DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it to you straight. Somewhere in Harris County, there's a house that was ahead of its time before the time even knew what it was missing. We're talkin' about the Ned A. and Linda S.
Eppes House, and the story starts in 1926. That's the year this place went up in a brand-new planned neighborhood called Jandor Gardens. Now, the land itself was purchased by Linda S.
Eppes — and that detail's worth holdin' onto, because it matters who made what happen here. Her husband, Ned A. Eppes, was a concrete manufacturer.
Born in 1883, gone by 1929 — a man who didn't get many years, but apparently made them count in materials that last. And when I say concrete manufacturer built a concrete house, you might think, well, sure, naturally. But here's the thing — this house was among the earliest in all of Houston constructed of concrete building materials.
All of Houston. So this wasn't just a man usin' what he had on hand. This was somebody pushin' the edge of what a house in this city could even be.
The design itself is something to behold. Italian Renaissance villa-inspired, they call it, a block house with a stucco finish and an elaborate Spanish mission door surround. Now both of those features — the stucco, the mission door surround — were considered unusual, flat-out unusual, right up until the 1930s.
This house was wearin' its style years before the style caught on. Credit for all of it goes to independent architect John McLelland and the firm of Brickey, Wiggins and Brickey. Two different hands on one vision, and what they left behind has been standin' since 1926.
Concrete tends to do that. So does a good story.
What the marker says
Erected in 1926 in the new Jandor Gardens planned neighborhood for concrete manufacturer Ned. A. Eppes (1883-1929) and his family on land purchased by Linda S. Eppes, this house was among the earliest in Houston constructed of concrete building materials. The Italian renaissance villa-inspired block house features a stucco finish and an elaborate Spanish mission door surround, both unusual until the 1930s. Independent architect John McLelland and the firm of Brickey, Wiggins and Brickey are credited with the design of the house. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1998