{"nrhp_refnum":"82004858","name":"Sterling, Ross,S., House","other_names":["Teyzs White House"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"515 Bayridge Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Morgan's Point","county":"Harris County","state":"TX","lat":29.66891859800006,"lon":-94.99517497799997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1982-10-29","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Politics/Government","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 34-room, two-story limestone mansion at 515 Bayridge Road in Morgan's Point, Harris County, Texas, built 1924-1927 for Ross and Maude Sterling. Houston architect Alfred C. Finn designed it as a Georgian Revival copy of the White House, and it is known as the Texas White House.","why_significant":"The house is tied to Ross S. Sterling, a Texas governor, oil executive and co-founder of Humble Oil, whose career is reflected in its monumental scale. It is also a major landmark of the Texas Gulf Coast and an example of Finn's work. The nomination admits the copy is not wholly successful but says it expresses the ambitions of entrepreneurial Texans before the Depression.","narrative":"Visible from the Houston Ship Channel and Galveston Bay, this 34-room limestone mansion at Morgan's Point imitates the White House in Washington, D.C. Built between 1924 and 1927, it was commissioned by Ross and Maude Sterling and designed by Houston architect Alfred C. Finn. Ross Sterling was a Texas governor, oilman and a founding figure of Humble Oil. The house has about 21,000 square feet, a two-story plan on a raised basement, and a bayside portico with ten Ionic columns. The portico is larger and less balanced than its model. Inside are a double staircase, a Georgian library, nine bedrooms and a basement with a bowling alley and billiard room. The Sterlings gave the house to the Houston Optimist Club in 1946, which ran it as a boys' home, and it later returned to single-family use. The nomination calls it a major Texas Gulf Coast landmark and an expression of the ambition of pre-Depression Texas entrepreneurs.","period_of_significance":"1924-27","architect_builder":"Alfred Finn","architectural_style":"Georgian Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed as occupied/unoccupied and vacant in the classification; condition fair, altered, with the exterior worn by the Gulf Coast climate and nearby petrochemical complexes yet intact.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:19.096245-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/38/9724/40972438/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/82004858.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82004858/d3f685fb22-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82004858/d3f685fb22-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Jim Evans","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Texas_Governor_Ross_Sterling_Mansion.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Jim Evans</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Texas_Governor_Ross_Sterling_Mansion.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"94001160","name":"Morgan's Point Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/texas/morgans-point-historic-district-94001160/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40972438","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q107318013"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/harris-county/sterling-ross-s-house-82004858/"}