Page 6 - Lazy Lane

John Daugherty, Realtors Proudly presents
Lazy Lane

Imagine more than five pristine wooded acres in River Oaks nestled between prestigious Lazy Lane

Boulevard and sloping all the way to Buffalo Bayou. To the west, across a narrow ravine, Ima Hogg’s
fabled Bayou Bend and to the east, a large tract of land stretching to Kirby Drive untouched except
by one small dwelling. Such was the scene when Houston entrepreneur-financier John Maher and

wife, Lois, decided to settle on this plot with their family in the early 1960s. They began by hiring
renowned architect Howard Barnstone and business partner, Eugene Aubrey, to design a large

modern home that one architect would later describe as “an aristocrat’s tree house.”

According to Aubrey, Ima Hogg, “The First Lady of Texas,” could watch the construction of the Maher

house from her side gardens. “She almost had a coronary when she saw the site cleared and the
steel go up,” Aubrey is remembered as saying. “Actually, we had only cut the trees when necessary

for the placement of the house.” This house would later be noted as one of the most magnificently
designed homes in Houston. When it was built, Architectural Record Houses called it “treetop living
— a house that inserts itself confidently, even regally, into the landscape.”

Barnstone, who liked his houses to reflect his clients’ personalities, visualized the duality of the
enormous presence of the very tall Maher and his rather petite wife, resulting in the structure on

Lazy Lane becoming one of his most spectacular designs. In an article from Architectural Record,
“Record Houses of 1965,” Barnstone notes that the house was conceived of in two masses, the
front mass containing entry, bedrooms and all family spaces while the back mass consists of the

huge living and dining rooms, with parking spaces beneath. The steel and glass living-dining room
seem almost to be suspended among the trees, and is unquestionably the most dramatic feature of

an unusually interesting scheme. The enormous pavilion consists of a 55-foot by 30-foot steel truss
resting on 4-foot by 4-foot brick columns. It is elevated to the house’s main level on huge piers, a
magnificent 14-foot high rectangular space, open by glass walls on three sides. Barnstone was fond

of saying “the Maher house is a p-a-l-a-c-e!”

The Lazy Lane property was sold in 1987 to oil company president Mary Ralph Lowe. Under her
ownership, little was done to change the home from its original design, except the kitchen, which
was transformed into more of an industrial look, with two of almost every appliance. She also did