Touring the Heights after the hurricane, Katharine Shilcutt Gleave is surprised to discover the front porch of Fitzgerald’s still intact. And Mimi Swartz spots these recycled yard gingermen leftover from Christmas, pressed into window-protecting service.
A few more of their photo finds from the Heights, Woodland Heights, and Norhill:
New construction and demolition are the yin and yang of Houston’s real estate landscape. But what if they could be combined?
Neighbors of the properties at 2203, 2205, and 2207 Rutland St. in the Heights — mentioned on Swamplot earlier this week — are collecting signatures requesting that the unfinished new houses be demolished, reports a source. Supporting documentation claiming that “complaints to the City of Houston have resulted in a discouraging cycle of occasional citations, brief minor flurries of activity on the part of the builder, and subsequent inaction” was to have been submitted to city council members and Neighborhood Protection yesterday.
The petition claims that construction began on all three houses in November of 2006. But the house in the middle appears to have a different owner, and Bunny Bungalower Annie Sitton says construction on that property was begun this year.
Below the fold: more pix . . . from before Hurricane Ike!
Not far from her own Bunny Bungalow, Annie Sitton finds three houses under construction on Rutland St. just north of 22nd:
The house on the left and the one on the right were begun in 2006 and are not yet completed. Construction on the house in the middle was begun this year and is progressing slowly.
Below: View the open houses at 2203 and 2207 Rutland!
More recent pix from around town!
From the front porch of the Bunny Bungalow, Annie Sitton gets an eyeful of the new apartment building going up . . . at 2125 Yale.
More Houston street scenes . . . below!
This too-cute-for-Disneyland drawing depicts Allegro Builders’ new Wild Wild West-y development at the northwest corner of Studewood and 10th in the Heights. It’s going up just north of Allegro’s headquarters building, which is home also to the Glass Wall restaurant, and is known for its vaguely-historicist facade of valet-parked SUVs.
A few vans may front the new building at 1001 and 1003 Studewood, but it’ll only be in 2 spots of handicapped parking: The main lot is in back. That’ll likely be a relief for local filmmakers, who are no doubt eager to film Universal Studios-authentic spaghetti-western-style gunfights off those front balconies.
All of which makes this new retail-with-office-above confection an ideal location for Robert Gadsby’s new restaurant, Bedford, named after the chef’s birthplace in . . . uh, England.
After the jump: The interior is gonna be . . . modern!
A few recent scenes from around town: Jay Lee provides a carriage-eye view of Briar Forest East Rivercrest, just south of Briar Forest.
More fun-around-Houston pics below!
HEIGHTS HIKE AND BIKE TRAIL: STILL JUST AROUND THE CORNER We have a low bidder for a portion of the proposed rails-to-trails project along the old Missouri, Kansas, Texas Southern Pacific railroad line that cuts across the lower Heights — from 7th St. at Shepherd — to Spring St. and Houston Ave. in the First Ward. TxDOT expects construction of the segment to begin in September. [Home in the Heights, via Swamplot Inbox]
That Greenwood-King “for sale” sign leaning casually against the front of the art-deco Heights Theater on 19th St. is legit, the proprietor of the Bunny Bungalow assures us. And she sends us the listing to prove it.
Asking price: $1.3 million. Maybe whoever buys it will restore the theater’s original Alamo-style facade!
After the jump: A few more pics, showing the sign and the scene.
A post offering “a few notes of clarification” appears on the HAIF thread discussing the new sign on the property next to the Onion Creek Coffee House on White Oak:
a. The structure, as currently envisioned, will include first floor retail and parking, probably two floors of parking and six to seven floors of office/studio lease space. The top floor of the garage will be designed for an art gallery, or similar space, with the roof of the garage as outdoor terrace areas.
b. The project is in a very, very early design stage and will be a Class-A “green” structure with early 20th-century details. Equivalent-scaled structures might be the Lancaster downtown or The Plaza in Montrose.
c. Target tenants will be neighborhood small businesses and individuals currently doing business in homes, garages, guest rooms, etc…within walking or biking distance and not wanting a heavy commute routine.
d. Project is in commercial district and would only “border” the residential district of the Heights.
e. Since it is primarily an office building there are considerations for the parking to be utilized after-hours by the nighttime oriented buinesses nearby for off-street parking which would limit the intrusion of parking into residential areas.
f. This is the only information available at this time. Further postings will come in the near future.
Thank you for your interest.
Photo: HAIF user tmariar
This sign, posted near the corner of White Oak and Oxford in the Heights, has apparently stirred up concerns among a few area residents. And really, if causing a commotion was the goal, broker Ed Rizk couldn’t have picked a better location: the property is right next to the Onion Creek Coffee House.
Judging from the emails we’ve received, the project already has a name: It’s “another Ashby Highrise.” The latest from the sleuths on HAIF: Planning and Development says it hasn’t received any permit or subdivision application for the project.
Photo: HAIF user tmariar
This week’s mystery house attracted a slew of Montrose-area guesses. Specifically: north of Westheimer and west of Montrose behind Hugo’s; along 59 between Montrose and Shepherd; north of Westheimer and east of Montrose; North Montrose; and Castle Court.
There were two half-hearted mentions of the Heights, along with one guess each for the Heights north of 11th St.; Woodland Heights; and Norhill. Idylwood; the Sixth Ward; Garden Oaks; and “somewhere on the east side” got 2 votes each. The remaining guesses were Cottage Grove; Sugar Land; Shoreacres; “inside the loop just east of 45 in one of those old bungalow type subdivisions south of downtown”; the Beechnut-Gessner area; Caroline St.; and Hermann Park.
The winner — for the second time! — is Jeff, who was the third contestant to mention the Heights, but the first to do so unequivocally and to specify the area north of 11th St.
An honorable mention this week goes to Richard, for the pure entertainment value of this comment:
The multilevel platform in front of the fireplace looks like a sacrficial altar designed by Siegfried and Roy. Note the skull hanging ominously above and the pair of horns and tilted cross on the mantel. And, of course, the throne-like armchair from the lobby of the Embassy Suites on the left.
A large number of you thought the home was an expanded Craftsman-style home. Was it?
On June 1st, Scott Tycer will be opening a new wholesale and retail location of his Kraftsmen Bakery in 10,000 long-vacant square feet of the old Oriental Textile Mill on 22nd St. and Lawrence in the Heights. Also opening in the space two months later: a 1,200-square-foot restaurant with a garden patio and bar area, designed by Ferenc Dreef.
Tycer, who was the chef at Aries and then Pic on Montrose, and who runs Gravitas on Taft (which Dreef also designed), will be cooking at the restaurant, which will be called Textile. Tycer described Textile to blogger Cleverley Stone:
We’re going to build out the dining room with textiles, lots of hanging fabrics and different tablecloths on each table. This will not be your typical white-tablecloth restaurant.
Tycer is right: White tablecloths would probably not be appropriate for the space. A history of the Heights written by Sister M. Agatha of the Incarnate Word Academy and published in 1956 describes the operations of the textile mill, which was originally built in 1892 as a mattress factory:
B. J. Platt for years was superintendent of the plant that turned out a product which looked like long rolls of carpeting and which was used for pressing cotton seed oil. The plant’s capacity was about 50 rolls a day, varying in price from $200 to $400 a roll.
The textile was woven from hair. Old residents of the Heights have handed down the story that in the beginning much of the hair was obtained from China when pigtails were being discarded. But certain it is that camel’s hair in time came to be the staple used in production.
Photo of Oriental Textile Mill: Tasty Bits
Why aren’t these $399,900 Heights bungalows-on-sticks selling? Tricon Homes has been trying to get rid of them since November . . . of 2006!
In the first part of 2007, Tricon dropped the asking prices for 2016 and 2020 Singleton twice from the original $449,900. But since June there’s been no movement.
They look like they’ve got everything: Cute front porches, plus garages with 13-ft. ceilings! Just completed! So what’s the problem?
Below the fold: How to slide a $400K house onto a 2900-sq.-ft. Heights lot!
An organization called Save the Bungalows sends out a press release today bemoaning the demolition of the house at 647 Arlington St. in the Heights — which was mentioned in our February 1st demolition report, and whose final moments are documented in this photo, included with the release. The press release appears genuinely exciting. It features a tantalizing headline:
“Orgy of Irrational Destruction*” Continues: Home Tour House is Latest Victim
and some interesting details on the house:
A home that was featured on the 1997 Houston Heights Home Tour has been demolished.
Neighbors and friends expressed shock and outrage over the latest piece of authentic history to fall to ignorance. The sturdy house at 647 Arlington was built in 1910 by Frank J. and Nina Daly. The property remained in the Daly family until it was sold to Jack Spivey in 1980. The home’s interior was carefully renovated and updated and a garage was added to the rear. Spivey sold the house in November of 2007.
Pam August of August Landscape Design, came to know the house when Jack Spivey hired her to design his yard. She then volunteered to be the head docent for the house on the Heights Home Tour. “It is just a terrible shame that a house so beautifully restored, a house that was on the tour as an example of wonderful restoration, has been tossed in a dumpster.” August said.
After the jump: About that orgy.
$1.2 Million in the Heights. And not budging. Since September.
Three bedrooms. Two full and 2 half baths. 3,758 sq. ft. Big lot. Built in 2003. Too many features to list, but that doesn’t stop them. Here’s a partial word count of the listing’s exhausting description:
suite: 3 mentions
custom: 4 mentions
Pella: 4 mentions
audio: 4 mentions
brazilian: 4 mentions
fireplace: 4 mentions
steel: 4 mentions
wood: 5 mentions
marble: 8 mentions
large: 9 mentions
After the jump, a few more photos.
