Kyle House, Long Avenue, Beaumont, Texas
The Kyle House in Beaumont, Texas is said to be modeled on the George Wythe House in Colonial Williamsburg (above), but to me it looks more like the Jackie Kennedy House in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. (below):
Especially on the inside.
After all, don't you think the foyer looks a little more like Jackie's than Elizabeth's?
The same could be said of the living room:
If it were mine, it would be Jackie's:
Guess what? Jackie's former house is for sale! I'll show more of it next week.
In comparison, the living room at the Wythe House in Williamsburg looks like this:
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It used to look like this, prior to 1987 when they realized the colonists didn't live as drably as first thought:
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Whether it's supposed to be or not, the Kyle House is grand and elegant and made for entertaining.
It was built in 1950, although the listing doesn't say it. They want us to think of 1750 instead.
Unlike the Wythe House, it has a Viking gas range and a SubZero refrigerator. (Similarly, Jackie's has a Wolf gas stove, but I can't tell which brand of refrigerator because it's paneled.)
Furthermore, the Kyle House has an elevator. So does Jackie's house, by the way. You can't tell me that the Wythe house has an elevator.
The Kyle House has 3 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms in 4,220 square feet.
Just for fun, I photoshopped a fancier vanity into this bathroom. This is how I relax in the evenings.
A fancier vanity might be more Georgetown influenced, but if the exterior of the house is trying to take us back to Colonial Williamsburg...
I'm not convinced it does:
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The house was built for Carol Tyrell Kyle (1904-1997) and William Wesley Kyle, Jr. (1900-1973). William and his brother B.E. Kyle owned Beaumont's Kyle Clothing Store for Men.
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It was located on the site where their father W.W. Kyle (1876-1945) had created the 1901 Kyle Opera House.
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The opera house was demolished in 1931 (people were going to movie houses instead of opera houses) and the Kyle building was built in 1933 in true Art Deco style.
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Note that the image is from the Tyrell library-- the library that daughter-in-law Carol's grandfather donated to the city of Beaumont:
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Once you go looking, you'll find their names associated with all kinds of places. This is W.W. Kyle's Quarry in nearby Zavalla, which is also for sale. (Beaumont is about 85 miles northeast of Houston.)
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The Old House Dreams listing is here.
P.S. If you're a subscriber and have been receiving duplicate emails, I apologize. I'm working to correct the problem.
