The late Clifton Irick, part of the namesake of the Clifton and Nadia Museum in Pilot Point, could easily be considered a Jack of all trades.
He had a retail store on the Square, then went into banking, was a volunteer firefi ghter at one time and eventually entered real estate, establishing the Irick Real Estate Group, a career he would inevitably retire from well into his late 80s.
The office for that real estate company sat on family land the southern edge of Pilot Point for decades.
“Six generations have lived on the tract that that piece was cut out of and still live here today,” his son Steve Irick said.
Irick worked with his dad in the real estate business briefly.
He remembers the changes after his dad bought the building, moved it into town, moved it again, and before it even had running water and a bathroom.
“He just moved it across the road onto the corner of our land there on the highway, and that would have been right around 1978,” Steve said. “… He didn't add on to it or any- thing. He just moved it there. That would be still just two small little offices and nothing else, and then it was remodeled in 1984.”
Eventually, Steve decided to return to his passion for firefighting.
Later on, Steve’s nephew, Chance Kirby, decided to go into real estate and work with his grandpa, Clifton.
“I spent every day with him,” Kirby said. “… How many people get to do that with their grandfather?”
Kirby has worked in real estate for about 34 years, is the broker for Irick Real Estate Group and has continued the business to this day.
“We have been open since 1952, and what I'm hoping is I can make it long enough to where we are still open in 2052,” Kirby said.
In the earlier days, he recalled how the building “was almost like the welcome center for Pilot Point,” Kirby said.
“People coming into town on northbound traffic at that time, that was really … the first place you could pull in and get answers, because remember, this is pre-internet and pre-Google Maps,” Kirby said.
He remembered how Clifton would help lost visitors find their way.
As technology became more commonplace and the real estate industry evolved, there was less need for a physical office.
Over the last five years, the number of interested buyers for the land had also increased.
“I would throw letters away—two and three a week—from people just sending them,” Steve said.
He shared that it was important to him and his family to sell that piece of land to the right buyer who wouldn’t just put in “an apartment complex or even a housing addition.”
“That just … wasn't in our plans,” Steve said.
It was Texas Tammy Francois, another local realtor, who recommended the Tarzan and Jane Travel Center.
“I felt like it was probably a good thing for the city [to] put some tax dollars or some taxable revenue into the city, into schools, and it just seemed like something that would work that we could live with because, like I said, we're not going anywhere, and we're neighbors with it,” Steve said.
The Iricks decided to sell four acres of the highwayfrontage land to T&J.
“The highway is commercial,” Steve said. “And we really can't keep that from happening, and so we tried to pick something that we felt like would work for everybody.”
As for the real estate building, aside from sentimental value, it no longer served a purpose for Steve or Kirby, and moving it would have been costly, so they accepted the likelihood that it would be demolished after the sale.
A while later, Jeff Christie, owner of Christie's Golf Ranch in Pilot Point, heard the news about the property and reached out to Steve to inquire about the building.
He helped put Christie in contact with Anthony Taylor.
He offered Christie a deal: If he could find a way to move the building off the property by June 1, he could have it free of charge.
Christie knew just the guy—his friend Mark Hitchcock, with Hitchcock House Movers—to move it to Christie’s Golf Ranch.
“It was just really a God thing that [the] building came available,” Christie said. “And I thought it would be a great-looking golf shop, and the timing and all that was just kind of unbelievable if you look at it.”
He also thanked Taylor and the Irick family, who were equally grateful to him.
“It was definitely a great feeling for our family,” Steve said. “We were glad that it lives on, but I'm just glad that the owner of T&J, and … Jeff Christie wanted to salvage it.”
The building is now being transformed into two parts: one half as living quarters, and the other half as a golf shop and lounge area for members and guests of the ranch.
Christie has also added a wrap-around deck.
“It was well built, and so it's been pretty easy to remodel,” Christie said.
It has been under remodel since the middle of June, and by Tuesday the project was expected to wrap up within the week.
The building will be open to the public later this month, but Christie said he hopes to host a party in September to celebrate the new building and the changes.
“It was just really neat to save something that's been in Pilot Point for years,” Christie said. “The Irick family has just been terrific people, and it's nice to be able to save something for them.”
