Ned A. & Linda S. Eppes House
Houston, Harris County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Erected in 1926 in the new Jandor Gardens planned neighborhood for concrete manufacturer Ned. A. Eppes (1883-1929) and his family on land purchased by Linda S. Eppes, this house was among the earliest in Houston constructed of concrete building materials. The Italian renaissance villa-inspired block house features a stucco finish and an elaborate Spanish mission door surround, both unusual until the 1930s. Independent architect John McLelland and the firm of Brickey, Wiggins and Brickey are credited with the design of the house. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1998
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built in 1926 in one of Houston's new planned neighborhoods, this villa-style house was an experiment in modern building materials, raised in concrete when most homes were still wood and brick. Commissioned for a concrete manufacturer, it showed off stucco finishes and a Spanish mission doorway that would not become fashionable for years. It stands as an early local test of construction methods that would soon spread across suburban America.
Why it matters
It captures the moment when new industrial materials began transforming the ordinary American home and the look of the growing suburbs.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Houston in the mid-1920s was expanding outward as fast as it was rising upward. The oil economy was minting prosperity, automobiles were remaking how people lived, and developers answered with a new idea: the planned neighborhood, laid out in advance with a coherent look and feel rather than growing lot by lot. Jandor Gardens was one of these new planned communities, and this house was built there in 1926.
It was also a moment of quiet revolution in how houses were made. For generations, American homes had been built of wood and brick. But new industrial materials — concrete chief among them — were beginning to promise something sturdier and more fire-resistant, and a few forward-looking builders were willing to test them on ordinary homes.
That experimental spirit fit the Progressive and early modern era, when faith in industry and innovation ran high. In a city built on the extraction and refining of raw materials, it was fitting that someone would try to build the home itself out of a manufactured one.
People & events
The house was erected in 1926 for Ned A. Eppes and his family, on land purchased by Linda S. Eppes. Ned's trade gives the home its meaning: he was a concrete manufacturer, and this dwelling was among the earliest in Houston constructed of concrete building materials. In other words, the man who made the material built his own family's home out of it — a personal advertisement in stone.
The design turned that industrial substance into something graceful. Inspired by an Italian Renaissance villa, the block house wore a smooth stucco finish and, at its entrance, an elaborate Spanish mission door surround — both features that were unusual in Houston until the 1930s, making the home ahead of its neighborhood's taste as well as its construction methods.
The design is credited to independent architect John McLelland together with the firm of Brickey, Wiggins and Brickey. What they produced was a house that concealed its experimental bones inside a romantic, old-world skin — modern engineering dressed as a Mediterranean villa. In 1998 it was recognized as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark.
Its place in the American story
This house captures a pivotal shift in the American home. The early twentieth century saw new industrial materials — concrete, steel, manufactured products of every kind — begin to move from factories and bridges into the places where ordinary families lived. Building a residence of concrete in 1926 was a small wager on that future, made at the very moment the future was arriving.
Its stylistic choices point the same direction. The stucco finish and Spanish mission doorway that seemed unusual here would, within a decade, become fashionable across the country as Mediterranean and Spanish Revival styles swept American suburbs. This home wore that look before the wave, an early local test of what would soon be everywhere.
Taken together, the material and the style make the house a marker of the moment when the mass-produced, industrially built suburb began to take shape. Multiply this single experiment across thousands of builders and neighborhoods, and you get the transformation of the twentieth-century American home — sturdier, more standardized, and drawn from the output of industry itself.
If you visit
Look at this house and try to see past its romance to its bones. The Italian Renaissance villa silhouette and the smooth stucco are lovely, but the real story is what lies beneath them: concrete, at a time when almost every neighbor's home was still wood and brick. Knowing that changes how the solid, blocky form reads.
Give special attention to the entrance. The elaborate Spanish mission door surround was a flourish ahead of its time in Houston, a preview of a style the rest of the country would embrace only later. Standing before it, you are essentially looking at a design that arrived a few years early.
Set within the planned streets of the old Jandor Gardens neighborhood, the house makes a thoughtful stop for anyone interested in how American suburbs and building methods evolved. Let it stand in your mind for the countless concrete-and-stucco homes that would follow — this one built by the very man who made the concrete, betting that the future of the American house was being poured, not just nailed together.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Ned A. Eppes
- · Linda S. Eppes
- · John McLelland
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