Thomas Scanlan Mansion At 714 Scanlan Rd.

[gnu]

Cool...at least it will be saved.

Does anyone know the status of the old mansion in the far southeastern corner of Sienna? It is off of 521 just north of Sienna Point. I have always assumed that it is the Scanlan Mansion but I have never confirmed it. It looked somewhat maintained but not in pristine condition the last time I was down there (several years ago). The Scanlans were a prominent Houston family that aquired the plantation in the early 1900's. They supposedly disassembled their house they lived in on Main St. in Houston and used its parts to build the mansion.

[sixthwardguy]

At first, I thought this was the Scanlan Mansion on Scanlan Road, located behind the Sienna Plantation subdivsion in Missouri City, since it resembles the one in the photographs in many ways, including the fountain.  After closer inspection, I realized that the Scanlan Mansion is smaller than the one in the photograph, it has fewer columns across the front and does not have a long wing in the back, along with a swimming pool instead of the fountain pool shown in the photograph.   The Scanlan Mansion can only be seen via birds eye maps due to its set-back from the road.

Edited March 9, 2015 by sixthwardguy

[devilskware]

Here are some links to a very interesting house that started it's life in 1916 in downtown Houston and was moved south to the Brazos river area in the 30s.

 

http://lifeonthebrazosriver.com/ScanlanHouse.htm

 

https://mylifebehindbars.net/2017/02/02/the-scanlan-mansion/

 

Here some lucky kids got to explore it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hc4O32eiT5Q

 

Coordinates are approximately 29° 28'44.35"N  95° 28'58.64"

 

The story doesn't have a happy ending. This lovely historic home was recently demolished to make room

for more Sienna Plantation homes. So sad.

 

[plumber2]

That is very sad. My mother worked/volunteered on fundraising activities for the Cenacle Sisters that operated a retreat center on the property. I have several postcard type pictures of the place as it looked in the late 1950's and early 1960's, that came from the small bookstore that the nuns operated inside of the building.  Before I started school I would accompany my mother there on Monday's (her work day out there). The nuns would watch me, entertain me and feed me while my mother worked. She had a work office upstairs inside of the big house, that she shared with a nun she reported to (Sister Vandenberg). Sister Petra, the one that watched me was the cook. The nuns lived in a small house just to the west of the big house. The retreat buildings were behind the big house, and a wooden chapel was located just to the east of those buildings.

I basically had the run of the place on these weekly visits. I was told not to go down by the lake (a lost bend from Oyster Creek I suspect). There was a small grotto and bench down there, but nobody went there because of the water moccasins, which I discovered on one of my forbidden trips down there. Yes I got in trouble when I told on myself.

 

The Cenacle Sisters eventually built a new modern facility on Kirkwood in west Houston at Buffalo Bayou in the mid 1960's. I have never had reason to go back to the Scanlan place after that. I'm really surprised it had lasted this long.

[Evalvaneda]

Yea I was so upset when the demolished the structure so much but little history there....  I noticed on Google maps that it wasn't there anymore a month ago or so. So I did some investigating and was told to contact Mr. John Walker and I'm not sure if he knew but I haven't heard back from him in this regard. But from this topic that I found showing that the house was demolished can't believe that they done that

[gnu]

Weird.  So this thread with my 2006 post seems to be disconnected from another thread.   I am not sure where that thread is, but there is not much info in this little two post thread.

I found this thread, that will give context to the posts above about the Scanlan House or Mansion in Sienna.

https://www.houstonarchitecture.com/haif/topic/38662-thomas-scanlan-mansion-at-1917-main-st/

BTW, the title of the thread in the link above is confusing should not be 1917 main st.  That was the address of the Scanlan mansion in Houston and that thread does not discuss anything about it specifically.

Just to clarify: The Scanlan Mansion (a very Victorian looking house) was at 1917 Main (1891-1937) and after a disagreement with the city, the Scanlan sisters had the house disassembled and built into a new structure (New Colonial?) on their land in Sienna (evidently now 714 Scanlan Rd) - and now demolished (1937-2017).  Links in the other thread detail this.