William List Mansion At 514 Villa Dr.

[sheeats]

Just another macabre detail I found amusing: Todville would partially translate to Deathville in German. Tod = death. Heh.

[marketingwiz]

I found this interesting profile on Facebook (Todville Mansion) that has some great interior and exterior photos of what the mansion looked like after the murders and during its heavy 'party days. I think you'll enjoy it. It's been difficult to find any photos of the place at all.

[sabasushi]

Now that I've seen the interior pictures of that place on Facebook, I"ll say one thing for sure...Bill List had lousy taste in interior design. :-) It was just like a standard 60's70's middle-class suburban house, just with many more rooms and an indoor swimming pool. Check out that living room with gold shag rug, low ceiling and rock wall. And these staircases with ironwork banisters that I presume were intended to make the house look fancy but did the opposite -- they just looked tacky. (As I recall, fancy ironwork bainsters were already considered passe by late 70's when I understand that place was built.) To sum it up....Mafia meets Brady Bunch.

[marketingwiz]

Now that I've seen the interior pictures of that place on Facebook, I"ll say one thing for sure...Bill List had lousy taste in interior design. :-) It was just like a standard 60's70's middle-class suburban house, just with many more rooms and an indoor swimming pool. Check out that living room with gold shag rug, low ceiling and rock wall. And these staircases with ironwork banisters that I presume were intended to make the house look fancy but did the opposite -- they just looked tacky. (As I recall, fancy ironwork bainsters were already considered passe by late 70's when I understand that place was built.) To sum it up....Mafia meets Brady Bunch.

I read a description of it somewhere on-line that called the mansion's interior design 'a Holiday Inn on acid.' They might just be right. More like a really baaaaaad trip.

[mamato3]

I happen to know the woman that bought the spiral staircase from the List Mansion and now has it in her house. Her husband and her bought the staircase when they were tearing down the mansion.

I was there yesterday as she is moving to Denver and is selling everything that she can not take with her and took a pic of the staircase as it is now.

When the homeowner told me that it is was the actual staircase where the murder occurred I just had to take a pic. When we were high school in the early 90's we always passed by the "Murder Mansion" because it was so spooky looking.

Just thought I would share this random info. Hope you enjoy the info.

I'm sorry but I don't believe your friend is accurate. My father's demolition company tore down the house and the staircase was not sold to anyone. I personally witnessed it being taken to metal recyclers. Unless the metal recyclers, who did not know the origins of the staircase, sold it to her directly, she probably just has a similar one. It was a solid steel staircase that weighed over a half a ton, my father was going to cut the second step out with a cutting torch but when it was dismantled they discovered that it was far too thick to cut in that way. We all took souvenirs from the house, mainly crystals from the chandeliers and bricks. There was nothing sold to anyone besides metal recyclers.

[IronTiger]

I'm sorry but I don't believe your friend is accurate. My father's demolition company tore down the house and the staircase was not sold to anyone. I personally witnessed it being taken to metal recyclers. Unless the metal recyclers, who did not know the origins of the staircase, sold it to her directly, she probably just has a similar one. It was a solid steel staircase that weighed over a half a ton, my father was going to cut the second step out with a cutting torch but when it was dismantled they discovered that it was far too thick to cut in that way. We all took souvenirs from the house, mainly crystals from the chandeliers and bricks. There was nothing sold to anyone besides metal recyclers.

I think you're right. I was looking at the original (http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs034.snc1/2412_1039553424264_1088372042_30133051_8850_n.jpg) and the other one (http://www.houstonarchitecture.com/haif/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=1268). The stairs are a different color, everything is nicely painted, and finally, at the top, the fence to the right has little ornaments on it on the fake, but its regular on the original.

[Poppahop]

Does anybody have a pic or pics of the mansion we could use for a Houston Press article?

[Poppahop]

If so, please email me: john.lomax@houstonpress.com

[Gurgis]

On 3/27/2009 at 8:21 PM, bellymonster2005 said:

I grew up right down the street and know for a fact that this place burned to the ground in 97 or 98.

 

That's not true. For one thing, you can't "burn" a huge brick building. Secondly, it was demolished.

 

Here is a link to an article referencing Dec. 1995 with the first mention of the mansion's planned demolition, and available sale of all items in the house prior:

https://www.chron.com/this-forgotten-day-in-houston/article/The-Seabrook-Murder-Mansion-6705906.php

 

There are other articles in the Chronicle with news of the actual demolition starting, possibly in 1996. I used to have copies of them.

 

I visited the site around 2005, and it was already set up as a subdivision.

 

Here's an article from 2014, detailing a man's dislike of living too close to the former Mansion site. 514 Villa Dr. is indeed essentially where the mansion was located. There are plenty of photographs and aerial images to confirm this. Others apparently don't want to believe that's true.

https://www.chron.com/homes/article/Man-wants-out-of-lease-after-learning-of-5427481.php

 

 

Edited August 21, 2019 by Gurgis