Cleveland Sewall house architectural drawings

Cleveland Sewall and his wife Blanche Harding Sewall built and owned the home at 3456 Inwood Drive (formerly 3460 Inwood Drive) in the River Oaks subdivision in Houston, Texas. The home was completed in 1926. Cleveland Sewall was president of Gordon-Sewall and Company, a wholesale grocery firm. He was a merchant, barrister, banker and civic leader. He served on the Board of Directors for South Texas Commercial National Bank, which later became Texas Commerce, and then Chase Bank of Texas. The house is often associated with Blanche Sewall rather than her husband. She died in 1973 at the age of 84. She was a native of Ft. Worth and a resident of Houston since 1910. She attended Rice University with the class of 1917, but she did not graduate. She was a painter, patron of the arts, philanthropist and founding member of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. She donated funds for the construction of Sewall Hall at Rice University as a memorial to her husband.

" Blanche Harding Sewall was so enamored of Ralph Adams Cram's buildings at Rice University that she commissioned him to design this house for her and her husband. Cram worked from Mrs. Sewall's own sketches in designing the stucco-faced, tile-roofed Spanish style house. Interior detail is based on the House of El Greco museum in Toldedo. Mrs. Sewall travelled to Spain with Mildred Stapley and Arthur Byne to acquire artifacts and furniture. Ellen Shipman designed gardens for the small estate in the middle 1930s, but they longer survive. The house was rescued from dereliction and superlatively restored in 1979 by Charles Tapley Associates. Additions are by W. O. Neuhaus Associates (1991)." Fox, Stephen; "Houston Architectural Guide;" The American Institute of Architects/Houston Chapter; Minor Design, Houston; 2012; p. 414.