Too late: Someone has already scooped up this house on Wild Ginger Ct., where the founder of The Woodlands, oilman George Mitchell, lived with his wife Cynthia Woods Mitchell from the the time it was constructed in 1983 until his death earlier this year (she died in 2009, but her pavilion lives on). The Grogan’s Mill property overlooking a portion of the golf course at the Woodlands Resort and Conference Center went up for sale quietly earlier this week and was put under contract Thursday. But the property’s still worth gawking at, if only to note our own reactions to a not-so-pretentious 2-story home nestled in the trees — and what it implies about the way the north-of-Houston community’s founder envisioned life there.
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The home was designed by Mitchell’s son, architect Scott Mitchell, who also ran the design-build firm Life Forms. About 3,000 Life Forms homes are now sprinkled throughout The Woodlands. Some of them look a bit like this one, but at 3,822 sq. ft., Mitchell’s is likely the largest of the type — and the most elaborate.
The home has 3 or 4 bedrooms, 4 full baths, and an attached 2-car garage.
Here’s the 1-bedroom casita, in the back:
Some extensive deck space in between:
And more deck area, overlooking the golf course. The lot measures 12,912 sq. ft. The asking price was $555,000.
- 11 Wild Ginger Ct. [HAR]
It’s still a tad upscale, but certainly nothing in the range of what most oil-money families dwell in. This eleveates his legacy in my eyes – shows a little humility and vision. Nice to see that not all rich people are stuck up, tasteless assholes.
What? Only one shower head in that huge shower? What a waste ….
He left the MacKie and Kamrath house for this one? Not sure that was a good move.
It’s hard to believe a billionaire lived like this–unpretentious to say the least, it’s actually pretty awful—it looks like a 70’s tear down in The Memorial Villages–I’m stunned they lived in a house like this–I always admired George and Cynthia Woods Mitchell–Mr Mitchell saved his beloved Galveston, was the brains behind fracking, and created one of the best Master Planned Conmunities in the Nation.
It’s got a few dated touches, but a change of upholstery and fixtures will turn it from dated to timelessly modern pretty quickly. Love the light, love the wood. It looks like a real home, and I’m not the least bit surprised to find that Mitchell lived here. This looks a lot like his vision of the Woodlands in the eighties.
The front door and entry are beautiful. Very modest, I am surprised. I expected garish and over the top.
It’s a lovely home. I’m guessing most of us live in a house that will be called “dated” in 20 years.
I’m probably Life Form’s #1 fan…particularly of their homes built in the 70s and 80s. Great houses with well though-out floorplans
$550k for 3,822sqft on the golf course in the Woodlands? That doesnt sound that bad at all. They are selling much smaller townhomes in springwood village for 350k.
Seriously? This house has a horrid layout and is quite ugly. The wood choices look cheap, which is astounding considering the vast wealth of the former owner. I disagree with many on this thread, I like billionaires to build gorgeous spreads like the ones in River Oaks. I know one thing, I’d never hire his son as an architect, this is textbook dated and I’ll bet it gets torn down.
Shannon –
I live in a neighborhood in The Woodlands that was built out 100% by Lifeforms (Mitchell’s son was an architect there at the time). The finishes can be a bit dated, as the area was built in the 80’s, but the design and layout of the homes in the neighborhood are unique and in high demand. The homes are comfortable and “livable”…. Lifeforms architecture has a cult following… there is a fairly substantial group of people circling like sharks waiting for a house to come on the market in my neighborhood… additionally, I think I have more respect for a billionaire who was content in a modest home designed by his son as opposed to a man who need to build a “gorgeous spread” just to impress the Shannons of the world
I really wish I could “Like” Jeff’s comment. Very true – the Lifeforms homes that show up on HAR are “pending” within days of hitting the market. They also built some fantastic townhomes in Grogan’s Mill. There’s a lengthy thread on HAIF on the subject. http://www.houstonarchitecture.com/haif/topic/7006-life-forms-homes-circa-1984-1990/
Wood Jerry. Wood.
Well said Jeff.
First of all this was not Mr Mitchell’s only home, also, it’s hard to imagine a 90 year old or a women with Alzheimer’s living here full time. The Mitchell’s had a beautiful historic house in Galveston. It’s fine the consensus on this thread thinks it’s grand a billionaire lives like an accountant and think this house is as singular as Fallingwater, I just happen to disagree, this house looks cheap, poorly designed and dated to my eyes and it’s kinda perplexing a billionaire who could have lived anywhere chose here, in a cheap looking house in a pine forest.
I think this house is beautiful and would be fun to live in. Maybe, Shannon, since you find this 30-year-old house so unbelievably dated, you could create a new architectural style that never looked old and and an interior style that magically changed with the trends. Or maybe you can dedicate your time to convincing aging billionaires that it’s better to give their money to real estate agents every time styles change instead of giving it to charities or universities.
WR—-When he built this house, in the 80s, it was ‘ Save water, shower with a friend”. Two shower heads would have been wasteful!
Still, I like it. Just wouldn’t like the commute.
Shannon – thanks for your approval (It’s fine the consensus on this thread thinks it’s grand a billionaire lives like an accountant). Secondly, what are you so angry about? An example of your words to describe follow:
Awful
Horrid layout
Quite ugly
Wood choices look cheap
Cheap
Poorly designed
Dated
A cheap looking house in a pine forest
Do you have a copy of the floor plans to actually see the horrid and poorly designed layout. Of course the house looks dated, it’s 30 years old and it was HIS vision of what lviing in The Woodlands would look like. Why are you so offended the George Mitchell would live in a home like this? Your posts seem awful, horrid and poorly designed (just to use a few of your words). Can we see pictures of your home?
I have read every comment posted as of this date. As a former builder, here in The Woodlands, I MUST express my gratitude to a man who had the vision and guts to ‘launch out’ and ‘start a new town.’ WHAT A VISION!!! There weren’t any guarantees that it would work…..but Mr. Mitchell had the ‘guts’ to go out and ‘try’ and he employed the ‘right people’ to make it work. No one can deny that!!! I remember when we had ‘one’ restaurant here….the ‘old’ Hyden’s. The one they tore down a number of years ago was there for (probably) 20 years…but that was the NEW HYDEN’S. The old one was torn down and sat back a little farther than where the Shell station is on the north east corner of Rayford and I-45. Over the years, the design of homes have changed and what ‘used to be’ the finest was replaced by something greater and more grand. One thing that keeps coming to mind about aging houses……. I remember, years ago now, a lady called me complaining about something that had ‘not lasted’ in her home AFTER she had been the owner of that home for the last five years. (I don’t know how she lived or took care of her home!). She asked me what I was going to do about it. I thought to myself how to respond. I simply told her, “Go into your bathroom and look in the mirror…….if you looked like you did five years ago, call me back.” Never heard from her again…and hope she is still here. Just because she might not look like she did five years ago, no one needs to ‘get rid of her.’
Right On, Wally! Mr. Mitchell had an amazing vision. Hopefully the New Generation of developers will have his insight. The Woodlands, Texas – The Town That George Mitchell Built.
Sure, it looks a bit dated now, but this was the original intent of The Woodlands. I’m sure everyone, including George Mitchell himself, would be okay with a little update here and there.
The idea was to live “in the forest” in a way that was comfortable and convenient instead of in a clear-cut mess with uniform little trees in the same place on every lot. It was quite a revolutionary concept in its day. Considering some of the ugly stuff being built today, I sure wish we had some more visionaries like Mr. Mitchell.
I’m sure there are plenty of people who would buy the house and change very little about it.
Love this house.
It’s elegant without being pretentious; a home which can accommodate a formal catered party for 100 or a cozy gathering for six.
The original 1970’s layout and finishes are intact, and I hope they remain so.
There’s a dreary pattern; the architecture of thirty or forty years ago is consistently scorned and regarded as being completely out of style.
People come in and renovate in this decade’s fashion, destroying the very qualities that will once again be treasured – ten years from now.
Suddenly, people will have a renewed appreciation for a vanishing style, and regret that the original vision had been compromised.
Happened with Craftsman, and Art Deco, and Streamline and Mid-Century Modern, among others.
I hope the new owner likes, and maintains, this house as it is. It’s a gem.
Just because your Grandmother probably has some overdone pseudo French or 18th Century revisited number with three thousand yards of silk draperies (in dated colors no doubt)in River Oaks does not mean everyone equates that with wealth and taste.
The only thing horrid here is your consistent sanctimonious and condescending attitude. While this home doesn’t speak to my taste, I can see the idea behind it and think with some minor tweaking, it is quite liveable and unique.
I’m also a big Life Forms fan, I own and live in one in the Woodlands. So happens I’m an architect, too. Life Forms is the only company I know that has built suburban tract homes which are innovative, spatially unique, extremely livable, and which compliment the landscape. Truly American, as I would like to say it. Many of Life Forms home were also created for a price point that allowed normal folks like us to experience unique and honest architecture. I do that every day now. Scott Mitchell deserves unique credit as an exceptional architect, a brilliant home builder, and a true innovator.
Most American architecture amounts to mindlessly recompiled “tradition”, endlessly mundane and pretentious. No where is this more evident than in American tract homes. Bad copies of architectural forms and inspiration: selectively applied pastiche…that is the norm. As the “home of the free and the brave”, as social and technological pioneers, we Americans ought to pride ourselves on our residential buildings, too. Life Forms challenged the organization, layout, forms, spaces, use of light…just about everything that’s bad about the typical american home. Sure some of the details may look dated to us now, and not all the experiments they did were successful. But many of them were.
Shannon, the fact that George Mitchell did not opt for the common puffy fat cat house is not a coincidence. George Mitchell must have been accustomed to taking the path less traveled, deciding things such as the prodigious use of green space throughout the Woodlands (which few others would have ever done). Uncommon decisions that were bold and visionary…from which we still reap the rewards today as the Woodlands has become so popular. Why would you expect such a person to live in a pretentious Birthday Cake for the sake of their Friends like the rest of the country?
Cheers Scott Mitchell you deserve an award for your efforts, and to be celebrated for your achievements.
Shannon consistently has the biggest mouth, least amount of taste, and way too much anger. I wish there were a way to block or mute her comments.
It’s a beautiful modest house. Period.
Check out 11425 Slash Pine Place, it’s one of the first Life Forms homes built by Scott Mitchell. Currently listed for sale, I would continue to live there had I not remarried. New hubby has larger Life Forms home so we live in his house. This is an amazing home, from front door (antique w brass mail slot) to the driftwood wall, this house gorgeous. Listed w Mike Seder Realty.
I have lived in the original village of the Woodlands since 1974 and was privileged to work for George Mitchell’s company for many years. One thing he was not was a snob! His and many other homes in this village are now considered outdated because they are 40 years old. However, it is by far the most forested neighborhood with the most idyllic lifetyle being close to shopping and commute without any of the ugly 1960’s type landscaped neighborhoods and nouveau riche mansions of the rich and so called famous. Susanne and her ilk need to get a life!
George Mitchell was one of the most humble and talented men who gave unstintingly of himself and his money for the betterment of mankind.
I have lived in the original village of the Woodlands since 1974 and was privileged to work for George Mitchell’s company for many years. One thing he was not was a snob! His and many other homes in this village are now considered outdated because they are 40 years old. However, it is by far the most forested neighborhood with the most idyllic lifetyle being close to shopping and commute without any of the ugly subdivision type landscaped neighborhoods and nouveau riche mansions of the rich and so called famous. Shannon and her ilk need to get a life!
George Mitchell was one of the most humble and talented men who gave unstintingly of himself and his money for the betterment of mankind. He could chose to live like Shannon’s her other super rich friends any time he chose, but he and his family had better taste!
WOOD LANDS.
Woodlands. Wood+Lands. The Woodlands.
Anybody see a connection?
George Mitchell’s front door had a tree on it. Yes, a tree.
Not like the front door of a Carlton Woods home. Its not a 15,000 sq.ft. McVilla or a bad copy of the Alhambra Palace. Its authentic. An authentic man and his vision, enjoying nature. Think about it when you ride your bike among the trees.
Great Home…incredible design and use of outer beauty.
How is the cellular Tower poisoning in the atmosphere and the EMF field in that area?
Thank you for sharing the beauty.
Carrie Fellows