In the early 1920s, architect John F. Staub, a native of Knoxville, 
Tennessee, who had studied at MIT and worked in New York, 
came to the burgeoning city of Houston as an assistant to 
nationally prominent architect Harrie T. Lindeberg. Staub was 
charged with administering construction of three houses designed 
by Lindeberg for members of the city's rapidly emerging elite. He 
would go on to establish one of the most influential architectural 
practices in Houston, where he would remain until his death in 
1981.

    Over four decades, Staub designed grand houses in such 
communities as Shadyside, Broadacres, and, perhaps most 
notably, River Oaks. His clients included the Hoggs, for whom he 
created Bayou Bend; the Mastersons, his clients for Rienzi; and 
members of the Wiess, Cullen, Farish, Welder, Fay, and Elkins 
families. Although Staub also completed commissions for clients 
elsewhere in Texas and the United States, it was primarily in 
Houston that his work and influence took root.

    This ambitious study of Staub's work by architectural historian 
Stephen Fox goes beyond a description of Staub's houses. Fox 
analyzes the roles of space, structure, and decoration in creating, 
defining, and maintaining social class structures and expectations 
and shows how Staub was able to incorporate these elements and 
understandings into the elegant buildings he designed for his 
clients. In the process, he contributes greatly to a fuller 
understanding of Houston's emergence as a premier American 
city.

    Stunning color images by architectural photographer Richard 
Cheek, combined with Fox's well-grounded and expansive thesis, 
create a volume that will enchant, inform, and entertain. Students 
and aficionados of American domestic architecture of the 1920s, 
'30s, '40s, and '50s will appreciate the wealth of material, and the 
volume's contribution to architectural history and the sociology 
of architecture will commend itself to readers across the nation.

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STEPHEN FOX is a Fellow of the Anchorage Foundation of Texas. 
RICHARD CHEEK is one of the foremost architectural photographers 
in America. His work has been showcased in more than a dozen 
volumes published by some of the nation's most prestigious presses.


Number Eleven: Sara and John Lindsey Series in the Arts and 
Humanities


What people are saying about this book

"The Country Houses of John F. Staub. . . stands well out from the 
crowd.  Fox and Cheek have created what will likely become the 
definitive academic study of an American regionalist architect’s 
domestic work. It is also one of the most beautiful architecture 
books of the year."—Architect’s Newspaper