Foster, Eldred W., House
9608 Heron Dr., Fort Worth, TXThe Eldred W. Foster House, 9608 Heron Drive, appears to be the first documented example of a post-war modem residence built from plans for an "Expandable House" published in the January, 1948 issue of the Woman's Home Companion Magazine. First in a series of articles featuring designs by leading modernists, the house was designed by the New York and Tokyo architectural firm of Raymond & Rado. Antonin Raymond and his wife, Noemi, were members of the Taliesin East fellowship in 1915-16. Raymond then served as Frank Lloyd Wright's chief designer for Tokyo's Imperial Hotel in 1921 before opening his own fum and launching a career in Japan during which he would be hailed as the father of modem architecture in that country. Raymond's chief designer for the Expandable House was David L. Leavitt, winner of the Princeton and Rome Prizes, whose international career included design of the National Historic Landmark "Dragon Rock" in Garrison, New York. With minor alteration at the time of construction, the house was faithfully built to the specifications by Eldred Foster, then a design engineer at the Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Company plant, located a few miles east of the site of the house on the southwest shore of Lake Worth. The small residence retains virtually all of its original historic features, both exterior and interior, and appears to be the only representative work of Antonin Raymond in Texas. The Foster house is nominated to the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion C in the area of Architecture at the local level as an excellent example of an architect-designed post-war contemporary house. It is also a prime example of the influence of shelter magazines on American architectural development of the post-war period as they introduced principles of modem design and at the same time encouraged affordable and expandable housing for a growing American population at mid-century. The period of significance is 1951 through 1958, covering the date of construction through the completion of two expansions.
Local significance of the building:Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 2012.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.