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This week’s section takes a look at homes on the Garden Oaks Home and Garden Tour, what’s next for a local eyesore and news about real estate with continued uncertainty in the energy market.
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The Do Over 1B · Realty Real Talk 2B • When will Oakbrook Apartments be demolished? 1B Saturday, April 23, 2016 • Page 1B
Garden Oaks Century-Built House A Concrete Example of a Livable Scale and Layout the
Garden Oaks Home and Garden Tour Properties featured on the 2016 Garden Oaks Home and Garden Tour highlight the diversity of neighborhood architecture and spotlight distinctive garden spaces, including a wildscape, a community garden and the campus grounds of Garden Oaks Montessori Magnet School.
By Cynthia Lescalleet For The Leader As if anticipating the wish lists of today’s home buyers, a mid-century home in Garden Oaks features an open floor plan, a lot of natural light and ample access to outdoor living. Modestly proportioned by today’s standards, the home’s thoughtful, efficient layout accommodates three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a combo living-dining room and a sunroom, now used as an office. Several rooms open to outdoor decks, which extend the living space as well as the views of a large lot. Unlike today’s housing, however, the building material is concrete blocks, inside and out. The only stud wall forms back-to-back closets between the secondary bedrooms. The “Century Built Home” home is one of four designed by Houston architect Allen P. Williams Jr. and one of three remaining in Houston. Architectural writeups on the distinct, bunker-like homes say the use of concrete may have been part of an effort to find an alternative to prevailing wooden frame construction during post-war housing material shortages and also to integrate post war materials and design. Although cited as a ‘40s vintage home in appraisal records and media accounts, its original blueprints are stamped 1950, reports homeowner Beth Wiedower Jackson. She’s senior field officer for the National Trust of Historic Preservation’s Houston office. She and her husband, Adam Jackson, are the property’s second owners in residence. They were charmed by the home’s unique qualities and manageable size, just shy of 1,700 square feet. A detached, onestory garage is also made of concrete, and its two bays hold their cars and storage just fine. In fact, it’s where the home’s original window screens and other materials had been kept. “Bigger does not equal better,” she said of the home’s footprint. The floor plan has many features still in demand, though at a different scale. The couple also appreciates how the home’s simple lines and lack of details, such as crown molding or chair rails, help focus the aesthetics on the design and materials. They purchased the home in 2013 soon after a renovator had rescued the aging, mid-century property from likely demolition, given the go-go real estate market of the time. That redo paid homage to the home’s original design while updating some features. The scope included removing a section of interior wall between the galley kitchen’s breakfast nook and the living room, adding modern kitchen appliances (as in a dishwasher and stacked washer and dryer) and freshening up the bathrooms with new tile and fittings. The cleaned-up deep tubs are original. Since there’s no attic beneath the flat roof of poured concrete, a dropped ceiling in the central hallway and in the kitchen’s fur down accommodated new ductwork for heat and air conditioning to replace
Featured homes include:
• 323 West 32nd St. • 858 West 42nd St. • 1030 Gardenia Dr.
Garden-only properties include: Submitted photo by Miro Dvorscak One of Houston’s remaining “Century Built Homes” is featured on the 2016 Garden Oaks Home and Garden Tour, noon-6 p.m., April 24. For details and tickets, visit www.gardenoaks. org.
the window units. The lack of attic also explains why there’s only one overhead fixture in the entire house, a retro fan in the sunroom. The couple has continued restoration efforts, such as repairing interior plaster and repointing the chimney and surrounding brick. Their punch list includes restoring the original steel casement windows affected by placement of window units. “It’s an ongoing process,” she said. Concrete construction provides surprisingly good insulation and a very solid structure. However, just hanging a picture on the wall requires thoughtful planning and placement, she said. The couple hopes to avoid ever needing to move around wiring or plumbing since it is lo-
after us.” The Century Built Home is included on the 2016 Garden Oaks Home and Garden Tour on Sunday, April 24, from noon to 6 p.m. For tour details and tickets, visit www.gardenoaks.org. To share your renovation survival tale in The Do-Over, please contact cynthia.lescalleet@gmail.com. Well Preserved One of the award-winning historic home restorations featured on Preservation Houston’s 2016 Good Brick Tour is in a Leader neighborhood and will be open noon-5 p.m. on April 30-May 1: 714 Sabine St., in the Old Sixth Ward District. The current owner rescued and relocated this
It was big news last week when Houston’s City Council voted to purchase the abandoned Oakbrook Apartments at 5353 DeSoto St from Fertile Real Estate, LLC, who had owned them since 2013, for a reported $1.25 million. Now people are eager to see the apartments gone as soon as possible. Abandoned for years, Oakbrook has numerous citations from the city. The Department of Neighborhoods Inspections & Public Service division had recorded more than 70 project numbers on 5353 Desoto relating to several different units in the complex and dating back to year 2005. The most serious crime on recent record was an assault on the complex grounds in May of 2013. Council Member Brenda Stardig whose District A includes Oakbrook said she has been working on reducing the density of this area for many years, since first taking office
•737 Sue Barnett Dr. •4007 Alba Rd. (Garden Oaks/Shepherd Park Plaza Community Garden) •901 Sue Barnett Dr. (Garden Oaks Montessori Magnet School.) For tour info or tickets, visit www.gardenoaks.org.
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Contributed photo This 1872 Carpenter Gothic cottage used to sit in the parking lot of the Houston Police Y Department before it was rescued and restored.
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cated in hard-to-access conduit running through the hollow centers of the concrete blocks. CENTENNIEL BOUND Having hit its mid-60s, the distinct home just might make it to the 100-year mark, or so the preservationist homeowners intend. They’ve initiated getting it designated as a City of Houston protected landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. “We’re stewards of this home and we feel an obligation to care for it as best we can,” she says.“We want it to have a future
1872 Carpenter Gothic cottage and added new construction inspired by Texian pioneer houses. The home’s history is one of survival. It sat on the eastern edge of Houston’s Sixth Ward, survived demolition of the surrounding neighborhood, and ended up in the parking lot of the Houston Police Department headquarters, tour materials say. The current owner paid $1,000 for the house and moved it to where it sits today. For tour info or tickets, visit www.preservationhouston.org.
What’s next for Oakbrook By Betsy Denson betsy@theleadernews.com
• 407 West 34th St. • 851 West 43rd St. •1334 Sue Barnett Dr.
in 2010. When asked why Fertile, who intended to operate new apartments at the location, was willing to sell, Stardig said it was because the vacant building is in the floodway. “Because of that, they would not have been able to make the repairs necessary to make it habitable,” she said. Houston Parks Board Communications Manager Cathe-
rine Butsch said that they were pleased to be able to contribute to a positive development for this community, but that the apartment’s appointment with the wrecking ball would have to wait for closing. “Once we close on the property later this month, the city’s General Services Department will bid out the deSee DEMO P. 6B
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POLLINATOR GARDEN
Provides the host plants and nectar sources to help sustain our pollinating bees, birds and butterflies.
Kim Ellis’ Natural Passion After 20 years in the environmental field, I found my passion in the oddest of places, my own front yard. After a loss in the family, I looked to butterfly gardening to help with my healing process. As I looked at mine and my neighbors’ yards, I realized that a lot of the plants do absolutely nothing for our pollinators and other urban wildlife…. and so was born HABITATS.
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