11 Most Endangered
George Kraigher House
Year Listed: 2004
Location: Texas
Current Status: Saved
Threat: Neglect, Poor Public Policy
A little-known landmark of the recent past, the 1937 Kraigher House is an important example of the groundbreaking work of Richard J. Neutra, one of America's - and the world's - most influential and highly acclaimed modern architects. The house he designed for George Kraigher, a Pan American Airways pilot, is one of the few Neutra houses outside of California and may have been the first International Style house in Texas. Despite its impeccable pedigree, the house has been vacant for years and is scarred by the effects of neglect, vandalism, water penetration and termites. The City of Brownsville, current owner of the property, needs to take immediate steps to weatherize and restore the house and market it to a sensitive buyer - or a unique structure that once represented the wave of the future could become a thing of the past.
Update
In December of 2005 an agreement was created between the City and the University of Texas Brownsville that would allow the City to retain ownership while the University took on the responsibility of restoring the house in accordance with Richard Neutra's original signed drawings. Upon completion, slated for 2008, the Kraigher House life will be brought back to what had become an empty shell. The University and the City agreed the Kraigher House would always be accessible to the public.
