Courtlandt Place
When the Autry family moved to Houston, they briefly lived in a house on Milam St. This house was a temporary residence while the family built a new home in the new private subdivision Courtlandt Place. Modeled on suburban planning developed in St. Louis and known as the "private place," Courtlandt Place is an example of neighborhoods built as small private enclaves in response to the urban chaos of Houston in the early 1900s. Courtlandt Place centers around a one-block-long, tree-lined, divided boulevard, where eighteen examples of early twentieth-century architectural styles flank the street. The residential enclave began in 1906, when the Courtlandt Improvement Company purchased the land and laid out the subdivision on what was then the southern edge of the city; the first houses were built in 1909.
The Autry residence at No. 5 was designed by influential Texas architects Sanguinet and Staats in 1912. The Neo-Classical Revival home, with a antebellum flavor, wide porches and interiors reflected Arts and Crafts influence. The costs to build the home were $41,000, a considerable sum in 1913 dollars.