BenH

What’s left of the flat-roofed Townsend house is currently for sale. This house was featured in Fortune magazine back in the day.

https://www.har.com/homedetail/3723-knollwood-st-houston-tx-77019/9401278

 

Also, the B. Ray Woods house in Katy has been demolished. Not unexpected. Harvey totally destroyed it.

2550 Durham Dr., Mobile, AL - H.B. Bolton House. Could not confirm the year, but 1950's. 

Yes, I'm still doing this. 

Three for sale. 

674 Shady Hollow. Almost certainly going to be demolished. 

https://www.har.com/674-shady-hollow-street/sale_51086421

 

603 Timber Terrace - Chas Block House

https://www.har.com/603-timber-terrace-road/sale_41145528

 

1328 Montezuma St. - Schobel House - Columbus,TX. Has unfortunately been flipped. 

https://www.har.com/1328-montezuma-street/sale_50874392

Thanks for the heads up. We're going to be seeing a LOT of this post-Harvey. 

 

Since Photobucket decided to literally break the internet, and consequently, all of the links to all of my photos on HAIF, I guess we're going to have to start over. But it's a good time for a clean slate too, so I can remove some of the houses that are not Wylie's and add a few new discoveries. 

Albert Plummer House - 3630 Willowick - Demolished. Was at one time the most expensive house in River Oaks. Later sold to a family named the Whittingtons. 

 

Herbert Townsend House - 3723 Knollwood. (Altered). Featured in Fortune Magazine at some point. I have the article but am not sure where it is. 

 

Vale House - 11302 Memorial Drive - Restored. Wylie and Aileen's own house. If you hear the term "Contemporary Country" this is what that means. Photos by Kim or Greg Kolanowski. 

 

B. Ray Woods House - 610 Woods Lane, Katy,TX. This house is on the National Register of Historic Places. 

 

J.D. Woods House - 612 Woods Lane. Brother of B. Ray Woods; these photos were taken before the house was sold and show the original interiors. Currently (November 1st 2017) for sale for lot value. 

 

Arthur Miller House - 1002 East Ave., Katy,TX

 

Paris Schindler House - 17 West Lane Place - Demolished. 

 

River Oaks Houses - Wylie's address list only included the actual addresses for these, with no client names. 

 

 

 

Willard K. Wood House - 3730 Willowick. 

 

Jesse Finch House - 38 Crestwood. (Demolished). Drawings exist and were donated to Rice University. 

 

Max Lents House - 315 W. Friar Tuck. Demolished shortly after Hurricane Ike. Wylie also appears to have built a house for Lents on Galveston Island, but I have no leads on where that one is/was. 

 

Chas Block House - 603 Timber Terrace. Still extant and owned by the family. 

 

Merrill V. Gregory House - 5327 Bordley. 

 

Russell McFarland House - 5657 Bordley. Demolished. 

 

Chester Jordan House - 2119 Woods Rd. One of Wylie's earliest houses. Drawings exist and were donated to Rice University. 

 

Short House - 6th St. & Gresham, Brookshire,TX. Probably had a different original owner name. 

 

W.H. Harrison House - Corner of County Rd. 135 and the I-10 Frontage Rd., Alleyton,TX. Wylie built one house in Alleyton, and this is the only one that looks anything remotely like something he would do, so if I'm wrong, I apologize. 

 

Lester J. Schobel House - 1328 Montezuma, Columbus,TX. Wylie built at least five houses in Columbus. One of the notable ones is the H.P. Meyer house at 301 Bonham St. 

 

I forget the address on this one, but it has been demolished. 

 

Keith R. Beeman House - 822 Kuhlman Rd. Demolished. The Beemans owned multiple lots on Kuhlman Rd. Wylie built at least four houses on that street. 

 

F.E. Carleton House - 7 Turkey Trail. Demolished. This house was originally built in the 1950's in what would have been the boonies, out past Dairy Ashford on what would become Memorial Drive. The last owner, Ben Crocker, hired Wylie to renovate this home in 2003 and bring it up to date while retaining his style. Crocker was transferred and had to sell the house quickly. This small, hidden neighborhood was the bought and demolished to make way for a development. 

 

R.T. Hurta House - 950 S. Holland St., Bellville,TX. 

 

? House - 711 W. Norris., El Campo,TX. Original Client unknown. Wylie did at least three houses in El Campo. 

 

James W. Green House - 46 E. Rivercrest, Houston. (Jimmy Green Chevrolet). 

 

Leonard Kayem House - 12502 Taylorcrest. 

 

Frankel House - 11406 Memorial Drive. Large, flat roofed house. 

Sorry for not posting much about this one, there's just not a lot to say about it that we're privy to. I know that this house does have some connection with the house that was formerly on River Bend, as in one of the architects that worked for Neuhaus & Taylor worked on it, and for the life of me I can't remember his name. The house on Willowick was not originally built completely to Taylor's specs, so the current owners tried to complete the original design as much as possible. That's about all I know about it that I can recall. 

 

 

Schobel House in Columbus is up for sale. Totally original, from the looks of it:

http://www.har.com/1328-Montezuma-St/sale_4611514

Figured as much. They were letting it rot anyway. Got damaged a bit during a storm if I remember. 

SirJB, Sorry I didn't see this post sooner. My wife and I are enjoying living in Bear Creek for the most part. It's pretty quiet, with the exception of the fireworks this past month. I live on one of the horseshoe streets, so we don't see a lot of traffic. There's a police station literally in the neighborhood, sheriff's department is also close. Not much in the way of fine dining, but that's not our thing anyway. There were two houses on our street (Herongate) for sale, but they've both gone option pending (you may have bought one for all I know). 

Ben

We don't know who designed it, but it does bear resemblance to many houses by Phillip G. Willard. 

 

Using the public online records, I found that there was a young woman of 20 living at 415 Strey Ln who married 21 year old Raul Pedro Lamar (also of 415 Strey Ln) on June 27, 1968. Her name was/is Diana Jane Wolf. She was born in 1948 so she possibly was the young girl in the airline brochure.

Joseph A. Wolf apparently died in the 70s but I was unable to find a probate case for him. Mrs. J.A. Wolf died in 1989 (Florence Nolan Wolf) and Dale Thomas Wolf was executor of her estate. In 1994 he sold the Strey Ln. property to the current owners.

Sad to think that he lived alone in the home from about '89 until it was sold in '94. If in fact he was the one who was sleeping on the floor.

It would be interesting to explore the Wylie Vale connection.

 

I didn't catch this until re-reading the thread a few times. The name "Flo. Nolan" is on Wylie Vale's list of clients, well. This is interesting. 

Wessendorf House in Richmond was recently on the market:

http://www.har.com/700-hillcrest-dr/sale_59573129

 

Thought I'd bring this one back with some good news. This house eventually did sell, and the current owners have sympathetically renovated it. Looks very nice now. Don't have any pictures but I saw it about a week ago. 

 

Wei, a number of houses in Bear Creek have the clerestory windows. After walking the neighborhood at night, I've noticed that some of them still have original wood paneling on the ceilings too, which I wish I had. 

Any advice on how to paint a 20+ foot ceiling? Mine is definitely going to need scaffolding unless there's another way. 

Ben

Ok, I'm bringing this thread back. My wife and I just bought one of these in Bear Creek. I've been seeing it called Shed Roof style and occasionally California Contemporary. I"m going with Shed Roof. Who else has one? I want to make this into kind of a resource topic for anyone looking for inspiration or history. 

Here's our house. No, it's not my picture, but in true real estate fashion, it's deceptive as hell. 

 

Our house, along with most of the houses in Bear Creek and the stretch along Briar Forest between Kirkwood and Dairy Ashford, were built in the mid-1970's to the early 1980's by a company called Pace & Co. They also built a few custom ones in Hearthstone and built in Lakeside and Cimarron out in Katy. I have seen multiple versions of this same house, especially in the area along Briar Forest. One is at the corner of Briar Forest and Kirkwood, right behind the mini-mart. They've also done a great job of sort of mid-century modding it. (Lime green door with a dark blue/gray exterior paint job). Pace & Co. used two main designers: a company called Design Alliance that I know nothing about, and an architect named Rodney Stevens. Rodney now works for Frankel Building Group. I'm trying to find out exactly who designed our house. And not to yell at them. We love it. 

These houses were originally built with cedar shake roofs (ours was, at least), so they didn't really need soffits for ventilation, but those didn't last and many have been replaced with modern roofs. This adds weight and the beams inside the attic need to be re-enforced. I'm told that this isn't really that hard a thing to do, but it's the case with our house. A decent roofer can also make some vents in the attic(s) to get air going through there. That's also a problem with ours. 

 

Inspiration:

First, buy this book:

http://www.amazon.com/William-Turnbull-Jr-Buildings-Architectural/dp/0965114481/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1439917100&sr=8-1&keywords=William+Turnbull

And study Sea Ranch. Charles Moore and William Turnbulls' early work set the tone for this style. Also look at Joseph Esherick, also from California. Locally, you'll want to look at William Cannady's early work before he went post modern, especially the Walker's Mark Townhomes. Charles Tapley and Irving Phillips also worked in this style, especially Tapley. The San Francisco firm Fischer Friedman designed several townhouse and condominium complexes for Hines in Houston, notably Ethan's Glen and Epernay. That firm has two books, but it's almost a different style, much more 1980's.

 

I've been reading this blog by a couple that's doing a renovation on a budget of a 70's contemporary:

https://thehouseonpennylane.wordpress.com

 

What else should be covered here?

Super cool! Can't believe they flew somebody down from Chicago to shoot it. 

Sounds cool. Keep us posted!

 

Marty mentioned Joe Krakower; he worked for Gabert and designed the pulpit at Temple Emanu-El. 

 

Ozzie, 

I've got pictures somewhere of that Bolton & Barnstone house. It wasn't a great one, but didn't deserve what they did to it. Get in touch with Stephen Fox at Rice University and see if he knows anything about it. sfox@rice.edu, I think. 

Ozzie, 

Unfortunately, no. I imagine most of the houses in Riverside have been through a situation as those in River Oaks; literally tons of renovations as tastes change. I imagine the house was probably red to begin with, as the above photo indicates, and that would be a period correct color for a modern house in that neighborhood. The Bolton & Barnstone house across the street that has been so hideously remuddled was the same color. 

 

And if you hear anything back from Gaberts' son, please share. I'd especially like to know what other projects he designed. He was partners with Jack Wisdom for a long time. 

 

I just purchased this home a couple of months back and am slowly bring it back to its former glory, been scouering the internet for information.  Could you please post any pics or information about the Leonard Gebhart Mansion, I see someone already did however they have been removed.  Thanks in advanced! The house was built in 1949 and has a beautiful curved staircase in the entry way with matching chandeliers in that room and the dining room. Pictures of the progress to follow.

 

I've attached a picture of what it used to look like a few years ago. Just don't paint the stone. 

Methodist Church Parsonage - Rusk, TX. 1947-48. Very early project by Wylie:

Has since been demolished, but the grammar school building still stands. Edwin Guinn was RobertK's grandfather, I believe. 

Just wanted to bring this one back a bit. Back in the summer I got a tour of this house courtesy of a friend at Murphy Mears Architects. They've done an awesome restoration/renovation. It seems much more complete than it did prior to when it sold last. 

Ben

To be honest, I'm not sure that was one of Wylie's houses. The listing agent said that it was done by Otto Woestmeyer, but it REALLY looked like one of Wylie's underneath the metal roof and blackish siding. Maybe Otto designed additions or something to that effect. 

Let us know how your search goes. 

Let's just hope it doesn't turn out like that Bailey Swenson house next door...