Hohlt House by Hamilton Brown demolished

[BenH]

This one is long gone now, a vacant lot.

[plumber2]

I remember going into that house once as a child. The Hohlt's attended St. Micheal's Catholic Church during the '50's and 60's. My mother and Mrs. Hohlt did voluteer work together.

[Guest Marty]

That sucks, the person who had that house torn down is an idiot.

[sevfiv]

this is one of those houses that gets demolished before the permits are posted (or maybe even approved).

apparently the last owners sold it to "SAS Realty Holdings" (William and Kathleen Sutton). does that ring any bells with anyone?

[mmakt]

everyone has a reason for the choices they make. Idiot is a harsh term to use without knowing all the facts.

[sevfiv]

the listing price on this house was $879,000, and HCAD listed the market value of the home at $830,635 (686,400 land / 144,235 house).

looks like the previous owners downsized a bit, but made a nice profit - they moved into a new townhome in the museum district in March (listing price $479,900)

pictures from the sale of 223 Pine Shadows this past February:

[Guest Marty]

everyone has a reason for the choices they make. Idiot is a harsh term to use without knowing all the facts.

I stand by my post , if someone cut's a beautiful Live Oak down wouldn't you call them an idiot?

btw I been following this house on other threads on Haif.

[Willowisp]

We're in a race against time to educate people and help them learn to appreciate these houses and realize they ARE idiots if they tear them down, but most people, especially the ones with the money and power to do something, don't seem to see it that way. If there is $$$ to be made then history be damned.

I just got back from my New York and New Canaan, CT trip and this is the news I come back to?

PM me if you are interested in seeing the photo highlights from my trip. We met some wonderful people and saw some beautiful houses in New Canaan. They are having the same teardown problems we are. They also have respect for Houston and our moderns and smiled and nodded when I mentioned The Menil House etc.

I truly believe that along with Los Angeles, Chicago, and New Canaan, Houston is among the top "50's modern" cities in the US. It will be a shame when that's no longer true.

Jason

[Jersey01]

We're in a race against time to educate people and help them learn to appreciate these houses and realize they ARE idiots if they tear them down, but most people, especially the ones with the money and power to do something, don't seem to see it that way. If there is $$$ to be made then history be damned.

I just got back from my New York and New Canaan, CT trip and this is the news I come back to?

PM me if you are interested in seeing the photo highlights from my trip. We met some wonderful people and saw some beautiful houses in New Canaan. They are having the same teardown problems we are. They also have respect for Houston and our moderns and smiled and nodded when I mentioned The Menil House etc.

I truly believe that along with Los Angeles, Chicago, and New Canaan, Houston is among the top "50's modern" cities in the US. It will be a shame when that's no longer true.

Jason

Well said

[strickn]

The people buying and choosing to scrape are people who already have enough resources that they could do a really neat residential project independently. Often in Houston, and Texas in general, and the Sunbelt in general, unfortunate decisions are made that further the goal of putting rooves over the heads of and jobs in the hands of lots of people as rapidly as possible. To have achieved that for so many families is an admirable thing. But most of the most disheartening midcentury residential teardowns are merely to replace one house with another. Like I said, people who are financially capable of doing that are capable of doing something neat quite apart from it. Upper-class mentality is all about presentation; many people want to live in a house that is a statement being made about themselves, and they want it to be in a certain part of town, but aside from that, they couldn't care less about the existing home and how it fits and reinforces its surroundings, and how their new one will fail to do anything but take advantage of the surroundings.

If we could reach them, it's possible that a fashionable 2000s neighborhood could be assembled that would be a more impressive and enticing place for them to build than the traditional prestige spots which are being steadily eroded by teardowns. Maybe no one outside our discussion group will have stopped to care that these houses tell us how to work with the landscape and setting: the preference lately seems to be contempo-tropical, like 5750 Main - the sort of thing you would see in an enclave of Filipino technology magnates (unless they are off imitating European styles), a style which makes a statement about the owner's place in a 21st-century modern global setting rather than weaving the place into our local setting. But even if we can't convey to them that we as a community need what these houses tell us, need it in order for people to continue to appreciate Houston's worth and decide to pour themselves into supporting it, we can at least try to help people understand that... hmm... any ideas?

On the subject of reasons for things: There is great value to attach to a nice tree, a nice yard. But no one objects to lawns being mowed; no one, I believe strongly, would object to pecan trees or live oaks being culled or mangled if they grew up overnight like mushrooms instead of taking fifty to one hundred years to fill out. That single fact commands our full consideration. We can be cavalier even less with historic places - especially ones from eras when buildings were built with attention to the landscape instead of merely set in it - because, unlike century oaks, even if you were to reacquire the cleared lot and spend millions to recreate what was lost, the vintage original house simply cannot be replaced.