matty1979 Posted June 8, 2018 Share Posted June 8, 2018 I recently heard a story about how townhouses were first introduced in Houston and wondered if anyone has any information about this. Apparently J.L. Phillips was one of the first to build townhouses in Houston. Rumor has it that he had a daughter in college who died and he built a property on Augusta for all of her sorority sisters to live in. He sold each unit to them at cost selling out in less than two hours. He he also built an identical property on Bering Dr with his foreman "Hud" Johnson who died of brain cancer sometime after that. I'm not sure if I have my facts straight but would be interested in knowing more about these two men. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceGhost Posted June 9, 2018 Share Posted June 9, 2018 The only mention of J.L. Phillips I found in the Chronicle is attached. It cites him as developing Briargrove. NewsBank-document.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronTiger Posted June 9, 2018 Share Posted June 9, 2018 18 hours ago, matty1979 said: I recently heard a story about how townhouses were first introduced in Houston and wondered if anyone has any information about this. Apparently J.L. Phillips was one of the first to build townhouses in Houston. Rumor has it that he had a daughter in college who died and he built a property on Augusta for all of her sorority sisters to live in. He sold each unit to them at cost selling out in less than two hours. He he also built an identical property on Bering Dr with his foreman "Hud" Johnson who died of brain cancer sometime after that. I'm not sure if I have my facts straight but would be interested in knowing more about these two men. I'm sure that townhouses (even the three-story type with the garage on the bottom) have been around in some form for decades. Given how College Station had fairly cramped townhomes (the type with a small front yard and a shared alley) in the suburbs since the 1970s (for instance -- https://www.google.com/maps/@30.5958608,-96.3235247,3a,66.6y,47.33h,88.64t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sKNgEM1mUEMBBMJvdpaKeSg!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DKNgEM1mUEMBBMJvdpaKeSg%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D84.496124%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656 ) and usually everything in College Station at that time was based after similar quirky developments in Houston, I don't think your information is *quite* correct. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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