Weekly Acorn #10 
The house at 1203 Polo Rd. has sat vacant now for nearly 10 years. The owner, Steve Russell, plans to restore his childhood home and the detached garage to the way it was when he was growing up.
This charming farmhouse was built in 1925 and, according to Steve, is older than the other house, 1533 Polo Rd, also built that same year. Steve’s great uncle and aunt, J. N. Dull and Sallie Hicks Dull, built the house. Then in 1956 Steve’s parents, Harry E. Russell and Ila Spainhour Russell bought the house and lived there until their deaths in the 1990’s. The house has been vacant ever since.
I walked through the house with Steve this week as we talked about old times when he was growing up here. The house is pretty much the same as I remembered. I used to visit his parents quite often when I was growing up.
He plans to restore the house to the way it was originally. A den just off the living room with 1970’s paneling and a tile ceiling will be restored back into a dining room. The paneling and ceiling tiles will be removed and the original walls and ceiling restored.
Steve has already pulled up some of the old carpet to reveal the original hardwood floors that are in remarkably good condition. Most of the work on the house appears to be cosmetic. The original kitchen cabinets that his uncle built are still in very good condition.
The house itself has such a rich history. Steve was telling me about a well that used to be on the back porch and how the kitchen sink used to have an old pump handle rather than a faucet. He showed me where an old chimney once stood behind a wall in the kitchen for an old wood cook stove. He said that the cement foundation for the old outhouse was still behind the garage.
The house has all of the original moldings and built-ins (bookcases and window seats) and prairie style rope and pulley windows that were popular in craftsman style homes of that period.
It will certainly be nice to see such an important part of Oak Crest history be restored and preserved.
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