There's a very cool house on the market for those who love unique houses from the 1950s — as long as you're willing to move to a small town in East Texas.
The house is at 408 N. Main St. in Gladewater — population 6,408 — 116 miles east of Dallas, northeast of Tyler, and a few miles west of Longview. It's an iconic "round house," not so different from the famed round house of Dallas.
But where the Dallas house is listed for $1.7 million-plus, this one can be snapped up for a mere $165,350.
Like its hifalutin' cousin in Dallas, the Gladewater home is grand, with 3,480 square feet, 4 bedrooms, and 4 bathrooms. Located two blocks north of the intersection of Hwy 80 and 271 it's just a short walk from downtown Gladewater, where you can stop in at Texas Traditions restaurant and get chicken-fried steak and an order of fried pickles 24 hours a day.
Can't get that in Dallas.
Could the house use a little updating? Maybe. But it's in good condition and the bathrooms still have all their original '50s tile, in glorious pink, maroon, and green.
And according to real estate agent Tracy McKnight, it also has something that few homes in Gladewater, or in Texas, for that matter, have: a basement, measuring 598 square feet.
The house first went up for sale in 2014, for $270,000. It languished on the market for a year without a bidder, and then went off the market again until it returned in fall 2018.
The sellers have had to come down from their original rather-optimistic asking price, despite being featured on sites such as Circa, the historic home website, and Retro Renovation, the fun website dedicated to restoring old homes, which loved the house's "amazing original vintage wallpaper, gorgeous original bathrooms, and overall quirky original feel."
McKnight says he's shown the house to quite a few parties, but has yet to field an offer.
"Most people have asked whether we're going to do an estate sale, because they're interested in the furnishings," he says.
Like many towns in the area, Gladewater came of age during the East Texas oil boom in the '30s and '40s. According to Wikipedia, it was a base for Elvis Presley during the early days of his career, and is also the town in which Johnny Cash wrote "I Walk the Line".
Built in 1952, the house has had only two owners, McKnight says.
"There's a few surviving cousins that are trying to sell the property," he says. "But it's still in pretty good shape, and they maintained it in its original condition. It's just kind of hard to sell something like this in a small town like this."
Rounded exterior of the round house in Gladewater, Texas.
