Retro realtor Ed Murchison just forced us out of our vacation week with this fastball in the form of this 1955 Fort Worth, Texas midcentury modern ranch house stunner listed for sale just hours ago. Right away it’s clear that this house is another home run. It is packed with gorgeous original features including amazing sculptural concrete walls, carved doors, miles of terrazzo flooring, floor-to-ceiling windows, a guest house and a pool that would make anyone feel as though they lived at a tropical resort. The home — like this 1967 ranch we recently featured — is another home built for the Brandt family — makers of A. Brandt Ranch House Furniture.
- Price: $238,000
- Year built: 1955
- Square footage: 3,581
- Bedrooms: 3
- Bathrooms: 2
This is one amazing Mid-century Modern estate. Built in 1955 for Paul Brandt and his wife, the design was based on a Lars Bang home built in Houston that won an award for the best Modern Small Home. The design of that home was expanded by adding a guest house wing that connects to the main house via a glass atrium. As you step through the front doors, you enter into the entry courtyard featuring an incredible decorative sculptural screen that separates the entry from the garage. Through the double doors, you enter into a generous entry hall that leads you into the bright and spacious great room featuring terrazzo floors and a wall of floor to ceiling glass affording views of the pool and expansive lawn. The open concept kitchen features the original cabinets, granite counters and stainless steel appliances. The carpets have been removed from the bedrooms and are ready for the new owner to finish to their liking. The guest house has been taken to the studs, rewired and has new sheet rock. This space is ready to be finished-out how the new owner wants to use this part of the house. It would make a great guest house, mother-in-law suite or could be a income producing rental property. From the design of the house to the nearly two acre site, this is truly a one-of-kind Mid-century Modern estate. Come take a look and just image what you could do with this place. Cool and interesting original architectural details abound…don’t miss the decorative glass wall along the front of the house and the metal screens that connect the main house and the guest house…beautiful! A good deal of work has been done…it is now ready for you to take it to the next level. This home is one of the outstanding modern homes built by the Brandt family. Paul Brandt’s father was the founder of Ranch Oak furniture and Paul founded Ranch Oak Farms.
Texture is the name of the game in this property. While the home’s color palette itself is neutral, elements such as exposed brick walls, glass block and the gorgeous cement screen wall — shown above — insure the home is anything but ordinary.
On the exterior, decorative ironwork adds loads of interest to the home’s simple facade.
The main living area of the home is open and airy and the kitchen retains many of its original features including the mocha wall ovens and gorgeous terrazzo flooring.
Could there be a more timeless bathroom than the this? The simple, sleek lines of the vanity and the yummy blue and white coloring of the space feels just as fresh and clean as it must have in 1955.
The home’s other bathroom follows a similar style with warm peachy tiles. I love how the laminate top folds around the front of the vanity and helps conceal the drawers, don’t you?
An then, just when you think this property can’t get any more fantastic, there’s this beautiful pool. Just heavenly!
Mega thanks to our friend and retro realtor Ed Murchison for sending us this fabulous property and to the photographers at Shoot2Sell Photography for taking such great photos.
Tips to view slide show: Click on first image… it will enlarge and you can also read my captions… move forward or back via arrows below the photo… you can start or stop at any image:
Steve says
Hi, I was just wondering how you can justify watermarking images throughout your site that you have not taken and are not yours to watermark?
Thanks, just a concerned photographer.
pam kueber says
Hi Steve. It’s always been my understanding that adding a website watermark is appropriate if the content was provided with permission and of course, we always give a hotlinked named credit; if I am misunderstanding this, of course I’d like to know it! From reading our stories, I think our process is pretty transparent: On stories like this one, we are in touch with the listing agent and either through them or directly via the photographers we obtain permission to feature their image(s) on our site. So, they know what we are doing. As you also know from reading our stories, we also provide named hotlinked credits identifying the photographers and thank them for their permission — often twice in each story. With all this information described, it’s pretty clear that we did not shoot the photos, but that we were granted permission to feature them on our site. We also watermark images that readers provide to us, and again, it’s pretty clear in these stories that we did not take these photos — our readers sent them to us to help illustrate their story. In general, we started watermarking about a year ago because other sites were taking images that we had worked to gather (including seeking out permissions) specifically for our site, without asking us and quite often providing no credits to anyone. Also, if a photographer asked us not to watermark, we would of course respect their wishes!
Does this make sense to you? My first and foremost goal is to “do the right thing”, I assure you! All this said: I will be doublechecking with my own properly licensed professional on this issue to make sure I am thinking this through correctly. Thanks for sharing your concerns!
Callie says
How do I unsubscribe from comments? ACK! My inbox is overflowing and I don’t want to Block RR completely.
pam kueber says
Callie, look at the bottom of the email that you’re getting. There should be a place to unsubscribe.
Kent says
Amazed at what you can get for under $250k in Texas! Where I live in Ontario Canada, you couldn’t get a shack for that. Seriously, you could spend years, you wouldn’t even find a decent midcentury modern house anywhere here (Windsor area).
Anyone want to adopt us? 😉
Lisa says
It is a fabulous home. If it were on a different side of town it would be worth 6 times the price. It’s all about location !
Dan says
Ed,
When will you be having an open house?
Ed Murchison says
I don’t have an open planned at the moment. I will keep everyone posted if we do!
nickarmadillo says
Oh, the things I’d do for a place like that…!
Carole says
*jaw drops*
Seriously. All I can say is ‘wow’.
I’ve always wanted a window wall like that. And I’ll tell you I’d give about anything for either one of those bathrooms for size alone.
It surprises me that being in Ft. Worth it’s not more expensive. Ft. Worth isn’t out in the middle of nowhere. It certainly isn’t very expensive for the amount of sq footage or the location, and that looks like quite a large property. In Oregon something like this would be crazy expensive, not only because of the size, but because of the style.
If it were here and that price, I’d be bugging hubby to move. lol
Jay says
So all it takes is a liitle MCM house porn to pull you kids out of hibernation. All these MCM houses are truly gems in the expression of creativity and design using common materials. The likes of such houses will probably never be built again. Thanks for sharing.
pam kueber says
We’re working, not really vacationing. Yes, easily distracted — especially when we can have something first on the www!
Leslie says
I love it! The exterior reminds me of the mid century elementary schools that went to, though! Kind of has an institutional feel. I love the minimalism, clean and uncluttered feel of MCM architecture and design, none the less.
Callie says
What kind of floor is that in the kitchen? I thought it was terrazzo, but it’s divided up into tiles.
pam kueber says
Terrazzo often was poured in squares like this. I am not sure what the dividing material is. Ed — when you read this can you respond?
Ed Murchison says
I am not really sure what the material is. It looks like aluminum or stainless.
Allen says
Typically terrazzo floors were poured with zinc dividers.
Cynthia says
Dividing lines in the terrazzo are metal, sometimes it was stainless steel or even dull brass. The terrazzo was poured with the super thin strips of metal in place and they were exposed by the grinding and polishing process that produces the finished terrazzo.
Gary Morgan says
They are typically called schulter strips, aluminum, Stainless, or brass and used to create the patterns you see in terrazzo. Also used at transitions between carpet and tile to keep the edge of your tile from spawling.
Nick V says
Awesome house! Is there anyway to see higher-resolution photos, though? Many of your posts seem to have pretty small images, which are difficult to properly appreciate on a large, modern monitor.
pam kueber says
in the stories photos render at 500 wide
in the slide shows we run them up to 1000 pixels wide, if we have copies that wide
loading any larger starts to tax bandwidth