Lago Vista on Possum Kingdom

Story by Steve Nussbaum

 This issue features an iconic home on Possum Kingdom Lake. It’s one of the first luxury homes built on the lake back in 1982, and those who grew up on the lake during the ’80s and ’90s will remember it as the one where folks would drive by and say, “Someday I’d love to own a home like that.â€

 The estate sits on a cliff toward the end of Gaines Bend, but it easily could be situated on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Malibu, California. The house looks ripped from the pages of “Architectural Digest†and evokes a feeling of Old Hollywood.

 There may be larger and grander homes on the lake, but few have the design and beauty of this Gaines Bend estate. Great architecture is classic, and this home has stood the test of time for almost 40 years.

 There’s a reason this house is so special: It was designed by renowned Dallas architect Phillip Shepherd, who with his firm designed the Crescent Hotel and the Mansion on Turtle Creek. Shepherd had a hand in designing many significant Dallas-area buildings, and he designed and built this home for his family.

 Shepherd, who was raised in Graham, Texas, graduated from Texas Tech’s College of Architecture in the early 1960s. His family owned a construction company in Graham, and his dad and brother built the family’s home. It was during the summers, working for his dad, that Shepherd fell in love with the construction industry.

 Shepherd’s Possum Kingdom Lake home, which took two years to complete and was finished in 1984, was owned by him and his family until the early ’90s when it was sold to longtime family friend Allie Beth Allman, who also hailed from Graham. Allman described the property as “just a wonderful home and special place, no place like it!â€

 The connection between the Allman and Shepherd families is a deep one; in fact, Allman spoke at Shepherd’s funeral in 2019.

 Allman built a very successful real estate business in Dallas, and she counted the Bush family and former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman among her clients and friends. Allman and her family owned the home for 20 years, using it as a retreat, and she loved sharing her home with her family and friends from Graham.

 Allman said it was a difficult decision to sell the home in 2015, but her family wasn’t able to use the home as much, making the upkeep of the property somewhat of a burden.

 Allman sold the home to Scott Dueser, the longtime president, chairman, and chief executive officer of Abilene-based First Financial Bankshares Inc. who, with his family, has owned a home at Possum Kingdom since the 1960s.

 Dueser describes PK as one of his favorite places to be, and the Gaines Bend estate is the fourth home he has owned on the lake. Dueser said he watched the home as it was being built and admits to peeking over the front wall to get a closer look.

 Dueser said never in his wildest dreams did he think he’d be able to afford such a grand home. His family has owned three other homes on the lake and said each time they sold we “moved up†and made some money on the deals. Owning property at Possum Kingdom is a good long-term investment and that’s how he was able to afford the Gaines Bend home, he said.

 Dueser has a bookshelf in the home that pays tribute to his parents and their love of the lake. After his parents passed away, he said he asked his siblings if he could buy their family’s old lake house from the estate. The other family members didn’t have the same passion for the lake as Dueser did, so his siblings all agreed to the deal “as long as there’s always beer in the fridge and gas in the boat,†he said.

 Dueser, who grew up in Breckenridge and describes himself as a “lake rat,†celebrates most holidays at the lake with his three boys, his siblings, and their families.

 The Dueser family’s first lake house was a company-owned property between the State Park and Sandy Beach shared with the company families, but the other families eventually told Dueser’s dad that he needed to find a place of his own because Scott was there too much! Not long after that, Dueser’s parents bought their first lake house in Gaines Bend.

 Fast-forward to 2015: At the time, Dueser owned a home in Gaines Bend, but his three boys convinced him the family needed a bigger place. A place about three doors down from theirs came on the market, so Dueser and his boys went to look it over.

 Their visit didn’t take long.

 “This won’t work,†Dueser told his sons. “It’s still too small. Let’s go.â€

 “We can’t,†Dueser’s youngest son told him. “I already called the Realtor.â€

 Soon after that, local real estate agent Dee Dee Jordan pulled up in a boat wearing a swimsuit and ready to assist the family with their search.

 Dueser told Jordan that the house wasn’t quite big enough for what his family needed, to which Jordan replied: “I do happen to know of a house that is coming on the market soon that you might be interested in.â€

 When Jordan described the house, the Dueser clan’s ears perked up, because they all knew exactly what house she was describing.

 Negotiations on the house lasted from August through November, with Dueser and his family moving into it the day before Thanksgiving in 2015. The house came fully furnished, with even some leftover barbeque in the fridge.

 Shepherd may have designed the structure, but Dueser noted that Allman also left her mark by way of the home’s beautiful, comfortable décor.

 The Gaines Bend estate has four buildings, including the main house, a guest house, and two symmetrical garages at the front. The home occupies about 5,000 square feet, in addition to another 5,000 square feet of deck.

 It’s the home’s design combined with its unique features that make it so special. The structure is surrounded in front by a large stucco wall and security gate, and the space inside the gate resembles the entrance of a luxury resort. The circular drive, which highlights the beautiful oak trees ringing the home, leads to a great view of the tennis court and pool area while also hinting at the incredible lake view.

 The estate sits on two lots, and the single-level main house offers incredible views of the lake from every room. The home features four bedrooms in the main house and two in the guest house, and there are six fireplaces spread throughout the home. The largest of these fireplaces is in the great room, which is the focal point of the home and is truly spectacular.

 The fireplace in the great room is a replica of the one Shepherd built at the Crescent Hotel in Dallas, and it just so happens that he was building the hotel at the same time he was building his family’s PK home. The room also features a large bar, a pool table, and custom furniture for entertaining huge groups of people.

 The entire back of the house overlooks the incredible deck and lake view, and outside there’s also a cozy guest house that features a bedroom space and another bedroom loft.

 On the lakeside of the home is the deck, which is cantilevered over the side of the cliff. The deck is an engineering marvel, with metal beams that support it as it juts out over the cliff. From there, guests can walk on the drawbridge to the large dock or pull up a chair in one of the many seating areas on the patios. These seating areas include an outdoor kitchen, a fireplace, and expansive views of the pool and lake.

 Toward the back of the property is a full-sized tennis court and pool/hot tub, and Dueser describes each outdoor space as the perfect spot, depending on the time of the day.

 The oak trees are another signature feature of the property, providing shade and beauty at the same time. These huge trees appear to be growing out of the side of the cliff.

 The home’s pool was a huge undertaking, as it had to be dynamited out of pure stone. The pool features unique deck chairs that came off the retired British ocean liner the RMS Queen Elizabeth, and the chairs have plaques that prove their provenance.

 The home came fully furnished, but Dueser rebuilt the dock to maximize the view and space. Dueser worked with Reese McCraken to perfect it, but the way the house is poised on the cliff, with access to the upper dock via a bridge, created an engineering challenge. In the end, more metal beams had to be run under the deck and into the cliff.

 Dueser designed the dock himself, and its design provides utility space for boats and personal watercraft, as well as additional entertainment space.

 One story about the home is that its entire dock sank in a storm along with a ski boat and sailboat many years ago. The water in front of the home along the cliff is 90 feet deep – and, to this day, the dock and the boats are believed to still be at the bottom of the lake. Nobody knows for sure, and nobody remembers any recovery taking place.

 Since the home is custom-built, any repairs or improvements have to be custom-built as well, and that includes the water heaters, which are just one part of the structure’s unique operational features. The home has two large water heaters designed to flow water from one heater to the next so that they never run out of hot water when hosting a large group.

 As another example of the home’s custom-built features, Dueser noted that the laundry room is located toward the front of the house, adjacent to the front door. At first, Dueser thought this was an odd location for the laundry room, but he soon realized the design was intentional because guests can drop off towels and linens as they are packing up to leave.

 Dueser keeps an office in the home that has all its electronics wired to mirror what he has at his desk at First Financial Bankshares. This enables him to work from the lake, Dueser said, and people can reach him no matter where he may be.

 First Financial Bankshares never shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic last year, Dueser said, and he noted that the Possum Kingdom Lake region is an important area for the bank and the surrounding communities. He said he’s proud of the fact that customers were able to maintain access to the bank and its employees during the pandemic.

 The home is designed for entertaining, though, and this summer Dueser used the home to host an event for the Clark Real Estate Group, as well as more than 100 Texas Tech alumni and supporters who have places at the lake. The huge deck and great room can easily accommodate several hundred guests, inside or out, so what better way to mix business and pleasure than at Possum Kingdom? Whether it’s called “Lago Vista†or just “that house that hangs out over the cliff,†it’s hard to argue that the home’s design is timeless. It’s the classic modern-yet-comfortable design that Shepherd was famous for, and it’s what helps this house stand the test of time. The attention to its unique location, trees, and property makes this an iconic PK lake home.