The Country Houses of John Staub

The Country Houses of John F. Staub
Stephen Fox
Color Photography by Richard Cheek
Texas A&M University Press

Houston Texas – 1930’s. By the first quarter of the 20th century, Houston had made a dramatic evolution from the dusty southern outpost of the late 19th century into (basically) the city we know today. Industry was in full swing and there was a growing class of socialites moving into town, the Weiss’s, Farish’s, and Dow’s all of whom had significant social status, and all of whom needed fittingly elite abodes.

Enter John F. Staub, arguably Houston’s most notable architect and certainly the most suave. Though Staub arrived in Houston at the beginning of the depression he managed to design over twenty country mansions in River Oaks between 1930 and ‘41 effectively securing his position as the go-to architect of the Houston upper-class elite. Staub was a great architect, but he was a genius at creating and defining a domestic style for Houston’s most prominent citizens. By combining a sensibility for the traditional, Romanesque, gothic, tudor and neoclassical with the austerity dictated by modern times, Stuab arrived at a style that was at once timeless, immediately en vogue, and eminently marketable.

Fast-forward some 60 years and Houston finds itself once again in a similarly booming social atmosphere. Development is racing, and the conspicuous construction the social elite is again pertinent. It’s timely then that nearly a generation after Staub’s death (1981) and the publication of the only other collection of Stuab’s work by Howard Barnstone (1979, University of Texas Press) that Stephen Fox and The Texas A&M University Press should release a dramatically revised version of the architect’s work. The Country Houses of John F. Staub is nothing short of a full-scale presentation of Staub’s most influential and notable residential projects. Rife with lush color images courtesy of Richard Cheek, the ambitious project presents not only the architectural objects in full-color but renders the larger picture of upper-crust Houston life circa 1950 in high resolution.

Of course styles, people, and places have changed – double height downtown lofts instead of sprawling country houses and sleek glass and steel in exchange for brick and mortar -- but the drama and pageantry seem refreshingly similar. Those interested in Houston architecture, history and style will find The Country Houses of John F. Staub both rewarding and enjoyable, and maybe even a little familiar.

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