Wilshire Heights Neighborhood

David Williams Designed Home

David Williams Originated Texas Modern Style

Architect David Williams originated the Texas Modern Style inspired by Texas and Louisiana indigenous homes. The home at 6292 Mercedes Avenue in Wilshire Heights Neighborhood in Dallas that he designed for Ray McDowell in 1927 is where David Williams jumped off from the blatant Spanish Colonial eclecticism prevalent in the 1920s and designed a more “Texas Colonial” style home reflecting the indigenous qualities of East Texas and Louisiana. As architectural historian Jay C. Henry wrote in his fabulous book, Architecture in Texas 1895-1945, David Williams’ work was further inspired by the colonists led by Stephen Fuller Austin in 1821. David Williams said, “Their comfort demanded a little beauty and a great deal of taste. There is not in any one of these houses built in the Southwest before 1850 an instance of imitation of foreign styles, of sham, of striving for effect, of any use of unnatural, unnecessary ornament or of material not structural and fit for its purpose….Their style is modern, for it satisfies all the requirements of modern design and construction.”