Historic home’s price shows East Downtown’s demand
In 1913, pictures of a Houston Arts and Crafts home ran in newspapers and home magazines. 4620 McKinney St. was the face of Eastwood, a master-planned neighborhood being developed at the time by the same man who created Woodland Heights.
Now, the historic 3,330square-foot home is the face of another new development — the skyrocketing demand for East Downtown real estate. If sold for its listing price of $825,000, the home would set a record for the neighborhood, according to the Houston Association of Realtor’s data.
From 2003 to 2012, the median price per square foot in the neighborhood hovered around $94. Now that figure has jumped to $169.
Many of the qualities The Houston Daily Post observed in 1913, when it called Eastwood “one of the most convenient, attractive and beautiful homesites in the city of Houston” still hold true today — the deed-restricted neighborhood is filled with beautiful Arts and Crafts homes in a centrally located neighborhood. 4620 McKinney St. is only a seven-minute walk from the light rail leading into downtown.
The home features a wraparound porch, a pool and a hot tub, and a back deck with an outdoor kitchen, as well as historic details such as original silver pine wood flooring and a large clawfoot tub in the master bath.
The home’s restoration won a Good Brick Award from Preservation Houston in 2006. Previously, it had been nearly been condemned in 1977, according to the Good Brick Award application.
The owners installed entirely new electrical, gas, central heating and cooling, plumbing, security and central vacuum systems, and converted the attic into a livable space with its own bathroom.
The rest of the home was restored down to the original brass hardware in the kitchen sinks. In the only room where the original hardwood flooring could not be restored, they purchased and installed period hardwood planks salvaged by Historic Houston.