Mid-Century Modern (San Antonio, Alamo, Terrell: for sale, new home, established neighborhood)

[KatieBlue]

I have heard you can find some reasonable Mid-century modern homes in SA still? Is this true. Are they in nice neighborhoods?
I posted another thread about my family potentially moving from North Dakota to SA in May 2008. I like the looks of some of the newer neighborhoods in the North but I do love mid-cent homes, too. We would be looking at a price range around 300,000 to 350,000 most likely - I have to check into PT salaries further to know for sure.

[smuboy86]

for a forum search for mid century mod..There is a huge topic on it, from what neighborhoods have it to prices, to our lust over some of the properties.

[PrettyHateMachine]

Click on these:

Mid-Century Modernist Homes

Old neighborhoods in the NEISD?

78228...

Older neighborhoods/suburbs in SA


...and with your budget you should find a sweet pad.

[googie2525]

...and don't forget to look at my MILTON RYAN (the daddy o' San Antonio Modernism) topics/threads - the owners are gettin' old, and a few might pop up for sale any day now !

Predominant mcm (and I mean NICE mcm, not tract mcm) areas are (in order):

1. Terrell Hills/Oak Park/Northwood/Bel Meade AREA
2. Castle Hills (and surrounding area - they're spread all over the place over there, on BOTH sides of the highway - Loop 410)
3. Oak Hills (also check out some of the REALLY cool/wild mcm's in Oak Hills Terrace, next door - although more 60's in vibe for the most part, but STILL mid-century technically)...here's a current mcm Oak Hills listing:

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s247/theweirdone1971/SABOR660142.jpg (broken link)

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s247/theweirdone1971/SABOR660142A.jpg (broken link)

...it's listed at a tad over 279K. Nice established neighborhood. Huge yards in most cases.

...oh yeah, here's a recent listing for an AMAZING O'Neil Ford in Olmos Park (OVER a million though!), not too many mcm's there (maybe 4 tops):

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s247/theweirdone1971/8054_1.jpg (broken link)

...btw, here's the late great "Dunwoody House" in Terrell Hills to drool over (RIP), designed and built by Milton Ryan...the empty lot has recently sprouted a FOR SALE sign BTW (the McMansion/flipping trend in Terrell Hills is REALLY cooling down at the moment):

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s247/theweirdone1971/dunwoodyhouse.jpg (broken link)

[KatieBlue]

Wow that million dollar home looks great - think I would have to work like 80 hours/week to afford that one, though! Even that would be pushing it!!!!
And thanks for those links - very helpful!
My husband likes NEW home, though. So, I would really have to talk him into this. I just love modern design - clean lines. Wonder how my 2 yr old's toys would fit the decor!

[KatieBlue]

Who in the BLEEP tore that Dunwoody house down????

[googie2525]

Originally Posted by KatieBlue

Who in the BLEEP tore that Dunwoody house down????

...ah, ya know, some creep developer looking to build a cheaply-built mcmansion to flip for a fast buck, as a matter of fact, they're tearin' down those milton ryan mcm's (and others) all over terrell hills - the lots are worth WAY more than the homes...sad but true...i know one ryan for sale right now that's AMAZING in terrell, but like 500K, i think it's being reduced though - it's ALL original, so it kinda needs some work in that respect (like updated plumbing, electrical, new roof i'm sure, etc.), probably not very kid-friendly either...

[smuboy86]

I wish Terrell Hills would jump on a tear down moratorium like AH. In 15 years there are going to look around go "crap" when everything looks like a glorified stucco Olive Garden. I'm glad Northwood/oakpark got it's rezoning to make it less attractive to developers to teardown.

[googie2525]

Originally Posted by smuboy86

I wish Terrell Hills would jump on a tear down moratorium like AH. In 15 years there are going to look around go "crap" when everything looks like a glorified stucco Olive Garden. I'm glad Northwood/oakpark got it's rezoning to make it less attractive to developers to teardown.

I'm with you, brutha-man. Hopefully the market in Terrell will continue to cool on the McMansions, or just stop altogether, it would be great if folks would just go back to buying and restoring (and enjoying - NOT flipping) these beauties to their original selves, like Monte Vista, Mahnke Park, King William, etc.

[jules07]

Did you guys see the July edition of Architectural Digest? There's a story about a house in Alamo Height that was built to "look 100 years old" (looks "Tuscan" style McMansion to me). Said that there were two adjacent lots in AH that both had houses "which dated from the 1950's, were summarily taken down...." Makes me wonder??????????? Same ed of the mag, tho, and there's an article entitled "Echoes of Tuscany" and the place looks almost MCM rather than what is typically represented as "Tuscan".

OK, on to opinions. Otherhalf and I really love MCM (I'm a more recent convert than he is), but it looks like we're kinda "stuck" in our house for a good long while (kids love the neighborhood, and the roots have kinda planted). Our house is pretty old (almost 30 years) and we're needing to do some renovations. Although the exterior is definately not MCM (tho some of the houses in the neighborhood have little hints/remnants of it), we're thinking of re-doing the interior pretty eclectic/MCM. If we do what we want, we'll probably *never* be able to sell it (and as a Realtor, I know better than that ), but it's what we want to do. Are we as crazy as we think we are? LOL!