Historic Westover Hills Estate on the Block

A palatial estate with historical significance is for sale in Westover Hills.

The 8,400-square-foot home originally built for oilman John E. Farrell at 8 Westover Road is on the market for $5.1 million. The home, built by A.C. Luther on approximately 1.1 acres, was the flagship for development of Westover Hills.

Designed by Victor M. Curtis, Westover Manor is a limestone and brick Norman-Jacobian Revival-style mansion, with six bedrooms and five and a half baths, and featuring Tudor-style chimneys, half-timbered gables, and mullioned windows.

Its features include cathedral ceilings, custom millwork, elevator, service kitchen, guest house, four-car garage, cabana, and a basement ideal for wine cellar.

This marks the first time the estate has ever been on the public market, according to Mansion Global. Tarrant County property records show the property was owned by another oilman, Clarence Brodie Hyde II and last changed hands in 2015 for an undisclosed sum.

“The architecture is significant and special,” said Ida Duwe-Olsen of Compass Fort Worth, who listed it with her husband and colleague Ted Olsen told Mansion Global. “You don’t see houses like this anymore.”

For its place in history, the home is registered in the National Register of Historic Places.

Farrell lived in the house until his death at age 54 in 1946.

Farrell was an oilman and wartime board chairman of the Service Men’s Center.

A native of England, Farrell left his home in Manchester as a 17-year-old to come alone to America, according to a story announcing his death.

His initial destination was Canada. He lived there for several years, working as a mechanic. After moving to the U.S., he worked in mechanical departments of oil companies, railroads, and mining companies in the Midwest before he coming to Fort Worth in 1926 to work as a landman for Marland Oil Company, handling leases in West Texas.

In 1929, Farrell went into business for himself, joining the ranks of the independents, and shortly established himself as one of the more prominent independent oil operators in Texas, New Mexico, and Louisiana.

He and W.A. Moncrief blocked acreage in Gregg County in 1930 for a wildcat test that proved to be the discovery well, Lathrop No. 1, of the Gregg County portion of what became the great East Texas oil field. It flowed 320 barrels of oil per hour from a depth of 3,587 feet. Less than a month later, the consortium sold its interest in the Lathrop No. 1 and the surrounding acreage for $3.2 million, or $65 million today, to Yount-Lee Oil Company of Beaumont.

Farrell devoted a lot of his fortune to philanthropic pursuits, including Service Men’s Center he founded with his wife during World War II. The Farrells also donated the first iron lung to the city-county hospital, according to Thelma Brooks Farrell’s obituary at the time of her death in 1977.

He was also the founding mayor of Westover Hills, which incorporated in 1937, much to the chagrin of the city of Fort Worth, which aspired to annex the neighborhood under a 1921 state law that gave cities with populations of 100,000 or more the right to annex adjacent unincorporated areas of 5,000 or less without their approval.

Fort Worth, which supplied water to Westover Hills, responded by cutting off supplies only days after it incorporated. Lawyers, naturally, got involved. Peace was achieved by a negotiated settlement that kept Westover Hills independent. However, the new township would have to pay higher water rates than Fort Worth residents.

According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Farrell, the mayor, personally underwrote Westover Hills' operating expenses in its first year.