Sterling, Ross,S., House

The Texas White House, a 21,000 sq. ft. likeness of the President's home in Washington, D.C. was built from 1924-1927 with a panoramic view of Galveston Bay and near the oilfields where its original owner, former Texas governor, petroleum tycoon, and philanthropist, Ross S. Sterling (1875-1949) amassed, lost and regained his enormous fortune. Legend has it that Sterling approached prestigious Houston architect Alfred C. Finn, pulled out a twenty dollar bill, and, pointing to the south portico of the White House, said, "Build this for me." Although the copy was basically unsuccessful, the monumentality and audacity portrayed are a fitting expression of Ross Sterling's career, and the house is one of the major landmarks of the Texas Gulf Coast.

Born in nearby Anahuac, Texas, Ross Shaw Sterling initially made his living raising livestock. With his brother Frank, he worked as an oil operator and together they purchased an option on two wells in Humble and Goose Creek, Texas in 1910. Ross Sterling incorporated the Humble Oil and Refinery Company (now Exxon) in Baytown with a capital investment of $4 million and served as first president and later as Chairman of the Board until his resignation in 1925. Under Sterling's leadership Humble's assets increased to $100 million. From 1925 to 1930, Sterling turned his attention to real estate and to the development of Houston's central business district. He also purchased and merged the city's competing dailies, the Post and the Dispatch; and he chaired the executive committees of the Houston National Bank, the Houston-Harris County Navigation Board, and the Texas Highway Department.

Concurrently, Sterling and his wife, nee Maude Gage, built their bayside mansion with the assistance of the interurban railroad that routed its track within 100 yards of the Sterling property. Building materials and later legislators and friends of the Sterlings- were transported to the Sterling house on the line. Six acres were selected from the 200-acre estate, and work on the two-story, 34-room mansion commenced.

The White House itself has been compared favorably with Dublin, Ireland's Leinster House. Sterling's mansion is similar to this prototype, but it bears a closer resemblance to the Chateau de Rastignac in Perigord, France, the building whose oval portico inspired Latrobe's addition to the White House in 1824. Texas' version lacks both the balance of its individual components and the splendid detailed features that make the Chateau and the capital city structure so impressive. Proportions of the Sterling house are at times awkward; pilasters are absent between the windows and doorways; and flat window heads were substituted for the alternating round and pedimented heads on the first floor. Finn's White House has all of the boldness of the grand French royal houses but it lacks the unity of architectural principles that were embodied in 18th century Palladian design. Nonetheless, it in some ways epitomizes the social and cultural ambitions of entrepreneurial Texans of the pre-Depression era.

Alfred C. Finn (1883-1964), architect of the Sterling home and a native of Bellville, Texas, received his training in the offices of the Fort Worth architects Sanguinet and Staats. In 1912, Finn was sent to work in the Houston branch of Sanguinet and Staats. The next year he commenced independent practice. Finn became a major Houston architect, producing large commercial and institutional buildings, especially under the sponsorship of entrepreneur Jesse H. Jones. Prior to the construction of the Morgan's Point mansion, Finn designed a curious massive porch with Art Nouveau detailing for the Sterlings' home at 4515 Yoakum Boulevard in the Montrose section of Houston and also built Houston homes for Sterling's brothers Albert in Chelsea Place (now demolished) and Frank in Broadacres (altered; currently the official residence of the President of the University of Houston). Ross Sterling himself went on to build several substantial structures in downtown Houston (including the Houston Post-Dispatch and Sterling Buildings) but chose as his designer his son-in-law, prominent Ft. Worth architect Wyatt C. Hedrick.

Maude and Ross Sterling's initial expectations of a life of luxury in their new home were somewhat frustrated. By 1929 the effects of the stock market crash had begun to impact Houston. Cotton prices fell and oil production was rationed. Powerless to slow the spiraling economy, Sterling watched his millions turn to worthless paper. Against the advice of his friends and his broker, he placed and won his bid for Texas' guberna- torial seat in 1930 and held that position for two years until he was defeated by Miriam A. Ferguson, the country's second female governor and the first woman to be elected to that position. Ross Sterling's term as Governor of Texas was relatively uneventful.

For some time after his defeat, Sterling disappeared into obscurity only to reappear with even greater zeal. He organized the Sterling Oil and Refinery Company and guided its development as Chief Executive until 1946. That same year, he became chairman of the Board of Hermann Hospital. He died in Fort Worth on March 25, 1949, and was buried in Houston.

The Sterlings donated their palatial bayside home to the Houston Optimist Club in 1946 with the provision that the Optimists purchase an additional 200 acres of Sterling property for $250,000. After making a few modifications, the new owners opened the house as a Boy's Home and ten new residents moved to Galveston Bay. The Paul Barkleys purchased the estate in 1961 when the Optimists, struggling to maintain the property, offered the title to their roster of supporters. The Barkleys restored the Sterling House to single-family use and, like Maude and Ross Sterling, entertained there extensively. It was sold, however, when their attempts to convert the property to a yachting club were challenged by neighbors. It is now owned by the Maison Blanche Corporation, Count de Malleray de Barre, President.