Historic Tyler on Tour, 2003
SKORKOWSKY HOUSE, 112 W. First Street
In 1935 local architect, Henry Alsop, designed this English Tudor duplex as his personal residence. The house was constructed by local builder H. E. White. The exterior of the house features brick and stone with some stones jutting out like horns, giving the structure a gothic air. Other unique design characteristics include flower boxes built into the stone walls on the lower level and a wall fountain on the front patio. The property was further accented with sidewalks and flowerbeds.
Owned by twelve different individuals between1940 and 1984, the property fell on hard times. The roof leaked, the plumbing no longer functioned, termite damage was evident and most of the landscaping had died of neglect by the time the home was purchased by Bob and Sherry Skorkowsky in 1984. They had the daunting task of converting a run down, but potentially lovely, duplex into a single-family residence.
“We wanted to live in the Azalea District but most of our friends thought we had lost our minds when we selected this property,” commented Mrs Skorkowsky. They signed the closing papers on Halloween, which, considering the state of the property seemed very appropriate.
Because of the way it was designed, the house was fairly simple to convert into a single-family unit. They turned the upstairs living and dining room unto a Master Suite and the upstairs kitchen became a Master Bath. Later, two downstairs bedrooms became the new dining room and windows were turned into glass doors leading to the back patio. As a birthday present for Mrs. Skorkowsky, an upstairs bedroom became a dressing room. “This house has been an ongoing project for the last 18 years, maybe one day we will get it finished,” she said.
In 1998 they remodeled the kitchen. Mrs. Skorkowsky, with the encouragement of a friend, Joann Simmer, painted the tiles behind the cook top and on the back splash. “We were in the house for 14 years before we did the kitchen, I had a lot of time to think about what I wanted,” she says.
The back yard is a cozy patio garden with a fountain. The front yard is small with mainly flower beds and azaleas. It only takes a few minuets to mow and edge the yard, so the rest of time Mr. Skorkowsky gets to enjoy working with bedding plants and bushes. He has grown hundreds of Cypress Trees from seed to do his part in reforesting the Cypress swamps. So, don’t be surprised if you see lots of trees growing in pots.
The Skorkowskys invite you into their home and hope you enjoy it as much as they do.
