THE FAMILY JU-NEL Story By Christina Hughes Babb | Photos By Jeanine Michna-Bales
The White Rock Valley residence showcased all those things that style-savvy mid-century Dallasites loved about Ju-Nel architecture — low-pitched roofing and vaulted ceilings; windows stretched to maximize sunlight and the outdoor view; distressed-wood decks, punctured and edited (same as the soffits overhead) to accommodate trunks and branches, always drawing surrounding nature into the home’s design.
Shrewd shoppers like Sarah and Miles Durham understand the intrinsic value of a Ju-Nel house. Beginning in the late 1950s, the Frank Lloyd Wright-worshipping duo Lyle Rowley and Jack Wilson, who named their company for wives Julie and Nelda, designed and built about 50 of them, mostly in White Rock-area neighborhoods.
The Durhams know you snatch up a Ju-Nel when you find it, and care for it like the precious gem that it is.