L. A. and Adelheid Machemehl House

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the L. A. and Adelheid Machemehl House. Now settle in, because this one's about a house that's got a little something extra going on, and I mean that in the most architectural way possible.

In a part of Texas where a solid ranch and a good name carried real weight, Louis A. Machemehl was both. A prominent rancher and civic leader, born in 1881, he had the kind of standing in the community that says: when you build a house, you build it right.

And in 1920, that's exactly what he did. He brought in Alfred C. Finn, a prominent Houston architect, and what Finn delivered was a Craftsman bungalow.

Now, a Craftsman bungalow is already a fine thing. Broad porches, hallmark geometric ornamentation, the kind of design that says come on up and sit a while. But this one, this one does something a little unexpected.

It rises. Just above the roofline of that first floor, a small second floor pushes up toward the sky in a form that folks sometimes call an airplane bungalow. One and one-half stories.

Not quite two, not just one. Unique enough that the marker calls it unusual, and markers don't use that word lightly. Louis and his wife Adelheid, who passed in 1949, raised five children in that house.

The marker says it was a center of social activity, and you can almost hear it: voices on those broad porches, the business of a community moving through the front door. Louis himself lived until 1952. The house stayed in the Machemehl family until 1953, just one year after he was gone, as if the place had been holding on for him.

One airplane bungalow, one family, one architect who knew exactly what he was doing. Some houses just carry their story in the roofline.

What the marker says

A significant example of the Craftsman bungalow designed by prominent Houston architect Alfred C. Finn, this house is unusual for its one-and-one-half story form. The residence displays hallmark geometric ornamentation, broad porches, and a small second floor that rises above the first floor roofline in a form sometimes called "airplane bungalow". Built in 1920 for prominent rancher and civic leader Louis A. Machemehl (1881-1952), his wife Adelheid (d. 1949), and their five children, the house was a center of social activity. It remained in the Machemehl family until 1953. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1992