those hoggs, two of two

The second Hogg house to visit is the Ima Hogg house called Bayou Bend in Houston. My favorite neighborhood in Houston is River Oaks - great restaurants, shops, et cetera. Will and Mike Hogg worked with Hugh Putter to plan and build River Oaks, in 1924. In the middle of it all, the Hoggs set aside an eighty-acre area called Homewoods divided into fourteen houses, the largest of which they reserved for themselves and called Bayou Bend. The house was designed by architect John F. Staub, was built between 1927 and 1928. The house was supposedly inspired by the, "symmetry of eighteenth-century English Georgian architecture with the romantic influence of Spanish Creole architecture from New Orleans." Miss Hogg apparently used the term "Latin Colonial" to describe the eclectic design.

Today Bayou Bend is operated by the Museum of Fine Arts Houston

For more on individual pieces in the collection see the MFAH. If memory serves me correctly on the second floor there is a quintessential long horn chair similar to this, not to be missed as well!

Photos by Antiques and Fine Arts Magazine, MFAH, http://houston.culturemap.com, http://www.dirtdoctor.com and http://janetblyberg.blogspot.com. Chair from Fine and Decorative Arts

Side note - I'm more house freak than computer geek so still trying to figure out how to reply to comments :)

those hoggs, one of two

If you are ever in Houston, there are two house tours you cannot miss. I've got some old Texas blood so even though we only lived in Texas briefly, I have a fond love for that state. The first house is the Varner Hogg Plantation.

In 1824 Virginia native Martin Varner purchased land from Stephen F. Austin. The original plantation was 4,428 acres to establish a rum distillery. In 1834, Martin Varner sold the property to Columbus R. Patton of Kentucky and it became known as Patton Place. After changing hands several times again, in 1901, former Texas Gov. James Stephen Hogg purchased the land. The Hogg heirs never lived on the plantation but instead found it plentiful of oil reserves as Gov. Hoggs had correctly predicted before his death. In 1958, Ima, the governor’s daughter, donated the plantation to the people of Texas.

photos by http://www.visitvarnerhoggplantation.com