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So the Thaxton house is for sale


Scott08

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This may be old news, but I came across the listing for the Thaxton house on HoustonMod's For Sale feature. http://search.har.com/engine/12020-Tall-Oaks-St-Bunker-Hill-Village-TX-77024_HAR71442672.htm. I'm sure not everyone agrees, but I would consider it one of the most significant homes in Houston for its pedigree as the only Frank Lloyd Wright building here. The listing's photos pretty much only show the addition, my understanding is the original house has been pretty faithfully restored. Any chance of having Mod of the Month there?

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This may be old news, but I came across the listing for the Thaxton house on HoustonMod's For Sale feature. http://search.har.co...HAR71442672.htm. I'm sure not everyone agrees, but I would consider it one of the most significant homes in Houston for its pedigree as the only Frank Lloyd Wright building here. The listing's photos pretty much only show the addition, my understanding is the original house has been pretty faithfully restored. Any chance of having Mod of the Month there?

Regarding a MOTM, we're working on it. And having photographed the house, the restoration is pretty faithful. They have made a few changes to make the house more livable (knocked down a wall), but other than that and the addition, it's pretty close to the way Wright designed it. They had to remove about five layers of paint from the redwood ceiling in the living room, and it is gorgeous.

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If you Google around, there's a fair amount of information about the house online, although I haven't seen any recent pictures (hint, hint Ben). I believe the original owner (Thaxton) sold it in the '80s and the next owner(s) did a few ugly cosmetic changes but nothing structural. There's even one account from a woman who played at the house as a kid and came back to see it a few years ago. In the early '90's it was back on the market, this time listed for "lot value," as it's sitting on almost two acres at the end of a cul de sac. The current owner saved it from extinction but not too much info given since.

I've read up a fair bit on the fate of FLW houses around the country. While most folks recognize the pedigree of them, the ones built in the most desirable areas are the ones most threatened because of their dirt's value. Some of the more rural ones still have semi-affordable pricetags. I think it might take a while to find the right buyer for the Thaxton house, but I think at it's asking price, it's kind of out of the present day realm of being a teardown. Unfortunately, due to its secluded location, there's pretty much no way it could ever become a public attraction.

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Making it a focus for public attraction (MacKie & Kamrath's Tiel Way gully series of homes would have been a much better one, yet the name is everything) would involve having a storefront somewhere to serve as display space, Mod gift/furnishing shop, introductory high visibility + place for house guests to board our prairie-style shuttle van for all the visits.

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Making it a focus for public attraction (MacKie & Kamrath's Tiel Way gully series of homes would have been a much better one, yet the name is everything) would involve having a storefront somewhere to serve as display space, Mod gift/furnishing shop, introductory high visibility + place for house guests to board our prairie-style shuttle van for all the visits.

They've got this down to a science too. There was a thread sometime back about visiting Fallingwater. You drive into a wooded parking area, walk up to the Visitor's Center/Giftshop, and then and only then after paying your fee and being joined by a docent, are you led on the walking path back to the house. You can't see it at all until that point. At nearby Kentuck Knob, you are taken by a shuttle cart to the house from the Visitor's Center. We got there late one day after the last tour had ended and tried to walk down the path for a peak and got chased down instead.

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