Lutcher Brown House
636 Ivy Lane
The greatest house in San Antonio by this important firm, Oak Court represents the climax of a decade of outstanding residential design that began with the Thomas Hogg House in 1924, its form and scale result from a close partnership between Robert M. Ayres and H. Lutcher Brown, whose fortune derived from forests and paper mills in Louisiana and who greatly admired that state’s plantation houses. While not a replica of any specific colonial or antebellum structure, Oak Court borrows details from such distinguished sources as the Mathias Hammond House in Annapolis, whose door-frame inspired the enlarged version domination the front elevation of the Brown house. Through the walled estate’s magnificent iron gates one can still enjoy the vista down the straight azalea-lined drive to the home.
‘San Antonio Architecture, Traditions and Visions’, AIA San Antonio, 2007