Cool Acres Ranch On Aylor Rd.

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Did HAIF know that famous heart surgeon, Denton Cooley, owned a large ranch that TMC institutions would visit for parties and day outs? 

A Houston-area ranch owned by the estate of Dr. Denton Cooley, a renowned heart surgeon who died in 2016, is for sale with an asking price of $7.3 million.

Cool Acres Ranch spans 406 acres. The ranch is located south of Simonton, Texas. Just 20 minutes west of Highway 99. Take 1489 south from Simonton, cross the Brazos and the first left is Johnson Rd. Take Johnson Rd. East for 1 mile until it ends into Aylor Road. Turn left and Aylor Road ends at the entrance of Cool Acres Ranch.

Cooley first bought 170 acres of the property in 1958. The main 2,756-square-foot house was built in 1960 and has four bedrooms, two full bathrooms and one half-bathroom. Behind the house, there’s a small bunk room with a full bathroom attached to the carport. The 800-square-foot pool house was recently rebuilt with two en suite bedrooms, a pool bath and an outdoor shower. 

House No. 2 was built in 1976. It is 3,232 square feet and has four bedrooms, two full bathrooms, one half-bathroom and a screened-in sleeping porch upstairs with swinging beds that overlook the river.

A 3,572-square-foot house was built in 1982 and “became the gathering place for the big family with a large great room and kitchen and pool table,” per the listing. That house has five bedrooms, two full bathrooms and one half-bathroom. 

The Texas House was built in 1982 and was featured in Architectural Digest. The 2,166-square-foot house has a tin ceiling in the kitchen, a big front porch overlooking the pond, three bedrooms and three baths.

There’s also a pond fondly named “Lake Louise” after the surgeon’s wife, Louise.

The property also includes a pool, a pond, two tennis courts, two pavilions, a playground with a vintage caboose, a horse barn with three stalls and turnout attached, a 1,765-square-foot foreman’s house, a 1,398-square-foot ranch house and seven wells. 

One of the pavilions is paved for roller skating and has a kitchen and two full bathrooms. The Party Pavilion is across the road from the roller rink and can hold 50 picnic tables.