Fort Worth’s Lockheart Bed and Breakfast Has Rich History

Lockheart Gables, a historic home built in 1893, is a romantic getaway with cottages such as the Beloved Cottage, Sweetheart, with heart-shaped tubs for two, and rooms with themes such as Forever Yours, Melody of Love, and Love Nest, among others.

Parties are also accommodated at the inn. Other features of the B & B include private baths, fireplaces, antiques, CD players, Terry cloth robes, fresh flowers, personalized heart-shaped cookies, a complimentary picture, spa pillows, the location of a cultural district, massages, personal chef, chocolate strawberries, and a dozen roses. The latter four items are at an extra charge. One room has a single-person Jacuzzi and all upstairs rooms have themes.

Lockheart is located at 5220 Locke Avenue just off I-30 near the Hulen Exit.

Marilyn Lewis, who owns the bed and breakfast with her husband, David says she gets her creative interior decorating ideas from herself. She and her spouse do all the decorating.

The house, registered as a historical landmark as the Messer House in the Fort Worth Registry, was originally owned by Arthur Albert Messer (1863-1934) then later a fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects practiced his craft in Texas there from about 1888-1898. The Messer brothers owned the hilltop property comprising eight lots from 1892-1903. The three-story Victorian brick home speaks of character and elegance.

“It’s the grandeur that spoke to us,” said Marilyn.

The house on the Westside was abandoned when The Lewises chose to restore it. Now they’re in the next to the last phase of renovations in the house that borders Arlington Heights.

“We were convinced that with hard work, a little luck, and a lot of faith that our purchase could be transformed into a viable business,” said Marilyn.

Neighbors and community activists supported the renovation project and in Sept. 1998 the city granted approval for the remodeling. The Lewises have spent 39 years restoring homes and bought the rambling property for $130,000 in May 1998. They estimated they would spend at least $100,000 more in Sept. 1998 replacing among other things old banisters, worn carpentry, and cracked tubs.

In one of the rooms an alarm clock goes off to the sound of birds chirping in keeping with a romantic theme.

There is also a separate prayer room upstairs.

The entire B & B has five bedrooms with adjoining baths, a conference room, and two suites in the carriage house out back.

Fort Worth is home to a handful of bed and breakfasts.

Marilyn visited with her neighbors and community activists in the area and ran into no opposition before starting the renovations.

The house sits with its back to I-30 at the corner of Locke Avenue and Merrick.

Tin ceilings were installed in most of the house and a sleeping porch is also attached to the structure. All 12 Pella wood windows open to get the maximum breeze on that porch. The ceiling above those windows is original beaded board. Four original columns were left exposed as much as possible and the original wood floor is painted. The materials used below the windows are sheetrock and the trim around windows and baseboard is wood.

According to Irene McKinley Martinezi, her father, Herman McKinley, who is deceased, lived with his parents, siblings, nephews, and nieces in the house which Edgar McKinley’s family bought in 1925.

Irene said that her dad liked to talk about the times he and all the young men in the family slept out on the upstairs screened-in sleeping porch (the turret) and how when he came home late for a date he’d shimmy up the drain pipe to that porch because downstairs the doors would all be locked. He didn’t want to wake anyone.

One of his duties was chopping wood each morning for the many fireplaces to warm the house during cold days.

Irene’s parents lived in the house for about six months after they married in 1934 during the Depression. Irene still has the dinner bell which she loved as a child that was rung in the dining room by her grandma to summon the kitchen help to the table. Irene said in documents that The Lewises have that as a child she remembers going into the carriage house where her cousins, Quigg and Eddie Snelson kept their extensive and elaborate train sets. Irene is the granddaughter of Cora and Edgar McKinley, former owners of the house. Irene’s cousins, MaryeBeth Rucker Valley and Marianna Rucker Foringer of Los Angeles, CA lived in the house as children with their mom, Edna McKinley Rucker Chrisler, their grandparents, Edgar and Cora McKinley, their cousins, aunts, and uncles.

The property is listed by Fort Worth as Highly Significant Endangered (HSE) and the house has only been in three families. It was not occupied for ten years.

To make a reservation call 1-888-22HEART, 817-738-5969, or visit their website at lockheartgables.com.