Shaddock Plans 500 Homes on Site of Historic Farmstead in Rockwall

A 490-home community is coming to the North Texas town of Rockwall, on a piece of land rich with history.

Plano-based Shaddock Homes is planning a project called Homestead, which spans 196 acres on an old family farm near the intersection of FM549 and FM1139, the Dallas Morning news reported.

Although Shaddock has previously built homes in Rockwall, a suburb 30 minutes northeast of Dallas, Homestead will be its first large community project in the city. Developing partners include Drees Homes and Coventry Homes, the outlet said.

Construction is set to begin summer 2024, and the first batch of homes should be completed by May 2025.

“The area is favorable to a lot of buyers and you’ve got all the amenities that you would need,” co-owner Peter Shaddock Jr. told the outlet.

William Lawson Lawhorn, who served in the Civil War under Robert E. Lee, and his wife Martha Kara built a two-story farmhouse on the property in 1880, according to the Rockwall County Historical Foundation.

The old farmhouse will be torn down.

Shaddock, the city and local residents have worked together to find a way to preserve elements of the house, and ultimately decided to incorporate some materials, such as doors, window frames and wood, into the Homestead’s amenity center.

Shaddock’s other community developments in the pipeline include Solterra Texas — a 1,400-acre master-planned community in Mesquite, “nestled among lush pecan groves and rolling pastures,” its website says. The site will contain an amenity center with three pools, a fitness center, fishing pond, dog parks, pickleball courts and 15 miles of hike and bike trails.

The firm also owns Estates at Shaddock Park, a development in southeast Frisco with 455 homes and a six-acre park.

—Quinn Donoghue