End of an Era: Becca Cason Thrash’s Famous Party House Is Up for Auction

End of an Era: Becca Cason Thrash’s Famous Party House Is Up for Auction

Photo courtesy of Joe Bryant / Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty

A HOME OWNED by Houston’s most famous hostess-extraordinaire is hitting the auction block next month.


Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty announced that it will offer up the 20,000-square-foot Memorial-area manse owned by Becca Cason Thrash and her husband, John Thrash, via its online auction marketplace, Concierge Auctions, May 18-23.

Many Houstonians and revelers around the world are familiar with the Longwoods Lane home, built in 1965 and situated on nearly four acres, thanks to the epic parties the Thrashes have hosted over the years. Guests of philanthropic fetes, intimate dinners and glam galas have included the likes of George Clooney, Anna Wintour and even former presidents.

Obviously, the estate is made for entertaining, from its atrium-esque dining room and catering kitchen to an indoor gathering space home to a 44-foot-long pool (or, in some instances, a pool covered with a black-and-white tiled dancefloor, elevated runway or performance. stage!). The three-bedroom property was originally a modest midcentury brick home, transformed over the decades into a sprawling, 18,000-square-foot masterpiece of East-meets-West architecture with swaths of oak, slate and glass at nearly every turn.

Becca Cason Thrash by her famous pool

Photo courtesy of Joe Bryant / Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty

Photo courtesy of Joe Bryant / Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty

Photo courtesy of Joe Bryant / Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty

Photo courtesy of Joe Bryant / Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty

Photo courtesy of Joe Bryant / Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty

Photo courtesy of Joe Bryant / Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty

Photo courtesy of Joe Bryant / Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty

Photo courtesy of Joe Bryant / Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty

Photo courtesy of Joe Bryant / Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty

Photo courtesy of Joe Bryant / Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty

Photo courtesy of Joe Bryant / Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty

Photo courtesy of Joe Bryant / Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty

Photo courtesy of Joe Bryant / Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty

Photo courtesy of Joe Bryant / Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty

Photo courtesy of Joe Bryant / Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty

Photo courtesy of Joe Bryant / Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty

Photo courtesy of Joe Bryant / Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty

Photo courtesy of Joe Bryant / Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty

Photo courtesy of Joe Bryant / Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty

Photo courtesy of Joe Bryant / Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty

Photo courtesy of Joe Bryant / Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty

Photo courtesy of Joe Bryant / Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty

Home + Real Estate

Artist Tierney Malone

IN 1968, IN the summer months of the Vietnam War, when musicians across the country were gleefully stretching the boundaries of funk, rock and psychedelia to express the fears, hopes and dreams of a draft-age generation, the number-one jam on Black and White radio stations was “Tighten Up” by Archie Bell and the Drells.

Keep Reading Show less
Art + Entertainment

The gallerist's beloved dog Tuta, Anya Tish, and artist Adela Andea with Anya

LAST THURSDAY, DAWN Ohmer, gallery director of Anya Tish Gallery, called to tell me Anya died on June 12 in her hometown of Kraków, Poland. It was a tearful call, the kind of call I am resigned to receiving more often as I get older. For many of us in Houston’s art community — gallery owners, artists, collectors, and arts writers — the news was sudden and unexpected. Death is a look away from rationality, and it is hard to imagine someone you cared for and who cared about you no longer being present physically, in the flesh, in the here and now.

Keep Reading Show less
Art + Entertainment