the Town and before the United States entered the war, the number of dwellings in the Town of Preston Hollow more than doubled,” the memo said.
However, the negatives then began. The council announced they received very few subscriptions for the police department from the new residents, so, at this point, only one quarter of all residents were subscribing.
Fires were another large problem in Preston Hollow. Being in the country, grass fires were common. Fire insurance was high, and many homes had “prairie walls” built around them. Fire calls were taken care of by the police service or responded to by The City of Dallas for a fee. This proved unreliable as they had their own calls to tend to, and the service was temporarily discontinued during a dispute and Highland Park took over. To solve this problem, they announced they were working on low rates for fire protection by purchasing both a 50-foot lot in Anthony Plaza, near present day Douglas and Northwest Highway, for both a police and fire building (ending the lease of the Freeman office) and a firetruck. However, the climax came when they announced how they would pay for this service.
The council believed that “it is exceedingly unfair for one out of each four of the households in the Town of Preston Hollow to pay the bill for police and fire protection which benefits all of the residents alike” adding that “this condition is intolerable and so unfair that the Council cannot longer urge payment upon those who have been carrying this load” (Council of Preston Hollow 1942). In comparison, crime watch services from off-duty Dallas Police Department officers in present-day Preston Hollow provided via the various homeowners associations representing the entire neighborhood are only available to subscribers.
Not only was it a problem that they wouldn’t have enough money for fire protection under the current system, but, with the influx of new residents, the council announced that “unless steps are taken immediately to obtain necessary revenue, the Town will be without funds to even support a watchman service.”
Therefore, a major shift in philosophy took place. The council levied and “ad valorem” tax of $0.25 per $100 evaluation ($4.79 per $1,916.15 valuation in 2024), believing their “study of the situation developed that there was no other available fair and adequate method of obtaining the necessary value,” and stated that the tax would only go to fund police and fire services. While it was a forced tax, which went against the opinions of many, the tax was cheaper per person than the amount the few subscribers paid. The tax restored 24-hour police protection and established a volunteer fire department with a firetruck, mostly staffed by 16 to 17-year-old boys.
Of the many problems the council faced, police and fire had a simple yet controversial fix. In the future, they wouldn’t be this lucky.
Jack Drake is a sophomore at The Ohio State University studying aviation management. The Preston Hollow-resident is known for publishing Preston Hollow: A Brief History. Drake is a member of Preston Hollow Presbyterian Church, a volunteer at Vickery Meadow Food Pantry and creator of Facebook group Preston Hollow History.
