Always on the lookout for striking images, art blogger Robert Boyd discovers an intriguing pattern in the map included in the listing of the nearby Fabulous Flea property discussed a couple of days ago on Swamplot. He asks:

Do you think the property lines of of those houses were deliberately designed to look like a man? (Sort of like the Vitruvian Man, don’t you think?)

Boyd dubs the pattern — found on the lower portion of the Upper Kirby blocks surrounded by Elbert, Bammel, and Sackett — “Elbert Street Man.”

But there’s a more direct reference. The anatomical property lines are the mark in Houston’s real-estate landscape of a much more well-known figure:

Allen R. Stanford.

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That’s right: Long before he advanced to the mysterious international financial practices that made him wildly rich, famous, and a federal prisoner, Stanford cut his teeth on a slightly gentler con: developing and selling Houston real estate. Stanford’s Guardian Development Corp. put together the 15-unit Le Voisinage in an almost-quaint fit of early-nineties Francophilia, years before Sir Allen went all British Empire with the cricket and the knighthood and stuff.

And thanks to the owner of this unit currently for sale at the corner of Elbert and Bammel, we can all now get a peek at the place from ground level:

Le Voisinage of course has the common touch: That central “man” shape outlines the development’s commons, which includes this central courtyard, in or around what would be Stanfordian Man’s navel:

The unit’s private pool sits behind a gate:

3123 Bammel Ln. has been on the market for a little longer than a month, for $569,000. The 2,408 sq.-ft. home fits on a 3,091-sq.-ft. lot. It features 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, and this upstairs Living Room:

• 3123 Bammel Ln. [HAR]
• Previously on Swamplot: Takara So and Beyond: More of Allen Stanford’s Houston Real Estate Ventures
• Allen Stanford coverage [Swamplot]

Image of Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci: Wikimedia Commons