{"nrhp_refnum":"78002914","name":"DeGolyer Estate","other_names":["Everette DeGolyer House (Rancho Encinal)"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"8525 Garland Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Dallas","county":"Dallas County","state":"TX","lat":32.821665351000064,"lon":-96.71780818896993,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1978-12-28","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Landscape Architecture","Science","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A large one-story Spanish Colonial Revival hacienda-style house set on 43 acres of gardens and woodland beside White Rock Lake at 8525 Garland Road, Dallas, Texas, built 1938-1940 and known as Rancho Encinal.","why_significant":"The nomination presents the house as one of the most important domestic examples of Spanish Colonial Revival in the Southwest and unique in Texas. It is also tied to Everette Lee DeGolyer, a pioneer of scientific oil exploration, book collector and philanthropist. The largely unaltered gardens, designed by Arthur Berger, form an integral part of the design.","narrative":"Rancho Encinal is a single-story Spanish Colonial Revival house on 43 wooded acres overlooking White Rock Lake in Dallas. Built from 1938 to 1940 for oil geophysicist and book collector Everette Lee DeGolyer and his wife Nell, it was designed by California architects Denman Scott and Burton Schutt. Stone, stucco and brick walls, wrought iron grilles and a red tile roof give it the look of a southwestern hacienda. Inside, a 35-by-50-foot library once held 15,000 volumes, and the Indian Room displays vigas and a curved fireplace. Landscape architect Arthur Berger laid out formal gardens, a magnolia allee, cutting gardens and orchards, some with ornaments bought from the Hearst estate. DeGolyer is regarded as a father of American geophysics, and the house reflects his wide interests and his fondness for the Southwest. The house and grounds remain largely unaltered, and the city of Dallas acquired the estate after the DeGolyer Foundation passed it to Southern Methodist University.","period_of_significance":"1938-1940","architect_builder":"Denman Scott, Burton Schutt (architects); Arthur Berger (landscape architect)","architectural_style":"Spanish Colonial Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition listed as excellent and unaltered; the form checks unoccupied status. It was owned by the City of Dallas Park and Recreation Department, with the grounds considered for an arboretum and adaptive uses for the house under consideration.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:19.536938-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/89/9716/40971689/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/78002914.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78002914/3bf408fd66-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78002914/3bf408fd66-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Loadmaster (David R. Tribble) This image was made by Loadmaster (David R. Tribble). Email the author: David R. Tribble Also see my personal gallery at Google Photos","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DallasArboretum-DeGolyerHouse-6533.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Loadmaster (David R. Tribble) This image was made by Loadmaster (David R. Tribble). Email the author: David R. Tribble Also see my personal gallery at Google Photos</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DallasArboretum-DeGolyerHouse-6533.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40971689","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q107322196"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/dallas-county/degolyer-estate-78002914/"}