COMMENT OF THE DAY: HISTORY IS IN THE EYE OF THE DEEDHOLDER 
“Demolish your great aunt’s soup tureen! Every person wants to preserve her or his family history, yet is bonkers to bulldoze the neighbor’s. BS. All of it is Houston’s history — whether, or not, George Washington or George Bush slept there.” [movocelot, commenting on Texas May Demolish Your Local Preservation Laws] Illustration of demolished historic structure: Lulu
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The 500 or so animals on display at the Bayou Wildlife Zoo on FM 517 east of Alvin are still up for grabs along with the zoo itself, Ralph Bivins notes recently in Realty News Report. Bivins writes that owner Clint Wolston has been shopping the 80-acre property around since deciding to retire last November, but so far hasn’t found a buyer who can pull together financing for a $7 million purchase. Wolston’s goal is to sell the place and its myriad exotic creatures to someone who will keep the gang together, either continuing to run the place as a zoo or turning it into a private ranch with periodic public visit opportunities.
On top of the variety of imported and domestic animals featured in the zoo’s listing photos, the property’s perks include a living space for a couple of humans or so:
Hunting Buyer for Bayou Beasts
Preservation Houston’s 2017 Good Brick Tour is coming up later this month. And it’s our sponsor today. Thanks for supporting Swamplot!
Isabella Court is the lone survivor of the many Spanish Colonial Revival—style buildings that lined blocks of Main St. beginning in the 1920s. Local developer Pierre Michael hired architect William D. Bordeaux of Miami to design this 3-story structure, which contains 2Â residential levels above ground-floor commercial spaces.
Sixteen apartments open onto a roofed, open-air courtyard, distinguished by elegant iron balconies, railings, and gates as well as a faux wishing well trimmed with delicate ironwork. Each unit is unique, with some apartments featuring split-level floor plans. Ornate light fixtures and Taos-style fireplaces contribute to the flats’ distinctive appearance. Even the small pass-through cabinets where milk was delivered are still in place.
Isabella Court is one of 5 award-winning historic homes and buildings welcoming visitors with guided tours from noon to 5 pm on both Saturday, April 29, and Sunday, April 30. Three apartments and Isabella Court’s namesake courtyard will be open during the 2017 Good Brick Tour.
Purchase advance tickets online for $25 per person through Thursday, April 27. Tickets will be available for $30 per person at any tour location during the weekend. Tickets are valid both days of the tour and provide 1 admission to each location.
Preservation Houston has recognized all the properties on tour with Good Brick Awards for excellence in historic preservation. The other properties on the tour are:
- The Dentler Building, 1809 Summer Street, High First Ward Historic District: A once-derelict 2-story apartment house (1923) that found new life as a contemporary single-family home.
- 2219 Kane St., Old Sixth Ward Historic District: A quaint Folk Victorian cottage (c. 1885) preserved as an architect’s office and guest house.
- 309 Sampson St., East End: A classic Victorian house (c. 1895) that shines with remarkably intact detailing and original art.
- Fire Station No. 2, 317 Sampson St., East End: Up-to-date interior design transformed a turn-of-the-century fire station (1910) into a private home with brass fire poles intact.
Thinking of another important upcoming event that deserves attention? Let readers know about it through Swamplot’s Sponsor of the Day program!
Sponsor of the Day
Showing up on the market this month, just in time for Easter: a couple of buildings and lots belonging to Bible Days Revival Church, formally located at or around 501 Quitman St. in Near Northside. The church gives 1935 as the construction date for at least one of the included structures up for grabs, which sit on a block along the northern light-rail line next to a formerly Exxon-branded gas station. Along with the sanctuary, the new listings include a few multifamily structures and empty lots:Â
Come Into the Light-Rail
- SmartAsset Names Houston Among the Top Cities for First-Time Homebuyers [Houston Chronicle]
- 11-Story Anadarko Tower in The Woodlands Imploded on Sunday [abc13]
- America’s Retailers Are Closing Stores Faster Than Ever [Bloomberg]
- Industry Experts Predict Houston Restaurant Closures Will Continue Throughout the Year [Houston Chronicle]
- Red Ox Bar & Grill Near Northside Closing April 15 After 3 Years [Culturemap]
- TCISD To Demolish Remaining Vacant La Marque Schools [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- Recommended Guidelines for Building in the Heights Historic Districts Unveiled [The Leader]
- Houston BCycle To Expand to 104 Stations with More Than 900 Bikes by the End of Next Year [Houston Public Media; previously on Swamplot]
- Video: The View from Market Square Tower’s 40-Story-High Swimming Pool [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
- Tour the Houston Ship Channel Without All the Toxic Details [OffCite Blog; previously on Swamplot]
- Hacking Blamed for All 156 of Dallas’s Emergency Sirens Going Off Early Saturday [Dallas News; more here]
Photo: elnina via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Houses are a lot more fragile than we think. So you should treat them in a way that leaves no regrets.
- 7543 Inwood Dr. [HAR]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: TEXAS PROBLEMS WITH A TEXAS HYPERLOOP 
“Setting aside the pie-in-the-sky[-ness of the] plan, is this track supposed to be underground 0r above ground? Either way, that’s going to cost a lot of money. And, talk about a tempting terrorist target. Underground: risk being buried alive. Above ground: risk being blown up in front of the people on the freeway. And cows. In front of cows.” [Hyperactive Imagination, commenting on Where a Houston Hyperloop Track Could Lead] Illustration: Lulu
TEXAS MAY DEMOLISH YOUR LOCAL PRESERVATION LAWS 
Ever worry that Houston’s historical preservation rules are just too darn strict? Tired of having to wait a whole 90 days to go ahead and do whatever you were going to do anyway to that non-protected city landmark? A public hearing has been scheduled for next Tuesday in Austin on a state bill that would gut and restructure local historic preservation procedures across Texas. The bill, as Preservation Houston Texas put it to VBX‘s Adolfo Pesquera last month, “clumsily attempts to impose a woefully old-fashioned ‘George Washington slept here’ standard of historical significance:” The measure appears to limit new historical designations to either 1) structures lived in by a famous person or 2) places where something “widely recognized as a historic event” happened. (Under that standard, the Astrodome might make the cut for Evel Knieval’s 13-car motorcycle jump.) Houston’s own District 135 rep Gary Elkins is the only sponsor of the measure, which would also require that any movements to designate areas of “historical, cultural, or architectural significance” get support from 3 quarters of the city council or the local planning commission. The measure also may put the final say on any proposed changes to a protected structure in the hands of a single “municipal official,” who will have 30 days to give a yea or nay. [Virtual Builder’s Exchange; bill here; previously on Swamplot] Photo of protected former home of August von Haxthausen at 2120 Sabine St.: HAR
Who’s sponsoring Swamplot today? Houston’s own Central Bank. Thanks for the continuing support!
Central Bank has 4 (central) Houston branches available to meet your business or personal needs: in Midtown, the Heights, West Houston, and Post Oak Place.
Central Bank believes that change is essential to its success; the company actively pursues the latest in service, technology, and products. Central Bank aims to know its customers personally and to be their primary business and personal financial resource. The bank’s staff values relationships and strives to be available when you need them.
To learn more about how Central Bank can meet your banking needs, please call any of the following Senior Vice Presidents: Kenny Beard, at 832.485.2376; Bonnie Purvis, at 832.485.2354; Gary Noble, at 832.485.2366; or Ryan Tillman, at 832.485.2307. You can also find out more on the bank’s website.
Help Swamplot and help your business! Become a Sponsor of the Day.Â
Sponsor of the Day
A couple of possibilities for Houston-terminal hyperloop tracks have made the latest cut in Hyperloop One’s global design your own economically feasible route contest. The company, one of a couple firms working to bring Elon Musk’s ultra-quick travel-by-tube-suction concept out of literal pipedream territory, will eventually pick a handful of winning teams to give a technological and financial boost. The Texas-centric network shown above would connect Houston, Austin, Laredo, San Antonio, and Dallas, apparently with special stops for DFW and the Ship Channel. (A direct Dallas-Houston leg wouldn’t be high priority, in case the bullet train actually happens, according to designer Stephen Duong). The other Texas-inclusive route that made the cut, going by the name Rocky Mountain Corridor, would connect the Bayou City to Cheyenne, WY, by way of Denver and Amarillo:
Texas Pipedreams
- Kemah City Council Commits $1.1M to Downtown Renovation [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- $10M Renovation to Galleria-Area Building 5718 Westheimer To Include 2-Acre Green Space [Realty News Report]
- Kroger Marketplace Has Opened in the Valley Ranch Town Center [HBJ]
- 7-Eleven Coming Back to Houston Through $3.3B Deal with Sunoco [HBJ]
- Millennials Fare Financially Better in Texas Than Most Americans, Finds JLL Report [Culturemap]
- A Sort-Of Fond Farewell to the Old Houston Chronicle Building, Now Gone for Good [Houston Chronicle ($); previously on Swamplot]
- Part of U.S. 290 HOV Lane Will Close Starting Friday for Construction [Houston Public Media]
- In Defense of the Urban Freeway [Urban Edge]
Photo of the San Jacinto Monument: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Demolish what you can, with what you have, where you are.
- 15002 Walden Rd. [HAR]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: AN ABSURDIST EVERYMAN’S VISIT TO HIS LOCAL MANAGEMENT DISTRICT BOARD 
“If you attend a TIRZ meeting at 8:00 AM on a Friday morning, you will realize the distrust and dissent that the TIRZ has created in a once cohesive community. As the meeting convenes, you can hear the roar of the cement truck in the background, covering every square foot of the TIRZ district with parking garages and multistory apartments. And where is the detention for all this impervious surface? The storm water runoff is detained in the residential streets and private homes of the surrounding neighborhoods. Just try signing up for the Public Comment period. Your 2 minutes disappear as the Chair detects an speaker unsympathetic to the TIRZ and cuts the mike. Your questions are not answered, so you try again, this time with an Open Records Request. Now you meet the TIRZ lawyers, plural, a sassy bunch, who can look you in the face and say with impunity that the record does not exist. It was just a typo.” [Long Time Houstonian, commenting on State Bill Would Call for TIRZ Elections in Certain Cities That End in ‑OUSTON] Illustration: Lulu
