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    Houston's Historic Mansion

    This $11.5 million Houston mansion brings historic luxury — and the legend of the indoor home skating rink

    Barbara Kuntz
    Barbara Kuntz
    Jul 6, 2014 | 8:24 am

    Editor's Note: Houston, the surrounding areas and beyond are loaded with must-have houses for sale in all shapes, sizes and price ranges. In this continuing series, CultureMap snoops through some of the best and gives you the lowdown on what's hot on the market.

    Malvern Estate at 7 Winston Woods, one of Houston's grandest John Staub-designed homes, is now up for sale. It carries a $11.5 million asking price and boasts direct ties to old Houston society of the rich, educated and sophisticated — and lots of oil men.

    A bit of background
    Malvern was completed in 1938 by Staub for late Houston businessman James O. Winston Jr. The acreage was carved from equestrian property owned by the late Stephen Power Farish of Humble Oil and his late brother, William Stamps Farish II, former president of Standard Oil.

    William Stamps Farish II brought Staub to Houston in 1921 when he was a young architect in New York. Staub’s inspiration for Malvern came from The Wick, an 18th-century late Georgian house in Richmond, Greater London.

    Winston Woods’ private road is bordered and curbed with Belgian block cobblestone from the streets of lower Manhattan.

    Staub is reported to have traveled with the Winstons to England to acquire some of the antique elements that now grace Malvern. In addition, Winston commissioned Houston Brick & Tile Co. to reproduce the sand-surfaced bricks at the Governor's Palace in Williamsburg, Va., for the Houston estate The wall enclosing Winston Woods also was inspired by the wall surrounding that post-colonial building.

    The present owners purchased Malvern and its original 12 acres from the Winston family in 1997. Since then, they subdivided the property to create the 12-acre Winston Woods, a gated enclave of eight home sites and private nature preserve. Their comprehensive, research-driven restoration and detailed modernization was a 14-year project.

    The house
    Original hardwood floors, inlaid with parquet patterns, extend from the rotunda foyer throughout the house. Highlights in the formal living room include a centrally framed ceiling panel with trompe l’oeil sky distract and antique fireplace with an ornate marble frieze carved with mythological figures. The dining room overlooks the terrace and park.

    The more informal morning room is bright and lively with Brunschwig & Fils-covered walls, and the library is paneled in rich mahogany. The spacious kitchen is up-to-date and professionally equipped, with a cozy family room just steps away.

    On the second floor, the master suite has access to a rear balcony and includes two updated bathrooms and dressing areas with custom walk-in closets. Also on the second floor, four additional bedroom suites offer private bathrooms and walk-in or multiple deep closets. The Winstons left the third floor of the house floored but not finished, and their children (reportedly) used it as an indoor skating rink.

    Re-purposing its original, long-leaf pine planks, the present owners converted the large open space into two dormer bedrooms. In total, the house has nine full baths and four half-baths.

    The grounds
    Lush parterres near the kitchen are stocked with culinary herbs, mature fruit and berry trees and perennial flowering plants. Pennsylvania green stone terraces surround the house and transition to stacked-stone and brick paths that travel to a contiguous 2.134 acre wooded, restricted reserve and to the bayou. There, owners enjoy a flagstone waterfall, flowing pond and a fire pit.

    The guest quarters above the three-car garage was constructed almost entirely from reclaimed materials salvaged from the original garage and its second-floor living quarters.

    Winston Woods’ private road is bordered and curbed with Belgian block cobblestone from the streets of lower Manhattan. When those streets were renovated in the late-20th century, 60 tons of cobblestone was purchased and shipped to Houston by rail for Winston Woods.

    Square footage: 10,153

    Asking price: $11.5 million

    Listing agent: Steve Baumgardner, John Daugherty Realtors

    The back yard at Malvern, which also includes access to an additional contiguous two-plus acres of the wooded and restricted reserve.

    On the Market 7 Winston Woods July 2014 large back yard
      
    Photo courtesy of © TK Images
    The back yard at Malvern, which also includes access to an additional contiguous two-plus acres of the wooded and restricted reserve.
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    frankly speaking

    Houston custom home builder opens state-of-the-art new showroom

    Emily Cotton
    May 23, 2025 | 1:00 pm
    Frankel Design Build
    Photo by Kerry Kirk
    Welcome to Frankel Design Build.

    Imagine a custom home builder capable of radiating such cool confidence in the execution of their finished product that they’re happy to maintain the property long after the completion of the project—impossible? Enter Frankel Design Build. The Frankel experience begins in their exceptional new client-only design showroom, where the firm’s signature scent (none other than luxury brand Loewe’s Tomato Leaves candle) permeates the air and “ends,” so to speak, with enrollment in their home maintenance and management program.

    The innovative, multi-award-winning, Houston-based firm recently debuted a swanky new design showroom in the Houston Design District showcasing product vignettes and technologies far exceeding what is available to preview with other custom builders. The showroom brings truly custom features to life, including a full-sized vault door; a custom quartz hydraulics-lift meeting table that doubles as a standing workspace; a 14-foot, sliding glass door system by Mirror Gallery, Inc.; along with herringbone hardwood floors, a full bar with custom metal fabricated details, and Venetian plastered walls.

    Clients will find a curated range of selections — from tile, hardware, and plumbing fixtures to lighting, custom cabinetry, and millwork — sourced from trusted industry partners such as Visual Comfort and Ann Sacks, among others. This unique blend of offerings empowers clients to personalize every detail with intention.

    For nearly four decades, the Frankel family’s luxury residential home business has maintained a reputation for a client-forward culture. Founded in 1988 by Jim Frankel, sons and current co-presidents Scott and Kevin Frankel are continuing this legacy through their new showroom.

    “We are trying to create the best environment for people who design and the best customers to get together and come up with great ideas,” Scott tells CultureMap. “I think it’s a little different for a home builder, particularly a custom home builder, to open up a space that is just for their clients to enhance that experience.”

    Each area of the showroom has been outfitted with high-tech A/V equipment that will allow clients to engage with the Frankel team remotely, if need be. “What we’re trying to do, as our clients are busy — they’re active, they’ve got stuff going on in their personal lives, kids, work — we’ve tried to put together a facility that puts together interior design and architecture, and put our clients in a position where they’re able to do this, and they’re not having to run all over town,” says Scott. “It’s a pretty big investment for a home builder to make on the custom side.”

    With thousands of tangible samples on-hand, including full-sized door and glass options, the Frankels recognize that keeping up with a showroom of this magnitude will require a lot of management, but it’s not a challenge they’re prepared to shy away from.

    “Our interior design team isn’t just helping clients make their selections. They are looking at everything that’s out there and then making sure that this place is curated to building and designing a home right now,” says Kevin. “It has to be a lot of showrooms in one.”

    Potential custom home buyers sometimes find themselves apprehensive when exploring the possibility of building homes, mostly due to some illusive bad experience a “friend of a friend” had when working with a builder. Frankel Design Build puts clients at ease through their active flexibility. “This for me is just so different from what custom builders try to do. Typically, what they are doing is going ‘you are limited to this,’” says Scott, noting that anything their team has chosen is already in the budget — there are no surprises.

    Ever the realist, Kevin understands that social media can play a large part in determining whether clients stick to their original selections.

    “It’s such a long process, and we want people to feel good about it. It just takes more management from us, which we’ve always been willing to do,” he says. “The day after your plan is done, do we expect for you to stop looking at Instagram? We don’t. We have to be flexible. We know you’re looking at Instagram.”

    Through their family of companies, which also includes AVEA Pools & Outdoor Living and Frankel Home Care, Frankel Design Build far exceeds what any reasonable person would consider “turn key service.” Once a Frankel home is complete, a user-friendly customer portal through Frankel Home Care allows for home care services to be scheduled at the click of a button.

    “Every home that we build, our goal is to help the customer understand that there are certain things that they might need to maintain forever. We don’t just build houses now, we build pools — we have to — and we clean those pools every week. We service generators, we clean gutters, we wash down driveways,” says Scott. “The problem is, you move in, I give you this house, and now what? To live in a house you need a list of people. I don’t want my customer to have to do that. We are in the custom design and service business — we are in the long term care business.”

    Frankel Design Build
      

    Photo by Kerry Kirk

    Welcome to Frankel Design Build.

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