8100 Garland Road
There were old structures (cabins or fish houses) on the property before house was built in 1938. Legend has it quite a bit of gambling and drinking occurred in those earlier structures during prohibition 1920 -1933 and beyond.
West of 8100 Garland/San Rafael approaching the spillway waters, there was a gravel pit /quarry bordering Forest Hills. During the 1920’s various Forest Hills roads that existed were common locations for bootlegger meet ups with San Rafael specifically being mentioned on many occasions.
Peter and Carol Tomasz purchased the home in 1989.
When Pete bought the house, 4 out buildings were still there on property (one was a long narrow brick structure with a tenant.)
A field of flags fly there every Memorial Day, 4th of July and Veterans Day.
Prior to Tomasz, another notable resident, O.L. Nelms, known as Dallas’ gruff, shrewd real estate tycoon owned the home.
O.L Nelms (1907-1972) was a Dallas businessman who made his money in real estate development. Nelms built the Longhorn Ballroom and the Yello Belly Dragstrip in 1950. He also owned apartment buildings, land in the suburbs and a block of buildings in downtown Dallas. O.L. Nelms built the Longhorn Ballroom for his friend, country music legend Bob Willis and his Texas Playboys. Original name of ballroom was Bob Willis’ Ranch House. It was managed for some time by Nelms’ friend Jack Ruby, with whom he had a lot of dealings.
Boston Public Library FlickrNelms was the ultimate salesman. He started going door to door selling hominy when he was 8! He thought salesmanship was much better than school, so he dropped out in the third grade. Nelms later sold candy and fruit, and he continued adding merchandise until he had a warehouse. Nelms came to North Texas during the Great Depression, where he started making more money as a tobacco wholesaler. After a sale, Nelms reportedly handed the customer a cigar with a band around it that said, “Help O.L. Nelms Make a Million Dollars.” Nelms was an eccentric wheeler and dealer, who became a millionaire by building his tobacco and candy wholesale business from scratch into bigger profits developing motels, hotels, apartments and shopping centers.
In the 60s and 70s there were trailers along roadways and highway billboards with the saying: “Thanks to all of you for helping O.L. Nelms make another million.” A pile of money was usually painted next to the bold statement. He ran newspaper ads in the personal section thanking folks. Nelms told news reporter about those ads, “I figure it’s worth $25 a month for that ad to keep telling people that O.L Nelms knows if it wasn’t for them, I may not have made it.”
Nelms was worth 12-15 million when he died in 1972 at 64.
A bigger and better idea, that made national headlines, but never panned out: Nelms created a $5,000,000 fund to provide huge public cocktail parties after his death with free food and drink for anyone who would want to attend. ‘This would be a real nice way to be remembered,” he said. He purchased an office building near downtown Dallas and surrounding land to provide adequate parking for the parties. There always had to be a hitch for Nelms. Since the parties were not to start until after Nelms’ death, Nelms wanted to enjoy them too. So, for every party, he arranged with a local funeral home to have his remains wheeled out in a big silver casket, which would stay at the party until the last guest was gone. It’s like he couldn’t wait to die and get on with the fun.
The parties never happened, because Nelms could not set them up in a way that he felt would be fitting and match his eccentric life.