Tag: Riverside-Terrace

Former Weingarten Mansion, 4000 S. MacGregor Way, Riverside Terrace, Houston

The MacGregor Way mansion built for the family of Houston grocery pioneer Joseph Weingarten went up for sale last week, providing Houston oldtimers and other more recent converts to old-school real estate ogling a first opportunity to confirm or contradict their suspicions about what the interior of the once-proud 1939 Joseph Finger-designed estate looks like in its . . . uh, unattended state.

The listing photos don’t disappoint, providing an air of grandeur to the vast interiors — peeling paint, leaky window units, rumpled carpet and all. Better yet, the 4-bedroom, 5,480-sq.-ft. property on 4.73 acres (most of them in the 100-year floodplain) has no deed restrictions or historical protections, which sets the Brays Bayou-side perch in Riverside Terrace as the latest scene of a no-schemes-barred Houston-style bidding-and-bitching rumble. (Multiple offers have already been submitted by developers eager to scrape the home and carve up the property into separate homesites).

This Was His Home, It Is For Sale

77021, Historic Properties, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Riverside-Terrace

Home Decor

07/11/14 3:30pm

Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: Oui, Oui!

5 Comments

Bathroom, 2809 Palm St., Riverside Terrace, Houston

2809 Palm St. [HAR]

77004, Bathrooms, Home Decor, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Riverside-Terrace

06/26/14 3:30pm

A Steel-Framed Live-Work Studio by Carlos JimÃ©nez on the Slopes of Riverside Terrace

Home Decor, Home Design, Homes for Sale, Houston Architects, Interiors, Riverside Terrace

23 Comments

504_hr3404800-13

504_hr3404800-3

Is it any wonder that this custom studio-home of a fine arts photography gallery owner is camera ready? From curbside, it comes with aÂ limelight finish. Rice architecture profÂ Carlos JimÃ©nez, who’s designed art museums, homes, and warehouses alike, incorporated ingredients of each in thisÂ 2011 project. A week ago, the Riverside Terrace property went up for sale with a $650,000 asking price.

The sloping roof accommodates a partial second story, as well as lofty living and a large, column-free exhibition space at ground level:

Flash Finish

77004, Carlos Jimenez, Homes for Sale, Houston Architects, Interiors, Live-Work Spaces, Mixed Use, Riverside-Terrace

06/23/14 11:45am

Fear and Exploding in MacGregor Terrace, Where Architects and Wayward Waste Disposers Once Lived in Perfect Balance

Hazards, MacGregor Terrace, Neighborhood Disputes, Pollution

8 Comments

M+A Architecture Studio, 5910 Grace Ln., Houston

CES Environmental Services Trucks, 4904 Griggs Rd., MacGregor Terrace, Houston From a top-floor perch in their tiny, handcrafted, award-winning live-work compoundÂ at 5910 Grace Ln. (featured a while back in Dwell magazine), architect Mark Schatz and designer Anne Eamon had front-row seats to the ongoing smelly, toxic, and deadly shitshow that marked the over-the-back-fence tenure of CES Environmental Services, in its facility at 4904 Griggs Rd., just a mile and a half south of the UH campus. Among the joys they were able to plug their noses and record was this tableau from July 2009: “In the first photograph [Schatz] took of the scene unfolding below him, shot like all the rest with the eye of an architect, perfectly framing the site, the tank farm is to the left, and a worker races from the right to the warehouse, which has a smoking hole blown through the roof. In a subsequent photo, oxygen tanks are wheeled in. Then the oxygen tanks fall over. Then a forklift shows up, and a crew starts setting the oxygen tanks upright. All this time, while they go through this Three Stooges routine, their co-worker is lying inside the warehouse covered in burns. You can see the back of a metal cylindrical tanker truck in the photos. [Schatz and Eamon] learn later that the fatally burned worker had opened the hatch on the tanker and switched on his flashlight to peer in. A spark from the flashlight set off a flash fire.”

Toxics by Design

77021, Environmental, Hazards, MacGregor Terrace, Neighborhood Disputes, Odors, Riverside-Terrace

Attractions

05/20/14 2:00pm

Lucky Buyer of Castle-Like Riverside Terrace Wichita St. Mystery House ‘Mulling Over’ What To Do with It

Buying and Selling, Houston Landmarks, Riverside Terrace

7 Comments

2309 Wichita St., Riverside Terrace, Houston

More than a month after purchasing the duplex-turned-31-year DIY renovation-and-expansion-project that became the life’s work of its owner, former VA nurse Charles Fondow, buyer Nick Ugarov tells the Chronicle‘s Craig Hlavaty that he’s “still mulling over plans” for the 5-bedroom, 4-and-a-half-bath, 2-turret still-not-quite-finished home at 2309 Wichita St. near Dowling. Ugarov picked up the foreclosed deck-bedecked structure for $251,000, from a bank sale that closed on April 11th,Â according to MLS records. That’s $101K over the ridiculously low asking price the sales agent had placed on the property, a well-known and much-gawked-at oddity in Riverside Terrace that’s been described as a poor man’s version of the Winchester Mystery House.

Will It Stay or Go Now?

77004, Attractions, Buying and Selling, Houston Landmarks, Remodeling, Renovations, Riverside-Terrace

03/18/14 3:30pm

The Dizzyingly Spectacular Full-On Bathroom Tile Renovations of 2313 Wentworth

Homes for Sale, Interiors, Renovations, Riverside Terrace

20 Comments

A couple of Swamplot readers are agog over the spare-no-tile bathroom renovations revealed in the listing posted last week of a 4-bedroom 1940 home in Riverside Terrace. Each of the home’s 3 modestly sized full bathrooms appear to have been wrapped and floored in a distinct pattern of glass or ceramic tiles. Behold:

It’s a Wrap

77004, Bathrooms, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Remodeling, Renovations, Riverside-Terrace

03/10/14 3:00pm

What’s Happened to This $895,000 Riverside Terrace Home Designed by John Staub

Home Design, Homes for Sale, Houston Architects, Interiors, Riverside Terrace

23 Comments

Stainless fittings in the kitchen and steely paint can’t entirely conceal the hand of prolific Houston society architect John Staub, who designed this 1935 Regency-style home in Riverside Terrace. When the property popped up in the listings at the end of February, it did so with a $895,000 asking priceÂ — considerably lower than what a Staub home might fetch elsewhere in the city. During renovations back in 2006, which replaced the HVAC, electric system, plumbing, and gas lines, and made a few alterations to the structure and finishes, the attic proved to be a realÂ treasure trove:

Check Out the Garage-Door Bathroom

77021, Homes for Sale, Houston Architects, Interiors, John Staub, Riverside-Terrace

02/19/14 5:00pm

Yes, This $2.65 Million 1938 Southern Colonial Estate Is in Riverside Terrace

Home Design, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Riverside Terrace

23 Comments

3418-s-parkwood-01

This graceful estate is a bit coy about revealing its Riverside Terrace address. The street name and number are hidden on HAR, though other sites using the same MLS info show it. You’d be able to figure it out anyway: Aerial maps and old architectural guides show the circular driveway, massive lot, and balanced opposing wings of a homestead across from Parkwood Park, located just south of S. MacGregor (and Brays Bayou) and east of Del Rio. That would make it the Kurth House, a 1938 southern colonial whose design is attributed to Henry A. Stubee. It was the first home built in the Parkwood section of the vintage neighborhood. Grand (and grand-scale), the tended property is reported to have changed ownership only 4 times in its 75 years. If you could afford theÂ $2.65 million asking price, would you sign on to be number 5?

Parkside on South Parkwood

77021, Home Decor, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Parkwood Park, Riverside-Terrace

02/18/14 10:15am

A Crowdfunding Campaign To Keep the Wichita St. Mystery House Under Renovation for Another 30 Years or So

Financing, Homes for Sale, Houston Landmarks, Quicklink, Renovations, Riverside Terrace

14 Comments

A CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN TO KEEP THE WICHITA ST. MYSTERY HOUSE UNDER RENOVATION FOR ANOTHER 30 YEARS OR SO 2309 Wichita St., Riverside Terrace, Houston A former city librarian is channeling the don’t-stop-the-renovating spirit of Charles Fondow in her bid to raise enough funds to purchase the seminalÂ Houston DIY-contractor-hobbyist-visionary’s remarkable former home in Riverside Terrace. “Help us raise the funds to buy it outright so we can complete the additions in our own time,” writes Virginia Verner in the promotional copy for her crowdfunding effort on website GoFundMe. Keeping the whir of power tools going appears to be one of the goals: “Current plans are to repair necessities first, inhabit the front house, and over time work to complete the unfinished bits. Events for repair and recreation will become a fixture in this abode.”Â The homeowner Verner hopes to replace in the 4,861-sq.-ft. expansion and renovation project at 2309 Wichita St., just 5 houses east of the Hwy. 288 feeder, worked consistently at his creation for 31 years before passing away in 2011. Perhaps paralleling the sincere, hardworking, but perenially underfunded Fondow, Verner has set the fundraising goal for her effort at $150,000 — the exact asking price for the property, which appeared on the market last Friday for the first time since its foreclosure in 2011. No mention is made how renovations might be funded after the acquisition. As of this morning, the website indicates she’s received pledges for 0.1 percent of her goal. [GoFundMe; previously on Swamplot] Photo: HAR

77004, Attractions, Buying and Selling, Crowdfunding, Financing, Homes for Sale, Houston Landmarks, Remodeling, Renovations, Riverside-Terrace

02/14/14 11:00am

Wacky Wichita St. Mystery House Is Back on the Market, for a Low, Low Price

Homes for Sale, Houston Landmarks, Renovations, Riverside Terrace

36 Comments

2309 Wichita St., Riverside Terrace, Houston

Fans and confounded passers-by of the unique castle-like construction at 2309 Wichita St. that former VA nurse Charles Fondow left after his death in 2011 will be interested to note that the 31-year Riverside Terrace renovation and expansion project he never completed is now for sale again — as of yesterday afternoon. And the price is significantly lower than the $325,000 it was listed at 3 years ago. The new owner of the 4,861-sq.-ft., 5-bedroom property —Â who according to county tax records is a division of Deutsche Bank — is asking just $150,000 for the property.

A Renovator’s Dream

77004, Attractions, Buying and Selling, Homes for Sale, Houston Landmarks, Remodeling, Renovations, Riverside-Terrace

Home Decor

01/29/14 12:30pm

Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: Foiled Again

5 Comments

Kitchen, 2516 Riverside Dr., Riverside Terrace, Houston

2516 Riverside Dr. [HAR]

77004, Home Decor, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Kitchens, Riverside-Terrace

Home Decor

01/06/14 1:00pm

Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: Beadboard Panel on Tile

2 Comments

194_hr3294999-14

3424 S. Macgregor Way [HAR]

77021, Bathrooms, Home Decor, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Riverside-Terrace

Homes for Sale

11/01/13 11:15am

Stepping Around a Cottage in Riverside Terrace

Interiors, Riverside Terrace

11 Comments

Fresh interior paint gives a 1930 Riverside Terrace cottage the look of buffed up, unscuffed saddle shoes all tied up and tidy for the first day of school. The up-a-knoll property, located around the corner from Riverside Park, was relisted by 2 days ago after an 18-month hiatus from the market. The initial asking price back in November 2011 was $216,500, but it had dropped to $197,500 by March 2012. The current price tag for the spiffed-up house and its less-polished garage apartment is $207,500.