Hero photograph: WBAP-TV, 1970s; NBC 5/KXAS Photograph Collection (AR0847), UNT Libraries Special Collections, via The Portal to Texas History. Rights holder: NBC5/KXAS-TV.
Before it became a notorious address, Cullen and Priscilla Davis’s Fort Worth home was an extraordinary architectural expression of Texas wealth. Its later history became a complicated lesson in what a property can, and cannot, leave behind.
Priscilla Davis was a friend of mine. That makes this a different story for me than another account of an infamous Texas mansion. Behind the photographs, the headlines and the name attached to the property was a woman I knew.
But the house itself deserves attention, too. Long before its demolition, the estate known as Stonegate Mansion had become one of Fort Worth’s most difficult buildings to separate from its history.
A modern mansion on an extraordinary piece of land
At 4100 Stonegate Boulevard, near Hulen Street and Texas Christian University, the Davis home was not a conventional grand house with a formal facade and a predictable procession of rooms.
Fort Worth architect Albert Komatsu designed a sprawling contemporary residence with Southwestern influences, varied ceiling heights and views into its grounds. Fort Worth Magazine’s demolition coverage described a structure of more than 10,000 square feet. Its 2026 retrospective dates completion to 1972 and recalls a primary bedroom of approximately 2,000 square feet.
Those dimensions convey the ambition better than an adjective can. A single bedroom occupied as much space as an entire substantial home.
The mansion sat within a much larger landholding, but published acreage figures differ. Rather than present a disputed number as a surveyed fact, it is enough here to recognize that this was an estate on a scale far beyond the remaining mansion parcel later considered for redevelopment.
That distinction matters in real estate. The original family landholding, the house and its immediate grounds, and a later development tract are not necessarily the same property boundary.
The history that cannot be omitted
On August 2, 1976, an intruder killed Priscilla’s 12-year-old daughter, Andrea Wilborn, and Stan Farr at the mansion. Priscilla and visitor Gus “Bubba” Gavrel were shot and survived.
Cullen Davis was tried and acquitted of Andrea’s murder in 1977. Other charges arising from the shootings were later dismissed. He maintained his innocence. Those outcomes must remain explicit in any account of the property; notoriety is not a substitute for a criminal conviction.
For this article, that tragedy is context, not entertainment. Andrea and Stan were people who lost their lives. Priscilla was a survivor and a mother, not simply a character in a mansion story.
A private home in search of another use
Over subsequent decades, the building took on several identities. The Star-Telegram documented its use as a development welcome center, restaurants, a church and eventually a wedding and event venue.
That succession is revealing. An exceptional private residence does not automatically become an easy commercial property. Rooms designed for one household, multiple levels and a highly individual layout can complicate the demands of a public-facing business.
In July 2021, co-owner Kyle Poulson told the Star-Telegram that the split-level building had accessibility difficulties and contained some asbestos. The account described efforts to find a redevelopment plan with city and neighborhood input.
The architecture could be admired while the building’s next use remained unresolved. Both things could be true.
The end of the building, not the end of its story
Demolition began in late December 2021. In January 2022, the Fort Worth City Council approved a zoning change for a proposed 30-home townhouse development on the site, according to the Star-Telegram.
That approval describes the plan reported at the time. It should not be mistaken for confirmation here of what was ultimately completed or of the property’s current availability.
For those interested in houses, Stonegate’s history raises a lasting question: What gives an extraordinary property its value after the life it was designed for has ended?
Sometimes the answer lies in preserving the building. Sometimes it lies in adapting it. Sometimes the land moves into another chapter while the architecture survives only in photographs and records.
What deserves restraint is the way we tell that story. The mansion’s scale and design are worth remembering. So are the limits of its later commercial usefulness. But neither should reduce the people connected with it to decoration.
For me, Priscilla’s name will always mean more than the address.
Sources and historical context
- Fort Worth Magazine: The Ghost of T. Cullen Davis, for the retrospective description of the home.
- Fort Worth Magazine, December 30, 2021, for architecture and demolition reporting. Its shorthand description of the criminal cases should not replace the more specific trial history.
- Bud Kennedy, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, July 17, 2021, for the building’s later uses and redevelopment challenges.
- Fort Worth Star-Telegram, January 2022, for the townhouse zoning approval.
- Stonegate Mansion historical overview, for the distinction between the murder acquittal and charges later dismissed.
Historical feature prepared October 16, 2026. The original mansion is no longer standing. No current listing, current site survey or completed redevelopment status is represented in this article. The author’s friendship with Priscilla Davis is disclosed above.
