Link-Lee House

Significance

Built in 1912 by the Young Contracting Company to designs by Sanguinet, Staats & Barnes, the Link-Lee House was the home of John Wiley Link, a lawyer, lumberman and former mayor of Orange, Texas, who moved to Houston in 1910 anticipating growth from the oil industry. Link developed the Montrose subdivision and placed his own house on Block 41, fronting the newly paved Montrose Boulevard at West Alabama Street, as the showpiece of the neighborhood. The house was later owned by oilman Thomas Peter Lee, and the two names together identify it today. A monumental portico fronts the brick building, which is richly ornamented in terra cotta. Now the executive office of the University of St. Thomas, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000 and became a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 2001. It is one of the few surviving grand early mansions that recall Montrose's origins as an elite residential suburb.

Climate risks tracked

The Link-Lee House's large portico columns and terra cotta ornament are the elements most exposed to Houston's weather. Hurricane winds can lift the roof edges and loosen projecting ornament, while constant humidity and wind-driven rain work into joints between terra cotta units and brick. Maintaining roof drainage and gutters so water is carried well away from the facade does more for this house than any visible addition. Like many early 20th century Montrose houses, it rests on shallow foundations over expansive clay. Long droughts followed by heavy rain make that clay shrink and swell, which can crack masonry and rack door and window openings. Keeping soil moisture steady around the foundation and monitoring cracks are low impact measures that protect its character. Street flooding on West Alabama during intense storms also argues for protecting the basement level and mechanical systems.

Use the preservation assistant to talk through retrofit strategies for these specific threats.

Location

Nearby landmarks

• 1987 · Late Modern

  The Menil Collection

• 1971 · Late Modern

  Rothko Chapel

• 1885 · Queen Anne Victorian

  Waldo Mansion

• 1932 · Spanish Colonial Revival

  St. Anne Catholic Church