9602 Moonlight Drive (1964-2007)

Meyerland's Carousel House came crashing down today - the property's new owner Marvin Granit decided to hurry up and get it over with, just a day before Thanksgiving. The house has been an interesting architectural fixture in Houston since it was built by Robert Cohen in 1964, and has had a resurgence of attention since the previous owner John O'Quinn put it on the market. We featured the endangered home in late August, the Chronicle's Lisa Gray wrote an article last week, and the home was also featured in a Chronicle article in May of 2003 by Madeleine MacDermott Hamm. From the 2003 article:

"It's my baby," he [Cohen] says, lovingly, as he stands in the rotunda that includes a curving living room with a bar and a kitchen behind a Brazilian rosewood wall that stops far short of the center skylight 16 feet overhead.

"Sometimes people ask if this room rotates, and I say, `No, the rest of the house rotates around it.' " "I spent about 10 months designing the house in my spare time, and about another 10 months building it. It was all very exacting," he recalls. The details definitely don't sound like most residential projects. Approximately 104 piers support the house, which contains more than 15,000 pounds of steel in the structure.

More than 183,000 tiny squares of walnut cover the floor in the living room and dining room. Electrical outlets, hinges and other hardware, even air-conditioning vents, are cleverly concealed. Many cabinets, dressers, bookshelves and a see-through aquarium are either built in or were made by Cohen just for the house. A custom 32-foot sofa upholstered in deep blue velour follows the contour of the round wall until its end curls into a semicircle.

Cohen, now 90 years old, and his wife moved from the house several years ago to The Bristol - more help and less maintenance. Unfortunately, John O'Quinn bought the home and let an ex-con live there and handle some of his car business - that didn't turn out too well, the man was sent to jail, and the house sat vacant with a leaking roof for a few years. Insanely rich O'Quinn, maybe just wanting to get rid of bad memories, eventually put the house on the market. That's when Granit bought it - and demolished it.

It appears that bricks and Arkansas ledge stone from the facade of the house was salvaged prior to demolition, and we're sure Granit pocketed something for the 15,000 pounds of steel. We wonder what will take the place of the home - Granit is a home builder of the "new Bellaire" style, which will ensure the continuation of having a conspicuous home on that corner...but this time in an obtrusive way.