Neighborhood Guessing Game: The Chairs We Left Behind

More photos of unknown homes — and you get to guess the location! That’s how we play the Neighborhood Guessing Game: Guess right and you’ll win a one-year individual membership in the Rice Design Alliance! Guess wrong and . . . well, hey — it won’t hurt you!

We’ll resolve any ties in this game by awarding the prize to the player who guesses the correct neighborhood and provides the best explanation for the guess. And if you already know this property, please don’t mess with us by blurting out the answer. Instead, mess with the other players — by sending us an email with a link to the listing (so we know what you’re up to) and then submitting a valiant but incorrect guess. If you do this well enough to sway or fake out a reader or two, you’ll be awarded special recognition when the winner is announced. And if nobody comes up with the correct neighborhood, that winner could be you!

Let’s poke around a bit and see if anyone’s home, shall we?

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Hey, where’d all the furniture go? Oh, here’s some:

Those are your clues! Gather them up and stuff them into a comment — along with a guess, of course. We’ll have an answer for you on Thursday!

Update, 3/4: And the answer is . . .

Photos: HAR

24 Comment

  • This is a 1960s tract house formerly occupied by some elderly residents. The furniture shown didn’t sell in the estate sale, and the kids don’t want it. I’m guessing it’s off of Dairy Ashford between Memorial and Briar Forest. The layout looks very similar to some of the houses over there.

  • Looks like the classic 50’s ranch to me…
    I’m going to guess either Afton Village area ( SE of Westview and Antoine ) or Westwood Area ( NW of Westview and Wirt ).
    I had a relative in the area with a pretty similar fireplace.

  • Memorial area for sure. Something zoned to Stratford H.S. Thornwood, Nottingham, something like that..

  • This looks like one of those fudgy Tanglewilde homes close to Gessner and Richmond on the east side of the Westchase district.

  • That house is anywhere in Houston built in the 60’s. I’m going to try Walnut Bend because it looks so much like a friend’s house there…before she knocked out a few walls.

  • The older section of Shepherd Park Plaza.

  • This is Spring Valley for sure. Probably built around 1960-63. South of westview, probably along one of the streets off Fries or Old Voss. Great home that needs a little updating.

  • Seems a little bit later than Spring Valley to me – more windows than “normal” and an attached garage? It has a Wilchester West feel, but a little earlier than that. How about the area below Barryknoll in Bunker Hill Village? Or it could be one of the houses in Hedwig between I-10 & Beinhorn. So, early Villages is my answer. Brings back the memories!

  • I almost rented one of these and one of my friends owns one. I think the floor plan is wonderful: Foyer, formal living, formal dining, kitchen, breakfast, laundry room (actual room, off of the breakfast area) den, and then hallway leading to bedrooms/bathrooms. It all seems to flow and many of them have some of the mid-century kitsch still intact. Variations of this floor plan are found spread out over a kinda wide area – so I’m going to guess this is either near Knob Hill Park or on the other side of Gessner off of Hammerly, where the road curves before it gets to Blalock.

  • The Shadow Neighborhoods: Spring Shadows, Shadow Woods, Etc.

  • While I too am certain it must be in the ‘079 or ‘077, I’m going to go a little further south and say it is closer to my hood in one of the Maplewoods (North, South, West), Parkwest, or maybe Braeburn Valley.

  • If it’s 60s, it’s early 60s judging from the very dated bathroom. Particularly the wall gas heater. Which usually is on the lower part of the wall. That it’s on the upper part of the wall, and over the toilet, seems to be the most probably clue as to where this is. Has a “Southwest Houston” feel to it along with the kitchen which is pretty much a “Maplewood plan” and I suspect it is in the Maplewood area. But not in Maplewood.

  • For some reason, I suspect this house is in Westbury.

  • This is mid-60’s, not late. Given the layout and the kitchen size, I’d say it’s Post Oak Manor, Willowbrook, or Willowbend.

  • That wall heater in the bathroom is definitely a 50s feature. My first guess would be Timbergrove; but perhaps Meyerland.

  • I agree with Matt Mystery and Claire de Lune. This is older than you think. Closer to WWII or the Korean War than the Vietnam War. Largish tract house in an area that’s seen some price increases, but not enough to remodel the kitchen or bathrooms. I can see this in older Bellaire, or as one of the few ranch house survivors in the Banks/Milford area. But because of the windows, brickwork, and the apparent size of the house I’m going to go with Simms Woods or one of those areas near Gus Wortham golf course just east of the Gulf Freeway.

  • MOST. INNOCUOUS. HOME. EVER.
    Ever, Gus.

    ON THE MOON

  • This looks very similar to a home I recently drew. My guess is in Wilchester 4 subdivision-ish in Memorial.

  • Gaywood.

  • That floor plan, that gas space heater, those knobs and pulls, and most of all that parquet and those built-ins in the family room…Marilyn Estates, ca. 1959, with lots of white paint covering the pine paneling and, once, lots of shag carpet covering the wood floors.

  • I’d say maybe somewhere off Fondren in Southwest Houston. Or the Weslayan/Newcastle area south of 59.

  • Sharpstown, that part between Bellaire and Beechnut, south of the Asia-town shopping strip on Bellaire.

  • I’m going with Linkwood/Woodside/Woodshire and surrounding area. The era of the bathroom is right, and I feel like staying closer in than these other posters. Though Westbury is so close and really tempting. Too bad it’s taken.

    Looks like Grandma did a nice job of keeping everything neatly painted, though I don’t really agree with her bedspread choice. Poor Grandma; I think she lived a good life. I hope the kids take good care of the tchotchkes.