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61 T he July 2023 destruction of the Claud B. Hamill House at 2124 River Oaks Boulevard, a classic design of 1939 whose elliptical portico was one of the visual icons of River Oaks, was the catalyst for this series. The work of Houston's great country house architect, John F. Staub, the Hamill House is vividly remembered and intensely mourned. Demolishing the Hamill House, instead of selectively removing clumsy additions and restoring its sweeping front lawn, erased a chapter in the social history of River Oaks and Houston. Tearing down a beautiful and important house denies future generations the ability to experience the cultural creativity fostered by Houston clients and their designers. All that remains are architectural ghosts: photos, drawings, published accounts, and personal recollections of lost residences whose disappearance diminishes not only their neighborhoods but the city where they once stood. This requiem memorializes a legacy of artistic achievement — and collective loss. Vanishing River Oaks River Oaks is now turning 100. Rather than prompting veneration for its architectural heritage, this milestone has been accompanied by incessant demolition as mega-millionaires and billionaires pay enormous prices for real estate, only to knock down houses that don't fit their needs and replace them. That the teardowns may have been designed by Houston's a rc h i t e c t u r a l l u m i n a r i e s is irrelevant. Alongside the recent Staub house demolition, another loss that is still remembered and mourned is the May 2005 demolition of the Proctor-Hogg- McDermott-Stude House at 2950 Lazy Lane, next door to Bayou Bend. Designed by architect Birdsall P. Briscoe in the Norman manorial style, Dogwoods was distinguished by its mixed blend of brick laid in Flemish bond and originally whitewashed. The "country house" also boasted a circular entrance turret, a grand spiral staircase that appeared to float, and elaborate interiors with carved architraves, baseboards bearing egg-and-dart moldings, plaster ceilings in Robert Adam-inspired wreathes and garlands, and a paneled library with hexagonal coffered ceiling. Its formal grounds, designed by Kansas City landscape architects Hare & Hare, included a Clock Garden which featured a prominent exterior clock mounted on the house façade. It was built in 1928 by the lawyer Frederick C. Proctor, who sold it in 1931 to Mike and Alice Hogg, Bayou Bend doyenne Ima Hogg's brother and sister-in-law. The handsome edifice was christened Dogwoods after a journalist pal of Mike Hogg noted that the property's woods were overrun by the owner's hunting dogs. The house was sold in 2004 to its final owner, who demolished it. The recurring reasons given for demolition are that historic homes are too small, cost too much to rehabilitate, and don't easily adapt to 21st-century lifestyles (i.e., closets are inadequate, and the kitchen is not in the living room). Mid-century River Oaks residences by architects MacKie & Kamrath, Hugo V. Neuhaus, and O'Neil Ford, and even recent (in some cases, 21st-century!) houses by Carlos Jiménez and Scott Strasser-Erick Ragni have been demolished. The City of Houston provides for protection of the street- facing exteriors of a building that has been designated a historic landmark; this type of permanent designation can only be sought by a property's owners. In other cases, the city will designate a building as a historic site even over the homeowners' objection, but if owners want to alter or demolish the building, they have only to wait 90 days, and the city will award them a building (or demolition) permit. Thanks to the advocacy of residents Kelley H. Trammell, Minnette B. Boesel, Jane Dale Owen, Susan Garwood, and Celia and James Munisteri in the wake of the Proctor- Hogg House demolition, more than 70 property owners in River Oaks voluntarily sought historic designations for their homes. The fallback remains persuasion — and education. How else does one instill admiration and respect in custodians of architecture intent on destroying history, especially when they have the means to do so. J. S. Cullinan House, 2 Remington Lane, 1918 Oil brought a new magnitude of wealth to Houston. This was materialized in houses exhibiting an architectural sophistication not evident before the mid-1910s. One of the most imposing was built by oilman J. S. Cullinan. The son of Irish immigrants, Cullinan was brought to Texas from Western Pennsylvania in 1895 to advise business leaders in Corsicana, 50 miles south of Dallas, about how to deal with a vexing problem. While drilling for water wells These architectural ghosts remind us of how we got where we are today. — Stephen Fox FROM THE ARCHITECTURE OF BIRDSALL P. BRISCOE BY STEPHEN FOX (TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY PRESS, © 2023). PHOTO BY PAUL HESTER.