Glenbrook Valley Historic District

Glenbrook Valley is an example of suburban residential neighborhood of the post-World War II period. The neighborhood is located in Houston’s Southeast side approximately eight miles southeast of downtown Houston. Glenbrook Valley’s significant defining quality is the large concentration of American Ranch Style and Mid-Century Modern style historic homes that are still completely intact and contribute to the integrity of the neighborhood. More than 98% of the homes are contributing or potentially contributing to the historic district. Glenbrook Valley Historic District was created in 2011.

The neighborhood, developed between 1953 and 1962, is comprised of 13 sections with a total of 1,263 homes, 1254 of which are in the historic district. It is situated along the south side of the Sims Bayou and divided into quadrants by the intersection of Bellfort and Broadway. With Sims Bayou at the north end, the neighborhood lies west of the Gulf Freeway, east of Telephone Road and north of Hobby Airport.

Glenbrook Valley features homes designed by a number of noted Houston architects including E. Kelly Gaffney, Crochet & Carroll, William Floyd, A. Carroll Brodnax, Paul Wahlberg, Robert Little and Doughtie and Porterfield. An architectural control board headed by architects Crochet and Carrol reviewed every plan for the original houses in the subdivision. The landscape architects Hare and Hare designed the original layout and platting of the neighborhood for developer Fred McManus.

The two architectural styles in the neighborhood are the American Ranch Style house and the Mid-century Modern style house. The Ranch Style houses represented in Glenbrook Valley fall into a number of sub-categories including the Contemporary Ranch Style that has little or no historical reference and the more “Traditional” Ranch house which includes some design elements from an architectural style such as American Colonial, Spanish, French or Tudor. The Mid-Century Modern houses have the elements present in the Ranch Style houses but include more dramatic modernistic architectural design elements like floor to ceiling windows or clerestory windows and flat or exaggerated rooflines. Although fewer in number, the Mid-Century Modern houses are present throughout all the sections. Together with the American Ranch style houses these enhance the modernist character for all of Glenbrook Valley.