Armstrong Parkway, Estate of the Day

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Jan 26th 2010 at 1:01PM

Today's estate in Highland Park, Texas comes with a bit of history even though its glossy renovated interior makes it look like a fresh build. The English Tudor home was designed by the Park Cities architect, Henry B. (Hal) Thompson of Thompson and Swaine Architects and built for Harry A. Olmsted, owner of a wholesale paper company and President of the State Fair of Texas in 1926. The six-bedroom home is on under an acre of land. The home itself has a stone and brick exterior with a slate roof and leaded glass windows in many of the rooms. Features include a large living room, oak-paneled study, butler's pantry, bar and family room. A solarium has glass, stone and brick walls and a slate floor and doors leading to the back yard and pool. The cook's kitchen has a center island, granite countertops, Walker Zanger custom tile back splash and limestone flooring as well as top-of-the-line appliances that include two full ovens, two Bosch dishwashers, two warming drawers, a third electric convection oven, microwave, and a SubZero freezer with two additional freezer drawers in the walk-in pantry. The master bedroom has separate his and her baths and dressing areas as well as a sitting area and bar area. The third floor of the home has a large exercise room as well as more bedrooms.

Outside is the pool, an English herb garden and a cabana/greenhouse. The open pool house has an in-ground spa, bar area with television and a full bath. The two car garage has a third bay for storage and a half bath. There is also a separate mudroom with a washer/dryer and an apartment upstairs that includes a bedroom and living area with a full kitchen and a bath. This home is listed at $9.95 million.

Gallery: Armstrong Parkway

Tags: estate of the day, EstateOfTheDay, highland park, HighlandPark, texas real estate, TexasRealEstate

Filed under: Estates

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

John Green Jan 26th 2010 2:54PM

Great house. Everything is so well done, good design to match a good house. For a house built in the 20's the owners have respected the architectural style of the house, no major ugly "additions."

Spectacular Bid Jan 26th 2010 5:41PM

A lovely home that dispels the myth held by many that somehow Texas lacks graceful estate architecture. The exterior is simply lovely on smallish-lot and the curved stair exudes charm. I complement the interior designer on being restrained and retaining the standout elements that the architect intentionally inserted.

Hal Thompson received a master's degree from MIT in 1906 and that Northeastern influence is shown. Worth noting other MIT grads who were standout architects included Richard Morris Hunt, Wilson Eyre, Ogden Codman, Howard Shaw and Francis Hoppin.

Another MIT grad was architect John Staub (d.1981) who apprenticed under the great Harrie T. Lindeberg. (Lindeberg himself designed a 1920 home in Houston) Staub is considered perhaps the most notable Houston 'domestic architecture' professional during the glory days with Thompson a close second.

Staub and Thompson were the go-to architects of the wealthy families in Dallas and Houston in the early to mid 20th Century.