Charles Stevens Dilbeck (1907-1990), the son of a builder and lumberman, learned his trade from his father while growing up in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, and he legendarily designed and built his first project, a Tulsa church, at age eleven. He moved to Dallas in 1932 to capitalize on Texas oil wealth and maintained his practice until 1969, designing at least 630 houses in Dallas as well as such eclectic works as Dallas’ Belmont Hotel (1940) and El Ranchito restaurant (1946). His Dallas homes are concentrated primarily in Lakewood, Preston Hollow, North Oak Cliff, and the park cities, and he retired in 1970 after designing a home for himself and his wife. Dilbeck's architecture features dramatic spatial sequencing and exaggerated scale, with asymmetrical facades, chimney details, dovecotes, turrets, and complex combinations of roof forms and heights, and he developed techniques to give brick and wood an aged appearance, often using salvaged materials. He specified bricks from Palmer Brick Factory and ornamental iron from Potter Ironworks, reflecting close ties with local craftsmen. In Cochran Heights, on a former pecan orchard, he designed a community of approximately 60 small bungalows with attached garages built between 1936 and 1940, and most of them remain today as the greatest concentration of his work in Dallas. Cochran Heights homes include all five of his architectural styles: French Eclectic, Traditional, Ranch House, Moderne, and Colonial Revival. These homes reflect Dilbeck's belief that a house should say something, make people happy, and welcome them in a friendly way.