Link-Lee Mansion

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This magnificent home, located at 3812 Montrose (corner of Montrose and West Alabama) in Houston, yet remains as an outstanding example of the glory days of Texas oil production. But long before Thomas Peter Lee, Houston oil man, investor, and stockholder of the Yount-Lee Oil Company acquired it, the mansion already had a colorful past.

In 1910 John Wiley Link, a wealthy lumberman, financier, lawyer, and former mayor of Orange, Texas saw a great opportunity in Houston, so he moved there and formed the Houston Land Corporation. Then he bought several tracts consisting of 250 acres on the outskirts of the city and immediately set about improving the property, building a main street, now Montrose Boulevard, through the center of it.

At this point, Link began to divide the property into tracts and sold them as part of a strategy to develop the first upscale residential subdivision in the Houston area, which during the early 1900s had only a total of about 26 miles of decent roads. After Montrose and West Alabama were paved in 1911, Link announced that he would soon begin construction of his own home within the confines of the entire block number 41 in the Montrose addition that he purchased from his own corporation. He hired the architectural firm of Sanguinent, Staats, and Barnes to design the structure that the Young Contracting Company completed in 1912 at a cost of $60,000.

The Links lived there until December 9, 1916, when T. P. Lee purchased it for $90,000, reported to be the most ever paid for a single family dwelling in the Houston area at that particular time.

After Lee's death, his home remained in the possession of his family until July 9, 1940 when family members, including Mrs. Essie N. Lee, sold the property to Saint Thomas College for $120,000. At the wishes of all heirs and executors, the college separated the payment into two parts: $6,000 in cash and the remaining $114,000 as a donation, guaranteed by a promissory note dated September 1, 1946, made payable to the William M. Rice Institute for the Advancement of Literature, Science and Art of Houston.

The home, now referred to as the Link-Lee Mansion, and its surrounding acreage, became the basis of the founding of the University of St. Thomas (Houston) which still occupies the site today. In particular, the house serves as the university’s administration building. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and as a landmark of both the State of Texas and the City of Houston.

Source: McKinley, Fred B., and Greg Riley. Black Gold to Bluegrass: From the Oil Fields of Texas to Spindletop Farm of Kentucky. Austin: Eakin Press, 2005.