‘Time capsule’ home takes you back to 1957
One of the more notable residences in historic Glenbrook Valley, with loads of 1950s style, is listed for $425,000
Little has changed in a Glenbrook Valley home since it was built in 1957, including a “Kit Kat lounge” that was furnished complete with a martini bar.
IN Glenbrook Valley, a 1950s neighborhood near Hobby Airport where the homeowners cherish their original pink bathroom tile and woodpaneled walls, the holy grail of midcentury architecture just hit the market.
The owner of the threebedroom house on Santa Elena Drive is moving to Florida and listing the home for $425,000.
“Selling it is not going to be a problem,” said real estate agent Robert Searcy, who started getting calls on it after posting it on Facebook late Monday.
The 3,419-square-foot home is the kind of place people re-
fer to as a “time capsule” house because little has changed since it was built in 1957.
Perhaps its most notable feature is a party room known as the “Kit Kat lounge” that was furnished in 1960 by Finger Furniture. The receipts are still there to prove it, Searcy said.
The furniture, including a boomerang-shaped martini bar, stage and built-in movie screen, has been passed down from the original owners and will remain when the house sells again.
The home was designed by Doughtie and Porterfield. It has been on architecture tours and featured in magazines. In April, the Heritage Society hosted one of its “SIP” (See Interesting Places) receptions at the home.
“It’s fabulous,” said Anna Mod, a historic preservation specialist and one of the founders of Houston Mod, a nonprofit group advocating for modern architecture and design in Houston.
There have been some upgrades, but the house cosmetically is much like it was when it was built in the 1950s.
The property was built for Elmer and Myrtle Richardson, who were considered “the top socialites of Glenbrook Valley, hosting many parties in their upstairs lounge,” according to a document filed in 2010 with the city’s Archaeological & Historical Commission.
The current owner is its third. Jamie Oyler bought the Santa Elena mod a decade ago after living in “a normal house” in Oak Forest.
He liked midcentury modern architecture and became familiar with the neighborhood after driving past it on frequent trips to Hobby Airport.
“Every time I’d pick up friends from the airport, I’d always drive them by it, never thinking I’d live in it,” Oyler said.
When it went up for sale, he made an offer immediately.
“I loved everything about the house,” he said.
He hosted numerous parties in the Kit Kat lounge, named for a painting original to the room featuring cats and birds drinking champagne. A series of martini bubbles continues off the painting along the wall.
Mod said interest in midcentury modern architecture continues to grow in Houston and nationwide.
“We weren’t that attuned to it, say, 15 years ago, but it is very hot now,” Mod said, citing Palm Springs as “one of the meccas.”
Houston, she said, has a large stock of midcentury housing because of the city’s fast growth after World War II.
“NASA was here, and we were trying to compete nationwide as a progressive city, a modern city,” she said. “That architectural style blended well for that vision.”
Searcy lived in Glenbrook Valley for decades, sold many of the homes there and helped the effort to designate the neighborhood as a historic district, which has coincided with a boost in property values.
Prices per square foot in the neighborhood were in the $40s and stagnant for decades. In 2016, about five years after the city declared it historic, he said, the median price per square foot was $88.
“We’re seeing houses reaching 130 bucks a foot on the high end of the market,” Searcy said. “It’s definitely continued to climb.”
Another thing that’s new for the area is the interest level.
“I’m seeing more agents from outside of the area coming in with buyers who are requesting Glenbrook,” Searcy said. “I used to almost have to beg and cajole people to go in. Now I’m getting people requesting it.”