DALLAS —In 1937, a wealthy Dallas surgeon named Dr. William Samuell left about 1,000 acres of land to the Dallas Park Board. Today, that land makes up eight parks, with the largest portion in the City limits of Mesquite known as Samuell Farm.
However, that 609 acres of parkland that comprises Samuell Farm and Samuell Farm North, east of Dallas is being neglected and ignored. According to one man who’s been fighting for nearly two decades to ensure the land is used only for the intended purpose of a park and nothing else. The will left by Samuell, which bequeathed the land to the Dallas Park Board, was incredibly short. It read in part, “Real estate is City Dallas Park Board for park purposes. Not to be sold.”
“Dr. Samuell was very clear about what he wanted this to be: an open park for families. And anything that would depart from that, I thought it was outside the scope of his gift and we who follow him have an obligation to ensure that his particular wishes are carried out,” Hugh Brooks said.
Brooks is a retired attorney, who spent his early 2000s maintaining and operating Samuell Farm with his nonprofit “Friends of the Farm,” from 2003 until 2008. The nonprofit did upkeep on the land, even creating a community garden that was tended by volunteers, and the food was donated. The nonprofit ended up packing up its equipment and leaving in 2008. This was because Brooks felt that the nonprofit was being retaliated against for how successful it was.
“We began to attract a lot of attention for grant money for our projects. By attracting the attention of those foundations, we were perceived to be encroaching on their source of funding, so they saw us as competitive to their own financial ambitions,” Brooks said. “So they gave us an ultimatum. They’d have to approve every grant that we wrote, which was going to be financial strangulation. If they didn't approve it, we couldn't write it. They wanted access to all of our equipment, we just paid $150,000 for mowers and tractors and I was concerned about protecting that equipment. And basically, the park director required his approval from everything to the color of paint we used on a building to how we wrote a grant and we realized that was not going to work.”
Despite no longer being the operators of upkeep of the farm, Brooks and his nonprofit are still very passionate about ensuring that Samuell’s will is seen through.
"I think he was explicit, and I think he trusted the people that were going to interpret it. He was well known in the city. The park board at the time was very small, it was six people who were equally wealthy, influential bankers. And I think he never thought it we need clarification. “Not to be sold” means not to be sold,” Brooks said. "We felt protectors of the legacy. You know, we wouldn't have done something out here that we thought might have been attractive to visitors if it didn't comport with Dr. Samuell’s gift. Those are the rules. He made them. We didn’t."
Brooks believes over the last few decades, the City of Dallas neglected to tell park board members they are, in fact, trustees of this land.
"If you talk to a trustee now, they'll tell you that they've been informed they’re trustees, but they have no idea what that entails and what the state law requires in the trust code,” Brooks said. "There's no way they could do what they do and be aware of the obligations that they have: a duty to protect the title, the duty to protect the property, a duty to ensure there's accounting, a duty to not commingle funds."
Brooks asserts that the park board, who are also the trustees, has mismanaged funds over the years that were left by Dr. Samuell with his charitable trust when he died.
“That income is available to be used by the trustees for only Samuell properties. But instead of making the money available in a segregated trust account, City pays it into their own general fund and then tells the trustees how much they have left at the end of the year,” Brooks said. "The income off the Samuell Trust goes into the city general fund. The City admitted that in park board meetings. I don't even understand how the AG isn't down here with lights flashing when you realize that the income thrown off by an $8 million investment goes into the general fund, and then City tells the trustees how much we spent. So we're just going to take that out of what it made. You might get some money back, but you probably won’t, we probably spent it all.’”
Park Board President Calvert Collins said it’s not a secret that the income generated from the trust goes into the City’s general fund. She said an auditor does oversee how the department spends its money.
"We get an annual report in detail about what is in the corpus of the trust, how much it puts off every year, how much is spent by the department on the maintenance of the various Samuell properties, including the farm,” Collins said. "I don't think that was imparted as much to board members historically, as it has been recently, that we are the trustees of the land, but also of the finances of the trust and how it's expended. You know, we're Park Board members, we are not traditional financial trustees, however as park board members we are stewards of all of Dallas' park land. We have to be the best financial stewards of all of the assets within the Dallas park system, not just one particular piece of property."
One of Brooks’ main points of contention is the whooping crane facility that the park board allowed to be built on the parkland. Five acres of Samuell Farm was approved in 2018 for the Dallas Zoo’s state-of-the-art whooping crane breeding center on the property. Brooks believes that doesn’t align with Dr. Samuell’s wishes, and goes against the Park Code.
"You can't make the zoo a part of this, because Dr. Samuell had the option of doing that and he chose not to. The zoo had been in existence 50 years when he died. If he could leave specific gifts to 21 people, he could have written ‘Z-O-O,’ I think, but he didn’t,” Brooks said. “The whooping crane center has got to go. That's got to be gone, they’ve got to replace all the damage that they've done, that can be replaced. You can't replace the geological segment, but you can take up the concrete road that you put out here on parkland.”
Collins has heard Brooks’ complaints about the whooping crane conservation facility, but said it ultimately was the decision of the board to approve the facility because the board believed it aligned with “park purposes.” Dallas Zoo Management agreement is for 10 years, with two five-year renewal options. According to the agreement, DZM is also obligated to "provide educational and outreach programs to the public including schools and other groups, to present the conservation message about this endangered species.” If you do walk to the WCCT facility, you’re met with “Authorized Personnel Only,” signs, and warning notices that you’re being filmed.
“We don't just fly by the seat of our pants. Nothing comes to the board without significant legal review. And so that was asked when I was on the committee, on administration finance committee. And that question was asked, ‘does this serve park purposes?’ And yes, the zoo is a park, it is on the City of Dallas parkland. But this could be an extension of the park. Is it in the true sense, as you mentioned, legal interpretation of that will is subject to just that. But ultimately, I think it does benefit the park. It will be open for public viewing. There certainly are restrictions because the birds have to breed in their breeding seasons and they can't be disturbed and that kind of thing. But it will be open for field trips and things like that. We asked that question of the zoo when they presented this.” Collins said. "Hugh will argue this all day long, why he complained to the Attorney General — and they have sided with the City that it does not defy Chapter 26. It is park use. We've had legal counsel on that from the get go. I know he doesn't like the use of it, that doesn't mean it's illegal. He's entitled to his opinion, as our we. So we thought that this was an appropriate use of that acreage.”
Brooks also has concerns about the upkeep of the farm. The restrooms are not open, there’s no water in the water fountains, Samuell’s house on the property has gone into disarray. There’s so much potential for the park to be so much more than it is, Brooks said.
“What I would like to see is a continuation of some of the things that [Friends of the Farm was] doing. I'd like to see gardens that are developed out here, either by volunteers or some other method, and kids get to come out here, work in the gardens, see how things grow, the importance of water. And then the produce given to other nonprofits to extend their reach in the city,” Brooks said. "I'd like to see cross country, you know, it doesn't change the nature of the land, it's a perfect use for it. I'd like to see fishing all the time. I'd like to see bathrooms that work, and water available for the dogs that come out here with their owners.”
Overall, the park has fallen into disrepair because, Collins said, no one has championed it.
"Because it's not in the city limits, no one has cared about it. It doesn't have any political capital because it's no one's district. So, it was willed to the park board by Dr. Samuell. And so, it is our jurisdiction even though it is not within the city's jurisdiction. So it's a very goofy setup and there's never been a city councilman to fight for it, because it wasn't in their district. And so when it comes down to dollars in a bond campaign or in the general fund every year, what is the political will to fight for something that's not even in the city limits?” Collins said. "That's why it had fallen into disrepair, because no one championed it. So we want to fix that. And we think that the master plan is the best first step, and that that will then dictate, ‘okay what can the park department manage,’ and what maybe do we outsource, an urban farm or some agricultural components, or — I don't know what that looks like because I haven’t, we haven't seen any master plan yet. And that's going to take about a year probably to do."
The Park Board is in agreement that a revitalization needs to happen with Samuell Farm, and it needs to be better utilized. At the Oct. 1 Park Board meeting a unanimous vote authorized a professional services contract for planning and conceptual design services for the development of a master plan that wouldn’t exceed $120,000. That same meeting authorizations were approved for: interim operations for outdoor adventure programming, continued operations as a wedding and event venue, and development of a one-acre urban farm, not exceeding $10,000, until a Master Plan is approved.
Getting there will take the Park Board’s approval of a future Master Plan in the coming year and significant capital investment.
“It is in the best interest of the city of Dallas and the citizens and park users throughout really the whole region, that Samuell Farm be revitalized. We will use a master plan as a guiding document to make the best decision for the users of the park. We want it to remain a free and accessible park. The park board is unanimous in wanting to see this revitalization,” Collins said. "So we hope it can be done sooner, versus a bond and then takes years to implement. So, we still have bond money from 2006, but unfortunately because it's not in a district, it doesn't qualify for some of that. It would be city wide bonds and those get picked up pretty quickly. We all want to see a renaissance of that farm. So, we don't know what shape that's going to take, but the next year I think will give us a lot more idea into what that could look like and then how we can pay for it."
Overall, Brooks will remain fighting to ensure Samuell Farm is a place where many families can bring their kids for generations to come.
"I formed a nonprofit because I was interested in the land and interested in the legacy. But what I got out of it were relationships with people that came here and were changed by the experience,” Brooks said. “While I didn't know [Dr. Samuell] personally, I have a real soft spot for somebody who intended others to do what he hoped would benefit more people than he could do in his own lifetime. And when that becomes perverted or obfuscated or diverted, I don’t want to leave that legacy. I had a chance to do something about it, and I'm going to do it as long as I can.”