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Jerry J. Moore’s French Chateau Is Still With Us — At Least Most of It
Back in August, Swamplot noted that a demolition permit had been purchased for the home at 306 E. Friar Tuck, the notable former estate of strip-mall king Jerry J. Moore. Moore’s chateau was a true...
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Charles Fondow Leaves His Wichita St. Mystery House Unfinished
Houston’s longest-running home renovation project may never be completed, but work on the extraordinary 31-year-long effort has come to an end. Charles Fondow, the retired VA nurse and dedicated...
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It Came from a Mod: 1954 Home Escapes from Rehab, Haunts Glenbrook Valley
The reader who sent in a few photos of a Glenbrook Valley house from over the years titles the album the “Evolution of an architectural Frankenstein.” Of course, properly, that should be...
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On Second Thought, Nevermind: The $5 Million Gut-and-Flip of Jerry J. Moore’s...
If, when the place was up for sale last year, you only liked what you saw of the legendary ornate sorta-replica French palace in Sherwood Forest that Houston strip-mall king and car collector Jerry J....
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Wichita St. Mystery House Goes on the Market Today: Your First Peek Inside
After the Orange Show, the Beer Can House, and the Third Ward home of the Flower Man, probably no Houston home has accumulated more outsider-art street cred than Charles Fondow’s decades-long...
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Everything But the Turrets: The Riverside Terrace Estate Sale You’ve Sorta...
What’s to see at the Wichita St. Mystery House estate sale today and tomorrow? The usual household stuff . . . but “tons” of it, according to the Craigslist ad. You know, several refrigerators, an...
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Wichita St. Mystery House Now in Foreclosure
The late Charles Fondow’s castle-like construction at 2309 Wichita St. in Riverside Terrace has fallen into foreclosure, a source tells Swamplot. The neighborhood landmark was listed for sale at a...
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Opening Up the Inside in Clark Pines
Only 5 interior walls are left in this 1,275-sq.-ft. house in Clark Pines, west of Shepherd from the Heights. The 2-bedroom, 1-bath property on a 8,093-sq.-ft. lot is listed for rent — for $2,100 a...
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Fixed That for You: A Memorial Hollowed Modern, Corrected
Yes, the shots above are front-yard views of the exact same house on Kimberley Lane in Memorial Hollow, before (at top) and after a thoroughly de-Modernizing revamp completed earlier this year. Just...
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Big Bungalowing a Meyerland Mod
Here are the after and before on a 1959 once-flat-roofed mod in Meyerland, 3 doors down from an entrance to St. Nicholas School, a block north of the tall power lines that parallel Willowbend Blvd. A...
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Behind the Hedges of a Meyerland Mod That Rocks
Just a suggestion of an upper story peeks over the palm-y landscaping forming a front courtyard for this 1961 Meyerland Mod facing Brays Bayou. A massing of bulbous shrubbery that only hints at the...
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Wacky Wichita St. Mystery House Is Back on the Market, for a Low, Low Price
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...
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A Crowdfunding Campaign To Keep the Wichita St. Mystery House Under...
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 seminal Houston DIY-contractor-hobbyist-visionary’s...
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The Dizzyingly Spectacular Full-On Bathroom Tile Renovations of 2313 Wentworth
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...
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Comment of the Day: Your ‘Updates’ Are Dating You
“The ‘needs updating’ knee-jerk reaction that a lot of people have to mid-century moderns is one of the reasons there are so few good ones left. Unfortunately this one had some ‘updates’ at some point,...
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Lucky Buyer of Castle-Like Riverside Terrace Wichita St. Mystery House...
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...
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Pin the Pitched Roof on the Meadowcreek Village Mod
Juxtaposed “before” and “after” pics (recreated above) of the 1963 used-to-be-Mod house at 2042 Forest Oaks Dr. in Meadowcreek Village have garnered a mere 1002 comments (so far) on a Facebook Mid...
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A Remuddled Walnut Bend Mod Rocks On at $389K
Was this stone-studded home in Walnut Bend one of the 30 or so properties featured in the 1960 Parade of Homes? The pebbly property’s price tag has stuck to $389K since its listing in January — with...
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Peeling Panels on the Downtown Melrose Building Hint at the Le Meridien To Come
After more than 2 decades of abandonment, the Melrose Building at 1121 Walker is getting some TLC: a total makeover as part of conversion of the building to a Le Meridien hotel. Permits were issued...
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