Jones-Hunt House

The Jones-Hunt House, designed by Alfred C. Finn and built between 1919-21, reflects the elegance and architectural quality common along Courtlandt Place, one of Houston's earliest and most exclusive subdivisions. The house has a unique importance to the neighborhood as the only residence to be owned and occupied continuously by the same family. The Jones-Hunt House has been continuously maintained by the family and remained a stabilizing influence that began to draw many young families into the neighborhood in the 1970s.

The architect for the house, Alfred C. Finn, originally began with the firm of Sanguinet and Staats in 1904, moving to Houston in 1913 to assist A. E. Barnes with the firm's Houston clients. By 1915 Finn left the firm and went into practice for himself. Some of Finn's significant works include the Governor Ross S. Sterling House (1915), the San Jacinto Monument and Museum (1939), the Gulf Building (1929), the Metropolitan Theater (1926), and the Sam Houston Coliseum/Music Hall (1937).

The house at 24 Courtlandt Place was built by Sarah Brashear Jones. Sarah Brashear and her parents were among the earliest Houston settlers moving from North Carolina and Tennessee in 1839 to Houston. Her father, Isaac Brashear became an extensive land owner, at one time owning most of the large tract of downtown property that became known as Houston Heights. In 1875 Sarah Brashear married Col. James Warren Jones of Clarksville, Tennessee, a lawyer who had moved to Houston in 1870. Col. and Mrs. Jones were prominent in political and social affairs in Houston in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Col. Jones served for six years as a member of the Texas State Senate and was on the committee in the late 1890s that went to Washington to secure an appropriation for the Houston Ship Channel. The Jones had built a Victorian residence at Main and Dallas Avenue in 1890. By 1919, however, this land had become prime commercial real estate and residences were being torn down to accommodate new businesses. Sarah Jones decided to build a house on Courtlandt Place, utilizing as much of the old house's interior ornament as possible.

In 1925 Mrs. Irene Jones Hunt, daughter of the Jones', inherited the house. Her husband, W. C. Hunt, was prominent in the shipping business as the manager of a European shipping company. The Their
couple was active in Houston's community and social life. daughter, Effie Hunt Heald, who has lived in the house for most of her life, inherited the house at her mother's death in 1973 and continues to live there.