DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the F.C.L. and Emilie Neuhaus House in Harris County. Now, some houses just sit there. This one has been doing a whole lot more than sitting.
Back in 1909, a prominent Houston businessman by the name of Franz Carl Ludwig Neuhaus and his wife Emilie — she was born a Boettcher — decided they wanted a house worth remembering. So they went straight to the top. They hired noted architects Sanguinet and Staats to design the thing, and brought in A.E.
Barnes as construction manager to see it through. That is a team with standards, and the house they produced in 1910 — completed the very next year after the plans were drawn — made sure everybody knew it. It's a Colonial Revival house, and it does not apologize for that.
You walk up and you are met with a portico at the front entry, arched sidelights framing the door, and a Doric entablature overhead. Classical elements, every one of them, executed with the fine craftsmanship the early twentieth century was capable of at its very best. But here's where it gets interesting — because this house didn't just show up pretty at the front door and call it done.
Around the side, there's a porte cochere, and that covered passage separates the main house from an outbuilding that has, over the years, served as a garage, stables, a carriage house, a hayloft, a henhouse, and servants' quarters. One outbuilding. All of that.
Whatever the moment called for, that structure answered. The Neuhaus family held onto it for decades, but in 1945, the Neuhaus heirs sold the house. And here's the detail that the marker saves for last, almost like a quiet flourish — this was the first house built on Courtlandt Place.
The very first. Everything that came after it on that street followed in its wake. That's the kind of thing a house earns, not borrows.
What the marker says
Prominent Houston businessman Franz Carl Ludwig Neuhaus and his wife, Emilie (Boettcher), hired noted architects Sanguinet and Staats to design this house in 1909; they hired A.E. Barnes as construction manager. Completed the next year, the Colonial Revival house exhibits Classical elements, including a portico at the front entry with arched sidelights and Doric entablature. The house also features a porte cochere, which separates it from an outbuilding that has served as a garage, stables, carriage house, hayloft, henhouse and servants' quarters. The Neuhaus heirs sold the house in 1945. The first built on Courtlandt Place, the residence exemplifies fine craftsmanship of the early 20th century. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2002