The first Lakewood Home Tour raised $200. Former Lakewood PTA president Cathey Hundley told the Advocate that the idea of a tour had been around for a while. What finally made it happen was a "pitiful children's book fair" in 1976. Last year the tour raised more than $400,000, and the Lakewood Early Childhood PTA has now raised over $4.5 million through it, according to CandysDirt.

The 50th Annual Lakewood Home Tour opens this Saturday, November 7, and its lead house sums up that fifty-year run better than any other could. 7030 Tokalon Drive went up in 1929 for Lester Lacy, its original owner and builder. Lacy's construction work helped build modern Dallas, including Central Expressway, parts of Love Field and Woodrow Wilson High School. Every ticket bought this weekend goes to the Woodrow Wilson feeder pattern. The tour has always turned houses into school money, and this year the money is going back to a school built by the man who built the house.

A fundraiser that started with memorized scripts

In that first year, five people opened their homes. PTA members worked as docents, each with a memorized script for the rooms. Hundley wrote that the group was "off like a herd of turtles." She added that plenty of the volunteers "didn't know a Hutsell from a Dilbeck," meaning the architects whose houses still give Lakewood's streets their look.

Gail Roden helped lead the early tours. In the same Advocate piece, she said the event had grown from a Lakewood Elementary fundraiser into a way to protect part of East Dallas history. "I think that's what's so unique about Lakewood, is the people try to keep their homes as much like they were when they were first built," Roden said. That idea has kept the tour going. Homeowners keep their old houses in good shape and open them to the public, and the public's ticket money goes to the classrooms down the street.

Fifty years in six data points

Taken together, the totals show a fundraiser that has sped up over time.

It took about 35 years to pass the first $1 million. The next $3.5 million or so came in roughly fifteen. The single year reported for 2025 brought in more than double the 2014 festival's total.

The pandemic years are what explain the "50th" on this year's tickets. In 2020 the PTA ran a drive-by tour. In 2021 visitors walked the homes' yards. Then in 2022 interiors reopened for the 46th annual tour, as co-chair Stephanie Bowen Wright told the Dallas Morning News. The tour changed format during those years but was never canceled, which is why the count never broke.

Tokalon, the house at the center of it

CandysDirt reports that L.H. Lacy and his wife, Nina, hired architect Vern E. Shanklin to design the French Eclectic house in 1929. In 1972 they sold it to Sandra and Herbert Steinbach. Jed and Shelby Dolson bought it in 2022, which makes them only its third owners. They had already owned two Hutsell houses in Lakewood and had just finished renovating a home on Lakewood Boulevard when they saw the for-sale sign on Tokalon.

The Dolsons lived in the back house while an addition and a large new kitchen went up. They kept what the house had always had. The original millwork, light fixtures and peacock doors stayed, and so did the 1920s bathrooms with their colorful tile, now set off by new wallpaper. The Advocate's August preview adds that many salvaged materials were worked into the update, and that the kitchen has a bar enclave.

"It's a very livable home. Even though it is architecturally formal, we have made it functional, casual, and comfortable, so that you can feel relaxed here."

Shelby Dolson, speaking to CandysDirt

The house sits on more than an acre under tall trees. Shelby Dolson worked with Land Pro on a formal English-style garden. The family added a pool and a tennis court, and there is a greenhouse tucked into the grounds. D Magazine notes that Tokalon was once named one of its "10 Most Beautiful" homes.

Whitney Huffman chairs the 2026 tour. She told White Rock Lake Weekly that the house "exemplifies the enduring character and architectural legacy that have made Lakewood one of Dallas' most beloved neighborhoods for over a century." It is also a working example of what Roden described in 2016: an old house kept close to how it was built, opened to neighbors, and raising money for the schools nearby.

The newest house carries the same idea forward

The Sunday-only stop shows the same thinking in a new build. The tour's own description calls 6819 Avalon Avenue new construction with Tudor character, drawn from Lakewood's existing architecture. SHM Architects designed it, Newport Group built it and Collins Interiors finished it. Details include reclaimed roof tiles and steel-framed windows. Over fifty years, the PTA's docents went from not knowing a Hutsell from a Dilbeck to touring a new house designed to look like it belongs among the old ones.

Planning your weekend

Here is what's on the schedule, from LECPTA's tour page:

• Daytime tour: Saturday, Nov. 7, and Sunday, Nov. 8, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days
• Candlelight Tour: Saturday, 7 to 9:30 p.m., sold out at every ticket level
• Daytime weekend pass: $50, sold through TicketSpice; the checkout total with fees is shown as $57.95
• Guidebook: included with every ticket
• Saturday only: 7059 Pasadena Avenue
• Sunday only: 6819 Avalon Avenue
• Open both days: 7030 Tokalon Drive, 6823 Bob O Link Drive, 7210 Brennans Drive, 6645 Country Club Circle, 600 N. Brookside Drive and 7140 Wildbriar Drive

Because Pasadena and Avalon are each open only one day, you need to come both days to see all eight homes. Shelby Dolson told CandysDirt that several houses will host tastings this year. For Candlelight ticket holders, the ticket page lists an optional afterparty at Birdie's Eastside at 9:30 p.m. Fifth Third Bank is the presenting sponsor. Proceeds go to the Dallas ISD Woodrow Wilson feeder pattern, including Lakewood Elementary and J.L. Long Middle School. The PTA is also still signing up volunteers through its volunteer page.

Tokalon has had only three owners since 1929. If you own one of Lakewood's older houses and want to talk about looking after it for the long run, Katherine Roberts would be glad to have that conversation in confidence, at whatever pace suits you. Request an Appointment whenever you're ready.