The Laniers Downsize

THE LANIERS DOWNSIZE Heriz, Aubusson, and Kerman rugs; antique music boxes; Dresden porcelains; sterling silver tea sets; antique Limoges dinnerware; Roger Clemens-autographed baseballs; Hermes, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and Alexandra Knight handbags; Manolo Blahnik alligator pumps, and a few lightly worn outfits from Yves St. Laurent, Bill Blass, and Prada are among the items you may expect to find at the upcoming garage sale being thrown by Port Commissioner Elyse Lanier and her husband, former Houston Mayor Bob Lanier. The occasion: the recent sale — after almost 3 years on the market — of their 13,386-sq.-ft., 11-bathroom River Oaks estate (pictured) at 3665 Willowick for more than $6 million, a bit more than half their original asking price, and another notch below the just-under $7 million they resigned themselves to when they dropped the asking price for the last time late last year. Why the sell-off? “I just don’t have room to fit it all,” Elyse Lanier tells society reporter Shelby Hodge. The Laniers will take only a subset of their stuff into the 2 apartments they’re combining on an upper floor at the Inwood Manor highrise on San Felipe. They’re jettisoning too much to fit into the Laniers’ old 3-car garage; the sale will take place at the Houston Design Center instead. [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot] Photo: HAR

10 Comment

  • Oh I know how it is with the idle rich..I had to pare down from my house in Aspen, my condo in Palm Beach and the quaint place in the Bahamas….sold all my David Webb…..dropped the staff from 20 to 1…..but my oh my being reduced to The Inwood Manor would be unbearable……I hope Elyse doesn’t sell my austrian chandelier she borrowed 35 years ago and never returned…..

  • Inwood Manor and not the Huntingdon? Downsizing, indeed, and terribly close to the wrong side of the RR tracks!

  • They lived in the Huntingdon after they sold their house on River Oaks Boulevard and before they moved to the current residence on Willowick.

  • And after Inwood Manor, Colonial House!

  • Hate Light Rail construction, lack of Commuter Rail, and cost of same? Meet the guy who could have had it all mostly complete by now at far less cost…Mayor Bob.

    MB, as a OTL raw land owner and former chair of the Texas HIGHWAY Commission threw the entire regional mobility plan out the window and paved…only. Hated transit. Appointed haters. (Maybe a bus or two…).

    It’s also nice that being a former jewelry salesperson qualifies his wife to be a PORT COMMISSIONER. Jeez, Elise.

    Mayor Bob. Popular, and dead wrong, IMO.

  • UD – you forgot to mention coming up with the idea of hijacking Metro funds to pay for street paving.

  • My bad.

    Crucial point!

  • Elyse Lanier? a PORT COMMISSIONER?? For reals??

  • Limousine liberals; the leaders in modern hypocrisy.

  • corey – Limousines, sure; liberals, not so much.