The Texas Gulf Historical and Biographical Record, Volume 20, Number 1, November 1984 Page: 66
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66 THE TEXAS GULF HISTORICAL & BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
As their next project the McNeills plan to restore a small 1889 cottage, located
next door to the Sanders house.27
The Flynn-Hobson House
One of the most interesting landmarks in the city, the old house at 2108
Harrison, was for some sixty-two years the home of the W. B. Flynn
family. Mr. Flynn was a Houston oil man and had seen the architect's plans
and an ink sketch of the house in the window of a downtown Beaumont
business in 1907. He was about to marry Florence Maher that year, and
he told her that, even though the house was being constructed for someone
else, it was just the kind of house he wanted.28
The "someone else" was M. J. Bass, secretary of the Maryellen Oil
Company of Beaumont, and the architect was Henry Conrad Mauer.29
About 1910, the Basses sold the house and the Flynns bought it. Mr. Flynn
died in the mid-1940's and Mrs. Flynn lived on in the house until 1972, when
she sold it and moved to a smaller house on Sixth Street.
During the Flynn years, the house was the scene of lavish parties and
dinners. "My grandmother was a great giver of parties." Sharon Englade,
the Flynns' granddaughter of Beaumont, said. "She liked for everybody
to have a good time. She was a golfer when not many women played golf.
She liked beautiful clothing and loved to entertain. Although she told that
story about my grandfather liking the house, I rather suspect it was 'Floss'
Flynn who really liked it. She loved that old house."30
Standing a short man's height off the ground, the house is an interesting
adaptation of Georgian Revival architecture made popular about the turn
of the century by the New York architects McKim, Mead, and White. Large,
with more than 4,000 square feet of heated area, the house was designed
to have only two bedrooms. The entire second story, save for a bathroom
and walk-in closets, was a large ballroom with approximately 2,100 square
feet.
Downstairs there were a huge reception hall with a wood-burning
fireplace, a formal parlor, a dining room with a bell placed on the floor
27Telephone interviews with Barbara and Alan McNeill, September 1984.
28Dennis McCarthy, "For Your Scrapbook," Sunday Enterprise, July 3, 1949, p. 7-A.
29Directory of the City of Beaumont, (Galveston: Morrison and Fourney Directory Com-
pany, 1907), p. 54; Hardy and Roberts, p. 566.
30Telephone interviews with Sharon Englade, granddaughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. W.
B. Flynn, March 1984.[Vol. XX, No. I
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Texas Gulf Historical Society. The Texas Gulf Historical and Biographical Record, Volume 20, Number 1, November 1984, periodical, November 1984; Beaumont, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1433655/m1/68/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Gulf Historical Society.