T.D. Jakes's House (former)

Bishop who left West Virginia in 1996 to found The Potter’s House, a Dallas megachurch on 34 acres. Time asked on its September 17, 2001 cover whether he was the next Billy Graham.

A custom lakefront house credited to architect Donald Peterson, on almost 2 acres above the water. A double staircase drops into a room with windows 2 stories tall, all of it aimed at the lake.

County appraisal records date the main house to 1987 and describe frame construction under brick veneer, a slate hip roof, and 5 fireplaces. Detached quarters, a cabana, and a storage building share the lot.

Dallas dammed White Rock Creek in 1910 and finished the lake in 1911, and shoreline building climbed after that. The Park Board and the Civilian Conservation Corps made it parkland in the early 1930s.

Thomas and Serita Jakes took title on a deed recorded June 27, 1996, months after the family arrived from West Virginia. The next deed on the account is dated March 2, 2005.

The mansion made him a lightning rod through his first Dallas decade. He told Christianity Today in 2000 that his congregation needed “believable heroes,” and that “we don’t need preachers who’ve taken vows of poverty.”

The house came back on the market in January 2019, 14 years after Jakes let it go. A batting cage, a koi pond, and a gym with a sauna were still on the grounds.